Prayers at Sea- and on training

Prayers at Sea- 

dt 17th July 2017.
What does Spirituality &Prayers mean to Mariners -and how is it practiced at Sea.
The query was from a younger Mariner -also a correspondent to journals.

LOOKING BACK
Honestly, I feel Faith is an inherent trait and a part of our early home upbringing. Then it is finally a matter of the person's own inclination i.e. Faith as "Vishwas"-

On T.S. Dufferin, a former Troop ship that served in the War and later converted to a rustic Training ship for the navy -both cadres -- the order "Fall out for Prayers" was done thrice daily; at 6 am, at 9 am during morning Assembly and last fall in was at night by abt 9.30 pm. It had no conditions attached -just individual Faith and mind you it was all done in the same attire viz. the uniform or in the morning in working overalls-viz. boiler suit-working overalls. Nothing else mattered and at age 17 plus -less than 19 , the home upbringing and training on any spiritual practice alone held us and impacted us-
If we had a Prayerful attitude, we spent 3-5 mts in reverence to the Almighty--any name-any faith as we wished. Just look at the Sea and Sky; or else with eyes closed, as we leaned at the Ships Railing -- to Pray --We all did .No chatter, talk, dialogue or speech sermon, or hifi dissertations-just our silent , simple Prayer from the Heart....Soul .

The early Captain Superintendents instilled in us boys (then average age 17-18 max) with Discipline- Work and a healthy respect for the Creator and Creation. Fall In was early morning assembly 6.30 after wash up brush and a Mug of Tea in the mess Rooms- fast Fast - Fall on Quarter Deck- the first formal meet of the day Then Fall out for Prayers at 6.35 hrs for 2 mts, when we quietly looked seawards or to the sky; many leaned against the wooden Taff railing-heads bowed down in Prayer. So, we said our own prayers in line with our Faith/ Choice or some just maintained silence.
There were 80 Cadets (annual intake ) from all over India- and a few came from Ceylon., Malaysia and earlier even Burma and Pakistan (pre -partition days).
This developed a Communal Harmony from about living , studying and working with about 8 faiths and 5 Countries of SE Asia; It was so clearly established and a respect for our own 15 States and their customs and traditions and respect for all.
Later after Morning routine was over it was Clean ship, PT /Exercises, Bath - change , Breakfast in regular Uniforms-Fall in again- included a March past with a Captains Address and Patriotic songs and Universal Prayers-read .
So many things done, cheerfully, briskly and not a minute wasted
When I saw the Film "Chak De India" I recalled so many similarities of bonding together as one Unit -to Train and Serve in the Indian Merchant Navy.-
"Jai Hind"
TR
Cadet Roll No 1978 (63-65)

NOTE:

In later years I  learnt that Open space prayer is highly regarded and taught in Meditation systems. It was taught at Bangalore in a Camp 1992, in Open space i.e. "Sit in a garden and quieten the mind by simple breathing exercises and reflect , then pray -saluting each of the 5 Elements (Pancha Mahabhutas viz.the Elements Years later it was explained in later years by SC Math in Ashta murthies 8 aspects of Existence-and Space.
NOTE:

Our much loved and famous Dufferin song has an amazing philosophical depth .
We're on the road,
We're on the road,To anywhere,
and every mile-stone seems to say:
that the road to anywhere, the road to anywhere
will lead to somewhere,--Someday.
It also has a resemblance to Rabindranath Tagore's 'Ekla Cholo' in its spirit and -- .

 'Ekla Cholo Re'.was also featured in a film- Kahaani, where Amitabh Bachchan pays tribute to Song: Ekla Cholo Re Lyrics: Anvita Dutt Guptan, Music Director: Vishal-Shekhar

Just sharing-
Rgds
TR

T.S.Dufferin and history of Mazagaon Pier

12th Aug 2015.

T.S.Dufferin and history of Mazagaon Pier 

Our training ship Dufferin was moored one and quarter miles off Mazagaon pier and trained over 2200 cadets till 1972. Access was by launch from Mazagaon Pier.
HISTORY
1) The word Mazagaon is from the Sanskrit "Matsya Gram", meaning fishing village. However, folk etymology derives it from the Marathi as "Maza Gaon", meaning my village.

2) The Mazagaon Fort was a British fort , built around 1680. The fort was razed by the Siddi general Yakut Khan , in June 1690. The fort was located at the present-day Joseph Baptista Gardens, atop Bhandarwada Hill outside the Dockyard railway station.After the British arrived in Bombay in the 1660s, they selected Bhandarwala hill as a site for the Mazagon Fort, that was built in 1680-.razed by wars and clashes for power Mughals, Portuguese British
3) Mazagaon Hill : Joseph Baptista Garden / Mazagon Hill / Mazagon Fort (Mumbai City) was built as a public municipal garden around a reservoir atop of the Mazagon Hill. It was named after an Indian freedom fighter "Kaka" Joseph Baptista.It provides a vantage view of the city, particularly the off-limit docks on the east side.
4) It saw many changes with Portuguese, Mughal and British dominance in succession and by the end of the seventeenth century, Mazagaon became an outlying suburb of Bombay.
5) In 1790 the docks at Mazagaon were completed. However Bycullah took over and Mazagaon became mostly a Dock Workers place.
NOTE: Dr. Buist wrote in 1851 that Bombay Island for most part rose in to round or nearly flat topped hills varying in height from 100 to 1000 ft. At that time there existed a belt of Coconut trees adoring the Shores of Bombay having within it an infinite variety of Woodland, Mountain, Lake and River Scenery every where. According to him Bombay island scarcely surpassed in picturesqueness and beauty anywhere in the world. Within one hundred years there was a tremendous change in Bombay. Many of the hills like Mazagaon hill (150 ft.) Chinchpokli Hill (150 ft.). Matunga Hill, Tardeo Hill had vanished from Bombay's topography. Even the hills like Malbar Hill, Worli Hill do not look like hills now. Most of the hills in Greater Bombay have already been digested by our greed for more land and for housing industry & other activities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time passes all by.
Today there is nothing muchto recognise today.
The Mazagaon pier exists as the sole  Silent Witness to the Dufferin era. 
Salutations to the place. 
Today it is a high security place to even access.
From earlier days a few pics attached.
TR

Mariners Nostalgia--all has to come to an end...

It all came to an end in 1975.

I was master on M.V.Chennai Sadhanai- a 42, 000 tonner Bulker on Japan -Australia run and the last year 1974-1975 was quite eventful -but we managed well.
Thanks to a wonderful team of officers and crew.

My wife Sudha was then  sailing with me (in fact since 1972) on ships and  was expecting in 5th month ..not too safe  to sail so had to sign off; mid April 1975 last date-signed off together at Kashima port , Japan and flew back to Madras via Mumbai on AI -707 jet.

Later it was not possible to continue the sea career as Sudha had serious health problems needing treatment  and so I settled ashore in a Port Trust job for a year and then got a post as a Marine Cargo surveyor  with firm of J.B.Boda Marine survey Co. -where I have worked the last 38 years till this date...now ona Administrative Retainer.. 

Sea life and the Shore Life has been .a great varied experience. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to gain all this and also now be able to recall and write about it. I sem to have exhausted all recalls and if this Blog is to go forward it can be only on experiences ashore in shipping as a Marine Cargo Surveyor....

Time flies and  I really miss those sea days- 

Cadet on mv Jag Laxmi 1965

3rd mate on Jag Laxmi

3rd / 2nd mate on Jag Laxmi 1967- 68-

Ch Officer on Chennai Ookkam in Sisco

I have been writing for many years and perhaps it is time to close this Blog and when writing I had several things in my mind-viz: 
1) Happy recalls of a different era long before Sea Life came down to just Freights and Tonnes or just plain business only.
2) Life was hard work, but simple.
3) Wages were low, but life was far simpler and more of an adventure and not a business.
4) I hope this blog records of a life lived at Sea will be found of some interest   --
it was definitely much happier way of work, earn, travel & Learn--
5) I sincerely hope that some day hopefully younger persons may some day read this.Thank you God

-I will conclude with a Poem and a Prayer :

Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this is if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. William Henry Davies

 PRAYER & THANKS GIVING TO THE SEA LIFE

God is no stranger in faraway places, He's as close as the wind that blows on our faces. It's true we can't see the wind as it blows, But we feel it around us and our heart surely knows, That God's mighty hand can be felt every minute. There is nothing on earth, that God is not in. The sky and the stars, the waves and even the sea, The dew on the grass, the leaves on a tree, Are constant reminders of God and His nearness, Proclaiming His presence with crystal-like clearness So how can we think God was far, far away, When we feel Him beside us every hour of the day? We have plenty of reasons to know God's our friend And this is one friendship that time cannot end! (Author Unknown)

TR/ MARINE RECALLS 

On Social and Reading habits in earlier times-60s-70s.

Social and Reading habits in earlier times-
Reading was a great hobby & pastime with most of our generation  in the 50s, 60s, 70 -80s especially.
I was usually able to get the honorary post of Ship's Librarian on most of the ships that I worked on. In any case, I really depended on Reading to spend my  spare time-after duties s we had long voyages of 32 days some times-and sailing was for a full year. before leave was sanctioned..Recreation on open sea passage,  was then very limited to a few deck games in good weather only; mostly only Chess, draughts (checkers), or cards (bridge, rummy, teen patti-  with a select few.Can you ever imagine playing Carroms in rough seas on board a ship tossrd about with  men & equipment ? A guitar or mouth program made all the difference at social meets. 
The Radio was only good for local or coastal areas and any Broadcast was limited ;did not reach out seawards to  the open sea. -The alternatives were few and we did not have any music system like Cassettes -Videos- TV-DVDs/CDs or any Music even in 60s.Tape recorders of spool type lke SONY TC 250,   a great buy, came  in only around 1969-70 , but  weighed a Tonne!!When I purchased one and brought it home, the whole neighbour hood came to see it for  a great mind blowing event viz. A "Sony Music Sound Demo"-an event in 1969-on TC 250 with Chai or Lime juice!!. (Portable Cassette tape recorders came in by 1972 and were a blessing).
So Books & Magazines it was mostly -Time, Newsweek, Readers Digest, Film fare,illlustrated Weekly, Sport & Pastime and a few more, would be purchased in ports before sailing out of India to last the  voyage-or next port where it was available. (Singapore, US ports only on my route in GESCo.) Add in select novels and we had quite a range to select from Fiction inc. thriller, detective, adventure and all from those wonderful writers of the 60s-ad 70s.These publications had a budget, but as we pooled in,  managed well.I would go ashore and  purchaseand stock the ships Library. In some cases the selection was 2 copies of each and  then to circulate them.
Readers Digest -a magazine that nurtured us all in youth, with such a good choice of Reading- was  much loved and for the whole year treasured; Old copies would be read over and over again till it was dog eared, tattered and torn and often stapled in parts, in bits to be read by us. A condensed book series in every copy  was like a reading a novel itself. Humour, Quotes, lessons on Life , adventure, Drama in Real Life, Quiz etc was all much appreciated.(I was saddened when the Readers Digest ran into financial difficulty, a few years ago;Why- I never will understand). Since then I do not subscribe also as the print is small and I have limitations -but it us now said to be available On line later.

It was all a  part of the ship's recreation and ship board culture then.
Readers Digest's  brilliant series titled  "Lives like That"-actually connected people and places before Social networking like Facebook, Blogs, Twitter etc  came. This recall idea came to my mind on seeing the advert on I-Phone and on line Reading and esp --seeing Books-Browsing today at Book Fairs -now in Chennai too in January each year.
Rgds
TR

Pic of Jag Laxmi, GESCO, 1965-68
 

Bombay Port--now a Museum, status

Bombay Port--that was once a great a shipping centre and a textile mill centre that once was-has completely changed. Can barely recognise this now as the Docks are all closed.

With the name Mumbai ---in the last 2 decades, just changed to a pure business centre (Dalal street) and Bollywood tinsel town and -later a strange mix.... of what ever. God knows.
 
We who have spent our youth-joining a sea career, studies in Basic Training on T.S.DUFFERIN off Mazagaon Pier & LBS Nautical & Engg College can never forget it. Nor the Alexandra for larger ships and , Victoria & Princess Docks for smaller Coastal ships-
I was rather saddened to learn last month that both Victoria &Princess Docks have been Filled in--ending an era of Maritime History.
 
Now it will be just this Museum reported in mirror --http://www.mumbaimirror.com/others/sunday-read/Bombay-Dock-on-the-menu/articleshow/20611278.cms.
Nothing lasts long--esp Maritime heritage in India esp !!
TR

Bombay Dock on the menu - Mumbai Mirror -

Mirror gets an exclusive peek into the Mumbai Port Trust’s soon-to-be-opened Maritime Museum.

mumbaimirror.com

Passing ships in the night

Passing ships in the night

 

In the 1960s- Isolation was felt by most of us on the long sea voyages of abt 35 days across Pacific (US Ports to -India at 12 kts speed)  via Spore-

In Winter it was rough seas being tossed about and in summer it was Fog!!Often no Radar working. The sea and sky -a keen Look out on the Bridge Wing undera Masters watchful eye; that was all--After watch Books alone, were my best companions and work---(or go to Sleep)

Abt 35 days sailing to Bombay with No radio, newspaper (TV Video unheard of then-) was an experience. A very brief stop for refueling of about 8 hrs at Singapore gave a little respite.

A few managed a shore leave -rest on duty on board . This was quite an experience anmf taught us to Learn to accept -Isolation without complaint--

 

 

ASa 2nd mate, Passing ships in the night esp 12 midnight-4 am (also called Graveyard watch by early Mariners  ) was something looked forward to by most.  

The chance passing of another Ship on an opposite route or crossing meant a very brief 2mts exchange of Morse Flash lamp  Signals

-later on VHF in 70s." What ship where bound"-and Reply---then Bye ----

 

Never knew the phrase of Passing ships was from a poem  --

From a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
quote"
 Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing,
only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,
only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.
Unquote
poem by H.W.Longfellow.
Thinking aloud today:
Applies even now when we meet briefly -and move on in Life.
TR

                                                           Above is a File photo

                             Photo below is of me during training on  Dufferin era-On Aldis Lamp

As Two Ships Passing in the Night

As two ships passing in the night,
So quietly neath the stars soft light;
Our paths cross but now and then.
Reaching out, seeking one another again.

We say hello and then we part,
Knowing we've shared a piece of our heart.
Some friendships stay and sadly some go.
My prayers remain steady hoping ours will grow.

Author: Unknown

Mazagaon Pier revisited, many years later..

Greetings All

Mazagaon Pier revisited, many years later..

The Road once travelled i.e.-- the boarding point at Mazagaon pier.

A few years ago, I had a  trip- to my Mumbai Head Office and the meeting completed early by 3 pm and my flight was at night -delayed too.So, I took the office car and toured some familiar spots viz.  Dufferin Pier, with the shed, railing all there at the boarding jetty ...yes the stone  steps are all chipped off ...Mazagaon Dockyard still very active and building a vessel - then to Hay Bunder playing  field now being developed as a proper Playing field. A real surprise at Hay Bunder was late PTI Yadav's cottage-which  still stands there ...undisturbed and time really stands still here- believe it or not  an old woman, who worked as their faithful  domestic  help still resides there- she even invited us in --wanted us to share her  Chai ... I had Capt.Anil Athale, our senior's- senior ( in our Head Office ) and a very close friend over the last 20 years along with me..so it was easier to navigate  in these parts.

I only had my mobile camera and and took about 15 snaps of old time sightings inc Mazagaon pier- the islands across etc.and believe me it was a good 2 hrs trip. 

Down Memory lane-

There is a time to recall- recollect and give thanks-
Some thoughts jotted-( not senti- mush)

As man grows he /she lives more in the city of the Spirit as Dr A.J. Cronin (doctor- writer of our 50s era said in his autobiography...titled " Adventure in two Worlds:-  a book of his life of experiences and anecdotes of great wisdom both in the fields of medicine and in writing -touring - meeting people etc . 

It is  possibly the book that made the greatest impact on my Life and I used to read & re-read it during  sailing days as cadet to 2nd mate.

Most people visit places of Youth....some time later in years - some day.... some time-but most DO.
It is a kind of silent Thanks Giving too- 

For me it was certainly that.It is  a fact that with age and growth---we all seek out places of  youth and carefree happy days to cheer us.

  

Even all the Western & Eastern  cultures see  War/ Veterans do this.

Finally said ---ok, let us add in LBS College too ...now a very dusty, unkempt &  uncared for place , unlike Late P. Alexander's time with it's  fresh flowers in bloom in the clean garden.The road to LBS  is totally a mess- with debris and hutments of migrant workers - and is a very sad sight.

The LBS college  has the Dufferin model and also m.v. Indian Resource, in addition to a few others from our time-Pity such ships are all in hstory only-

NOTE:

No heritage building, souvenirs,  museum concerns seen-  despite all the blab.

(some one asked me about this--) All prize boards and memorablia from our time and Dufferin have vanished --

Verified and was told  that these had been  taken off with renovations

and then......- Lost in the sands of Time---

1972 was a turning point for Ex Dufferin Memorabilia ?
FINALLY---

There is a time to recall- to recollect and give thanks-
It is all not just sentimental stuff, please-
These visits  flood   our memory banks and such trips can be most rejuvenating and esp when done with no expectation

as Change is always there- ( & degeneration) or a new building in place.

But that famous  Pier still stands out quietly, although  abandoned--still-
Silently,  saluting the Sea.

What a story it has to tell . 

Rgds all
TR