Indian ferry disaster

[Tony Wilding]

So sad that they totally ignore all safety rules, she had no lifesaving equipment at all and was overloaded, they are floating wrecks, had experience on one in Goa 4 years ago, standing room only, packed like sardines, could not move. no supervision at all, off going passengers and vehicles had to fight with the same boarding , was glad to get off it.

[Tony Wilding]

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[robpage]

one thought is that the Indians and Chineese ignore the Elf and Saftety rules , that is why they have become the world's workshop , I know that the safety book was less read than the average Gideon Bible , and probably more ignored , but these guys are the ones that speed up production with unguarded machinery , that save cash by ignoring the proper ways , they use the Spanish windlasses and knotted rope slings that we hopefully abandonded years ago , that have no respect for life , it is cheaper than safety . But as I amble off to Primark for a 99p tee shirt , does it worry me , well unfortunatly it does , because our loss of production facilities has been their gain , our job queues has been their salvation . The souls that drowned yesterday will be forgotton tomorrow . As long as the Tee Shirt does not reach a £1.00 then the lifes spent to make it are not our concern , the dole queue is not the problem of us old wrinlkled grumpies . I could say that well there are plenty more where they came from and that is true , all I ask is sthat as you stand at Primark ( and I use then as an example of many shops not as an inividual brand ) in the massive queue to the till and hand over the 99p , think of the blood on that tee shirt .

Would I be racist to Shout , Save an Indian life today , Buy British

[Tony Wilding]

I was in India and Nepal 4 years ago for 7 months,travelled north to south , east to west, was in Goa for a month, rented a small apartment there 10,000 rupees a month, was 80 to a pound then, the woman who owned it had a big house, had a really nice girl living in as a servant, she was paid 40 rupees a week. worked dawn to whenever 7 days a week, so her salary was 50 pence a week. the going rate for a waiter or cook was 100 rupees a day in the resteraunts, £1. 25 a day, yet meals were quite expensive in some places, the Indians have no compassion to there own race, if you are poor you stay poor, you would not believe the extremes of wealth in India, the workers in Indian call centers all have university degrees, earn around £60 a week, think thay have it made, if you was aware of the difference in salary of a British Airways Jumbo Jet Pilot to one from Air India you would be shocked, but the price of fares for both are much the same, Royal Enfield latest model motorcycle built in Chennai costs around £1500 there, by the time it gets here its over double. 8 classes of rail travel in India, from the poorest to richest, we live in a strange world.

[happy daze john in oz]

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Looks quite good by Indian standards

[j.sabourn]

Tony during my 5 years sojourn on foreign flag vessels, 3 of them were working for an Indian Company. The Indian owner lived in Switzerland. There were only 3 European officers on board these vessels. The rest were Indian mates/engineers and crew, all the religions of India just about, and there are many beleive me. The ******s had to have their chickens delivered alive so they could kill them religiously, thinking back they always wanted to know were East was for their frequent prayers, any seaman should know this without asking. The Hindus were always very class conscience, and the Deck and Engine room topaz was always one of the untouchables. I never found out where the Deck topaz slept as counting the bunks we appeared 1 short. No one would even speak to these untouchables. The Indian officers were a class apart and would hardly deign to speak to their fellow countrymen. The difference in Indian wages between the haves and have nots was very different. They are the biggest racists themselves, but seem to be able to point the finger at others and accuse them of being so. British officers as soon as the owner considered them having taught his countryman sufficient, were replaced by Indians, this at the time was said to be forced on the Shipowner by the Banks who wanted their money to stay in India. A pity that western countrys cant adopt the same approach. Best Regards John Sabourn

I was in Goa years ago and when ashore was walking along a public pavement many people around. There was a woman sitting in the gutter, in labour having a baby, by herself. No one stopped they just ignored her. I was very young at the time and sorry to say I carried on walking also. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

. The Indian officers were a class apart and would hardly deign to speak to their fellow countrymen. The difference in Indian wages between the haves and have nots was very different. They are the biggest racists themselves, but seem to be able to point the finger at others and accuse them of being so.. JS

The Pakistani officers are just the same. I lived in Karachi, whilst in the port attending to one of my company's ships, a Pakistani vessel was heading for the berth ahead of us, I could see that she was about to shorten herself unless some immediate action was taken. The pilot shouted to the foc'le get a spring ashore, the C/O standing on his bow platform shouted getting a heaving line ashore, the serang repeated the order to an AB, the AB repeated the order to a deck boy, the deck boy never moved as overwhelmed by the order, in the meantime the ship was about to hit the quay and still no one moved, well she did it the quay and shortened herself by about 20 feet, the C/O never left his perch, but held onto the bulwark, where as you or I would have had a heaving line in our hands at the first hint of an event about to happen and a European crew would already have the spring flaked out ready to go. The Pakistani C/O never moved until he bent down to pick up his cup of tea delivered by a steward delivered on a silver tray after the event, and that was my experience of most of them, when the company starting manning the vessels with Pakistan officers and crew, get their hands dirty, not on your bluddy life.

[Tony Wilding]

I have noticed once a ship left UK ownership for a Pakastini owner she rapidly went downhill, ships that were one lovingly maintained became scrapheaps, have only seen external photos, i dread to think what the engine room and cabins were like, classic examples were MV Wimbledon and Weybridge, they seemed to run them into the ground,

[j.sabourn]

During work offshore in Oz. most vessels were brought down from Singapore where there is a large pool of older type of offshore vessels lying at anchor. I was quite often sent up with an Australiuan crew to bring one of these down to work on the Australian coast. These were hired by Australian companys on a bareboat charter for various periods of time before being returned to Singapore. Needless to say a lot of these vessels started life in the North Sea and had been discarded years ago, some I reconized. These mostly underpowered ships were always well painted, and were even being painted whilst you were boarding. This to me was camouflage and covered a multitude of sins. I never looked back to see who were their previous owners as would probably never have slept. Most here being brought up in the old school appreciate ship maintainance, which is now sadly lacking. Regards John Sabourn.

[j.sabourn]

For those who sailed with Indian Crews, perhaps your memories are better than mine so correct me if my spelling and titles are wrong, but I am going back 40 odd years. Serang/Bosun, Tindell/Bosuns mate, Cassab/Storekeeper, Kalassi 1 and 2/ Seaman 1 and 2, Winch Wallah/ Winch driver, the quartermasters slips my memory at moment. They never left the Bridge or Gangway in port. Topaz/ sweeper. I used to be able to speak a few words of hindi but can only remember some of the numbers and a few general words at moment. I remember Top Decca which was to get the QM to go and read the log aft. Every one had their individual title and job, and didnt give you much room to manouvre, I suppose the good part was there was plenty of them. Cheers John Sabourn

Just remembered Seacunny/Quarter master. This was supposed to be a prestigious job. Bhandarri/Cook JS