The
Captain’s Journal
The
Captain’s Journal
Hans Mateboer
Copyright ©2012 Hans Mateboer
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without permission of the publisher.
Published in eBook format by Captains Publishing
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9759-4876-7
The stories included here originally appeared in Cruise Industry News between 2000 and 2012 and have been revised for this format.
Introduction
When writing my first cruise stories I never imagined they would eventually come together as a book titled The Captain’s Log. I got all kinds of positive feedback, from people stopping me to say how much they’d enjoyed reading Cruise Industry News with my column on the last few pages to others exclaiming, “You should write a book!”
That always got a smile from me and a promise that I would think about it. I started a search for publishers and quickly I found myself in a completely unknown world – a world full of no answers and rejections. Should I self-publish? That brought another fruitless search, because this world was full of traps and double bottoms, as well. Searching on the Internet proved to be a source of aggravation, with my email inbox quickly flooded by messages from companies with the most promising names, offering to do it all for me.
I’m not a fast decision maker when it comes to matters like this, a fact that made me realize that with at least 95% of these seemingly generous offers, everyone would end up with making a profit except me! Finally I took the plunge with the help of a small company in New York called Booksjustbooks. Should I print a thousand books? It seemed to be a fantastic number and a bit of a gamble, but I decided to go ahead.
Now seven years later, the first book has seen six print runs and it’s high time for a sequel.
I’d like to thank Oivind Mathisen of Cruise Industry News and Ron Pramschufer of Booksjustbooks for their help and support.
I hope you will enjoy The Captain’s Journal.
Chapter 1
Discipline
Life at sea in many ways is somewhat similar to that of the Army or Navy. Rules and regulations need to be upheld more so than in comparable businesses ashore, but our rules can never be as rigid or strongly enforced as in the armed services because we’re a civilian organization. A working middle-of-the-road way has to be found. Of course, not every ship faces the same challenges. It doesn’t matter very much on a cargo ship if a crew member shaves each morning, but on a cruise ship our guests appreciate a clean and crisp look.
Most of the rules on board are related to safety, and very few people question them. Sometimes a new crew member needs an explanation as to why he can’t put his trolley laden with delicacies for that party next door at the most convenient place because it blocks the escape route or why can’t he go ashore anytime he likes with all his friends even when he is off-duty, because a minimum number of crew must stay on board in case of an emergency.
On a cruise ship, crew also need to be more aware of each other when going about their daily activities simply because we are housed so closely together. A party on a cargo ship could easily involve the whole crew, while on a cruise ship a party often involves only a certain department. If it becomes too noisy it can easily disturb the sleep of others who have different working hours. This happens sometimes and security has to intervene. Sometimes it’s brought to my attention.
“There were problems in the officer’s bar last night,” the hotel manager told me on the phone. “It should be in the night report.”
“Haven’t read it yet. Here, let me check.” I put on my glasses and clicked on his email. Oh, brother! Apparently a few crew had been at each other. I read on, because something like this doesn’t happen that often.
“What? She scratched another crew member crew member crew member crew member on the face and then poured beer over him?”
“Not a him, a her,” he answered. “That girl has been nothing but trouble, late for work, drinks too much, insults to others. Last week, she damaged the sound equipment and we had to cancel the show. I really think it’s time we said goodbye to her.”
“Hmmm … I tend to agree, but it’s better to have security investigate the whole thing. Before you know it, we overlook something, and I have a wrongful dismissal on my hands with all the hassle that goes with it,” I answered. After all, dismissing people is one thing, but it’s up to the captain to make sure everyone is treated fairly. How often has it happened after looking further into a clear-cut case that just about every “sure fact” becomes questionable?
A few days later my security officer delivered the report himself.
“It took you long enough,” I snorted. “I didn’t think something like this would take that long.”
He blinked his eyes nervously and started to clean his glasses with a paper napkin.
“Sorry, sir. It was a bit complicated. Maybe I’d better stay while you read it so I can answer your questions.”
I started to read it and halfway through I stopped. It was indeed complicated. I started reading again from the beginning. I did this three times before I looked up.
“Can’t make heads or tail of it. So this Keeley scratched her boyfriend Donny?” I asked.
“No, sir. That’s why it took so long. I had to rewrite the report several times, and this is as clear as I could get it,” he sighed, as if I were some child who couldn’t understand his report.
“Donny is the boyfriend of Kelley. Keeley’s boyfriend is Dirk, but he isn’t involved here because he was with Angela at the time. Keeley scratched Kelley because she was talking to Donny. She used to be Donny’s girlfriend. She also punched her, and it could have been a lot worse if Kylee hadn’t interfered.”
“Kylee?” I searched for that name in the report. “Oh yes, here it is. So she interfered. Good for her.”
“Yes, sir. Her boyfriend’s name is Mark. He wasn’t there either, but the barkeeper is a witness and his name is Mark, too. Just for your information, sir, because I don’t want to confuse you by not mentioning this.”
“Ahh! Well, thank you for that. So it really looks like Kylee – I mean Keeley had better go home.” I sighed. “Did you do an alcohol test?”
“Yes, sir, but the problem is that after the infirmary did the two tests, they got confused about the names and mixed up the test results. Can’t understand how that could happen.”
I looked at him and frowned, having a pretty good idea how this could happen.
“You’d better set up a court for tomorrow so I can hear it from the horse’s mouth. So what does Keeley look like? Blonde, brown…?”
“They’re all blonde, sir, except Mark.”
“I thought you said Mark wasn’t involved.”
“I mean Mark, the bartender. He has black hair. But don’t worry, they’re easy to recognize because Kelley has blue eyes and a scratch on her cheek. Kylee and Keeley have brown eyes. It’s easy enough once you know what to look for.”
I sighed again, because I started to wish that for recognition