tenth ship- gem of ennore

I was to join this ship in a port called Jiangyin, in China. I did not know any more details apart from this. After signing my contract and collecting the ticket, I left for Shanghai via Singapore from Madras. After collecting my baggage in Shanghai airport, I went to the port by car. It took about 3 hours from there. The ship was in shipyard and this was a surprise to me.

After the initial formalities, I was talking to the guy whom I was going to relieve and he said that the ship was actually gear-less ship. They had erected seven cranes and I was more surprised when he told that a conveyor belt system was made on the port side of the ship, which went all the way up to no. 1 hold and the across the ship to extend up to the end of no.1 hold on the starboard side. The ship had an extra generator as well, which was fitted on the deck after constructing a superstructure, aft of accommodation, to supply power to the cranes and the conveyor belt system. All these things were so new to me.

Luckily, almost all the works on deck were finished, except for painting of the main deck. So, I had the time to settle down and see the ship properly. The conveyor belt system was due for trial run. The ship's light weight had to be found out since so much of steel was added.

The naval architects and surveyors boarded the ship for that. It took almost half a day for the tests to be completed. After the tests, calculations were done and the ship's new light weight was determined. Thats a very complex process, which I will not explain.

After all the work was over, the ship sailed out from the shipyard to Kohsichang(Thailand) for loading cement clinker. The seven cranes worked day and night and the loading completed in about 7 days. It was fun loading in the anchorage. There were lots of people on board, who were involved in the cargo operations. All those people stayed on board, did their cooking, washing and sleeping on board. They had put up a tent like structure on the poop deck, where they had a hotel sort of arrangement, as well. It was sad to depart, but as always, all good things have to come to an end.

We sailed out from there and went to Singapore for bunkers. After bunkering, we left for Mina Ash Shu'aybah(Kuwait), in Persian Gulf. During the sailing, the technicians were trying out the conveyor belt system and also teaching us about the operation of the same. This was a new learning experience for all of us on board.

Soon we reached Kuwait and started discharging the cargo using our cranes. The stevedores, were mostly Indians and the majority of them were tamilians. The cranes were working efficiently, when one of the crew member, who had gone up for checking, noticed that a wire was damaged. He immediately informed me and I informed the chief officer. The crane was stopped and we did the inspection again. The wire had to be changed before the crane can be used again. Chief Officer was confused and did not know how to go about the changing of wire. I told the chief officer not to worry and that I would get the wire changed. I called the deck crew and told them what is to be done. We changed the wire in few hours and cargo work resumed. All of us were happy that the job got over without any major problems. Some time later, a similar thing happened to another crane. Again, the entire process had to be repeated and this time, we were faster than before.

We changed about 4 wires, during the entire stay in this port. We realised that there was some other problem due to which the wires were getting damaged. The captain called up office and informed them regarding the cranes. Office agreed to send the technicians from the manufacturers in the next port. We somehow managed to have the cargo discharged in this port and sailed off to our next port, Al Jubayl(KSA).

This port also had many tamilians working on board. I befriended some of them and asked them to bring some south indian food, which they gladly obliged. It was nice to eat idli and dosa after quite some time. We had the same problems with the cranes. The technicians from Japan had boarded the ship and were checking on it. We managed to discharge the cargo for this port as well in 6 days and sailed out to our next port, which was the last discharge port.

Our next port was Jebel Ali(UAE), which is very nearby Dubai. We were expecting the owners to visit the ship. So got the ship as clean as possible. The owners, ETA, came with their families and food was ordered from a hotel in Dubai. It was a grand affair, but the cargo work was going on and we had to slog it out on the deck, attending to the cranes and other cargo related operations. I got a chance to go out to Dubai and went out with couple of other officers. It was ramzan time there, and so the shops were closed there. We located Saravana Bhavan and had hot idli/vada and filter coffee. It was so delicious. Next day we went in search of the canteen there inside the port and again had some south indian food. Soon we finished discharging the cement clinker and our load port was Mina Saqr, which is quite nearby.

We were supposed to load limestone for India, which was quite welcome by all the crew, as they could eat nice indian food, make phone calls. The loading was very fast and it completed in a day. We sailed out for Haldia, from there and reached Haldia in 10 days. The discharging completed in 3 days and we sailed out to Paradip, which is just 12 hours away from Haldia.

We anchored in Paradip and were there for a day before we could berth inside the harbour. Once inside the harbour,the port officials boarded the vessel. Many other also boarded the ship, as the ship was to converted into coastal from the present foreign going. We went to Haldia and berthed there.After a day of idling alongside the berth, we went to Paradip again. The ship was converted into foreign going from coastal. This happened due to some problems between the owners, TNEB and Poompuhar Shipping Corporation.

We sailed out in ballast from Paradip and were to go to China for loading. As my certificate was expiring soon, I wanted to sign off and I got my reliever on board when the ship dropped anchor in Singapore for bunkering. After a quick hand over, I signed off from the ship.

This was my shortest contract and my last ship with ETASMC.


Time Spent on Board: 3 months and 28 days


Port Visited: India- Haldia, Paradip

Outside India- Mina Ash Shu'aybah(Kuwait), Al Jubayl(KSA), Jebel Ali and Mina Saqr(UAE)