World Seafarers Day - 25 June

We are currently living in Covid times, where the borders were sealed, cities were closed, Sky could be safely used only by the birds . Do we realize how the cargo was moving without the planes, without roads in so many parts of the world. You guess it right its due to the hundreds and thousand of ships on our oceans. Today is 25th June, World Seafarers Day, a tribute to the close knit yet little known community .

I would have missed the contribution of the invisible industry which is not as glamorous as aviation but much older, valuable and touching lives across the globe. To give you a perspective, whatever terms you know about Aviation largely have been borrowed from Shipping , of-course Runway is not included . The gasoline in your car , to the spares of your car and may be your car was also imported via a ship. Ship that sails in the middle of the ocean connecting the one fourth of the face of the earth via the other three fourth. Ship that is manoeuvred and managed by the Seafarers or fondly called Shippies .

Interestingly, Navy comes from the Sanskrit word Nav which means Boat, also Navigation from Navgat which was introduced via Indo-European languages. Reference of India , Egypt, Silk Routes are more than four thousand years old .

Today, out of 1.7 Million Seafarers many of them are Indians. Salute to each of them, who work hard leaving their family and loved ones on the shore for their passion and livelihood.

I think the world always come a full circle.

Out of the few months I have lived on the board ship, I realised its the industry of inclusion, so many countries and countrymen come together, work together in peace . Funnily enough , even if the countries are at war . The camaraderie is par excellence , It is not as romantic nor glamorous as I once visualised after watching the Titanic movie . To give you a glimpse one VLCC could carry over $100 Million worth of crude . That is a jaw dropping feat of this super hero industry . Each Ship might be managed by less than two dozen people.

It always appear nothing short of magic that a huge mean machine which is size of over three football fields leaving behind a wake keeps sailing, day in and day out, with all the repairs and maintenance done at the same time. Show always seems to go on. Kudos to the team that runs it smoothly .

I would like to see more earthlings to be aware about this industry , would like more coverage about the industry in different media.

Life inside the ship is interesting . As someone who is always concerned about health and hygiene , though it is of top order in shipping industry. I was apprehensive about aluminium being used for cooking. Recently , it has been changed so I am happy, also I have noticed a habit on board ship that may prove unhealthy , its not alcohol as you might be thinking . Alcohol is very rationed if you are from the industry you would know it.

If you are a seafarer, then I would like to thank you personally . And if you are interested in changing that one habit send me your email address via DM or in comment section, for receiving the same .

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Meenal Jaiswal

Views expressed are personal