14 The Seagull SILVER LINING
L I F E AT S E A
A sailor’s journey: Overcoming life’s breaking point words by CHARLES DETABLAN photo courtesy of CHARLES DETABLAN
D
uring my f irst voyage f rom Alexandria, Egypt to Benghazi, Libya which to ok 4 days, our Captain announced that we were entering the war zone area of Libya. I was surprised on
our voyage and this is my first experience onboard to went into a war zone. Our captain Immediately gave a safety meeting to all crew because we have discharging operations and receive spare parts for the engine room. We must prepare of ourselves for any possible happenings when we arrive at the port. The day that we arrive at Benghazi, Libya , I was amazed and terrif ied of the place. We could see that the buildings and houses were almost destroyed by the bombs and there were many buildings on f ire not far f rom us. We are all af raid of what might happen to us there. Our vessel is a tanker ship and we carry finished prod-
be replaced with a new one. The following day the company sent a message to conduct a vetting inspection and port state visit after
uct gasoline. Whatever happens a bombing near us will
we unloaded f rom venezuela going back to Gibraltar. Our Chief
really affect our ship. We are thankful that our operation is
engineer was suddenly surprised by the message. We must finish
over in just 27 hours and nothing bad has happened to us.
installing the new generator block and its all parts before arriving in Gibraltar. As we traveled through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
After 8 months on board an accident happened dur-
to Venezuela we began to dismantle parts of the number 2 genera-
ing our voyage from Gibraltar, UK to Venezuela. While I was
tor. Our Chief engineer took the lead in dismantling the generator
cleaning the engine room our number 2 generator suddenly
parts with me, 2nd engineer, electrician, and two oilers. While the
exploded and some parts of the generator blocks are scat-
3rd and 4th engineers are assigned to overhaul the number 1 gen-
tered just like a grenade. Luckily there’s no one near during
erator and replaced all the pistons because it will soon reach the
the explosion only me and duty oiler was in there at the en-
running hours limit to also avoid damage and explosion. In that day
gine room. I hurried to went to our duty engineer to report
we started to work 7:30AM until 10:00 P.M. to immediate ly finished
the situation and he immediatley pressed the emergency
disma ntled all the parts of the damaged generator.
stop of the generator to avoid any damages. Many debris and lube oil of the generator are scattered everywhere. Chief
As we arrived at the Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela the new spare
engineer and our captain announced , all deck and engine
of generator block was delivered and the company sent new crew
crew must help to clean the scattered debris and lube oil of
to help us to install the new generator a superintendent, two fitters
the generator from 2nd floor to 1st floor of the engine room.
and 1 electrician. After we finished unloading operation we went
Our engineers investigate and check the generator that ex-
straight to Gibraltar to conduct a Vetting inspection and port state
ploded. The reason why our generator was exploded because
visit. Vetting inspection is a grading system of a ship, enabling a
it reaches the limit of running hours of one of the piston in
potential charterer to compare between similar ships and choose
the generator and discovered that all pistons in our number
the best for his needs. We need to pass the inspection to make a
2 generators are not genuine . After the incident our captain
good record of our ship as well as the record of each crew. We have
took immediate action and reported to our company for
few days left to arrive at the Gibraltar we worked always overtime.
what happened. Our company sent a message to dismantle
Almost all the engine crews are very tired and no proper rest. One
the entire generator because it is no longer usable and will
day while we’re installing the new generator block, my chief engi-
