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A real life story written vìby a Member who wants to pass it on to the younger generations. The SEA AREA where the event took place: The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco. VISIBILITY: Thick fog and radar failure. THE SHIP SCHEDULE: calling at Dakar (Senegal) no later than seven in the morning, so as to be able to unload our cargo. The consequences of any delay would inevitably affect the time of arrival at the other ports of calls and rock expenses skyhigh. It was essential to do everything possible to arrive on time. WATCH ON THE BRIDGE AT THE TIME OF THE EVENT:
In dense fog, a ship is sailed manually and the watch is strengthened (when navigating in fog, anyway, few people manage to sleep). We were sailing sounding the foghorn to signal our presence, as required by the Regulation in case of fog, listening with great attention and watching out for vessels heading straight towards us. They would signal their presence with their lights. We suddenly heard the sound of a horn, close by, on our starboard side and, immediately after that, we saw the navigation lights of a ship, heading straight towards us. It was a moment of extreme danger and great tension. At that distance, the collision was almost unavoidable, the ship would be lost, the crew would have very little hope of surviving. The Master, a good sailor but a bit old, shouted to the quartermaster "Hard-a-starboard" to pass astern of the ship coming from starboard as required by the Regulation. The Regulations, however, state that, in the event of extreme danger, one should act in the best possible way to save the ship and the crew. And so, instinctively, with only just a moment to think about what to do, feeling that the Master's order was wrong, I shouted to the quartermaster, "Hard-a-port" and seeing that he was about to carry out the order the Master (i.e. "Hard-a-starboard"), I pushed him aside and turned the wheel hard-a-port. Few minutes later, when we were broadside on to the other ship, I turned the wheel hard-a-starboard thus moving our stern some metres away from the other ship that was moving hard-to-port to get away from us. Acting like that, I had taken the command of the ship despite the presence of the Master, who, however, in a moment of serious danger to the ship and the crew, had not been up to the task and had taken the wrong decision. Clearly, acting independently, even in opposition to his orders, I had remedied a bad situation but had the collision occurred, I would have been in a really weak position. How would my behaviour have been judged? And considering my young age who would have been believed by the Committee of inquiry? Me or the Master? And finally, would my intervention have been viewed as mutiny? Thanks to a mixture of luck and professionalism, the manoeuvre had been successful, under the upset gaze of the Master and the quartermaster, and the two ships had moved away without any damages (except for a strip of paint left on our side by the other ship showing that it had not been just a dream). The Master did not speak of the incident, he was aware he had been wrong, you could tell so by his behaviour. He did not speak. He was looking at me waiting for me to speak. But I did not speak, I did not want to accuse him of incompetence, because this was not the case. He was a good sailor, he deserved trust and respect, even though he had had a moment of uncertainty. The following morning, two petty officers came to my cabin and, on behalf of the crew, told me they wanted to thank me for what I had done the night before. Clearly, someone had been awake that night and had spoken about what had happened. That night, I had risked my whole future in few minutes, both morally and economically, especially if the ship had been damaged and the people onboard had been hurt. I had avoided all this by few metres. I have lived a normal life (I am now retired), I have had a good career both at sea and on land, and last but not least, I helped save lives, mine included. |
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