The
Captain’s Log
by
Hans Mateboer
Copyright 2011 Hans Mateboer,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by Captains Publishing
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9759-4875-0
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 the permission of the publisher.
Introduction
Writing is a very fascinating process, but playing with words and sentences in such a way that they fit together, is not an easy task at all, I found out. Numerous books have been written about the sea and those who sail on her, but extremely rare is a book written by a seaman himself.
Our minds are not trained to sit behind a computer and endlessly toy with words. Instead, they are shaped by North Atlantic storms, by hurricanes, and by shifting cargos. In our dealings with people from all over the world, the English we use is often severely compromised and would be seriously frowned upon by any self respecting kindergarten teacher. Seamen in general are experts in expressing themselves clearly and in very few and very simple words and often a plain gesture is deemed sufficient. Thus the sea has prepared us to deal with all kinds of situations fast and effectively. A high degree of bluntness is not uncommon.
That writing is not a quality associated with us shows in the fact that I can think of very few captains who have written a book like this. I know very well from my own experience, that a lack of material can not be the reason for not writing. I believe that every person has his own fantasy world in which he achieves fantastic if not impossible goals. It is the same with me. During my numerous night shifts being alone on a dark ocean, my imagination often would run wild. I would start shipping companies, I would write books ….
A few times I actually made an attempt to do the last, but never got much further than the title. After all what would I write about …?
Then, some years ago, it occurred to me that I didn’t have to torture my brain to find ideas for a book. The book was happening right around me, in plain sight and on my own ship, almost every day— enough to fill many volumes. This then would imply that every story is a true one. My answer to that can only be “yes.”
Everything you will read has truly happened. Of course certain changes were necessary to fit episodes together. Every now and then a chapter will consist of more than one story combined, and in virtually all cases I altered the names of those involved.
I do hope that you will derive as much enjoyment from reading this book, as I got from writing it and reliving these experiences.
The Start of a Career
Back in the late sixties and early seventies, cruising was in its infancy, and only a small, select group of visionaries grasped the opportunity and fashioned a whole new industry. Most people in those years agreed that this was more a last flickering of desperate hope, during the twilight years of once proud transatlantic liner companies on which the sun was setting fast.
A fledgling group of them was hanging on and desperately tried to make ends meet. Their hanging on, in most cases, was more for the sake of not being able to sell off their old ships, rather than the keen business sense of perceiving the better times to come. They used their old ships, dinosaurs and hardly suitable for cruising, that somehow had managed to escape the torches of the scrap yards where so many of their mates had met their fate.
The general public was not yet aware that one of the greatest vacations could be found on the high seas, and the cruise companies had no defined strategy of how to tell them. Not only were the potential passengers ignorant of this, but so were we, the seafarers. All we knew was that the days of the great Atlantic liners were over and done with, thanks to companies like Boeing and Douglas.
Our knowledge of the cruise lines was limited to the fact that they were steadily losing money. A sort of animosity even existed against the few officers who had remained faithful and were sailing these big white ships. They sure had to be sissies and must hate an honest day of work. They were considered outcasts from the society of mariners, daring to live a life of luxury, which had nothing to do with real ships.
Sometimes during my days on cargo ships we met them at sea. During the day, their high, spotlessly painted white hulls, visible from many miles distance, or at night, lit up like Christmas trees. Standing on the bridge of my rusty old workhorse, I kept looking at them through my binoculars with a mixture of curiosity and hostility. I would try to spot girls in bikinis, sipping their drinks at the pool bar—girls we sorely missed, and who were so often the subject of our discussions during our off duty hours, especially after we had met one of those ships. I kept watching, straining my eyes, till only a smoke plume could be seen over the horizon. I would never work on these ships. Can you imagine having to dress up all the time, hosting complete strangers at the dinner table, dancing till late at night? No, Sir, not me; I was a seaman.
Unlike most other children, already at a young age, I knew what I wanted to be, captain and nothing else. This certain knowledge, strangely enough gave me an edge over the other kids, as there never was any doubt in my mind. In my little town, I was given credit for being an authority on the subject of the seas, based on my insatiable appetite for books about ships and mariners. Nobody, and certainly not me, realized that books about the voyages of James Cook and the adventures of Caribbean pirates hardly add to the creation of an authority on modern day shipping and most definitely do not prepare one adequately for a life at sea.
It must have been galling to my mother that this little whim of mine would not go away with the years.
“What do you want to be, son?”
“Captain on a ship, Sir.”
Invariably a smile would appear. After all, what kid does not want to be a sea captain at one stage or another in his life? My mother always smiled proudly and agreed. Would not any parent but go along with a five-year-old son’s dreams? Over the years her benevolent smile slowly turned into one of slight alarm when my answers did not change, but after so many years of agreeing, she could not easily back out anymore. A few times she actually made some halfhearted attempts to change my interest into different fields.
Once after I had shown some interest in chemical engineering, she bought me a big box filled with small bottles and glass tubes. A Chemical Kit for Children Ages 12 to 14 it said on the cover. Mother would later come to deeply regret her present. Not only her tactic not work, but it also cost her a new table cloth and a carpet, as my concoctions were not as harmless as the cover of the box promised they would be. A few years later she was not above scheming with a few prospective girlfriends who clearly preferred a plumber or a carpenter to warm them during cold nights, to a captain away from them for months at a time. Nothing worked, and I went to nautical college to prepare for a career at sea.
I went to sea when I was nineteen years old—an apprentice filled with school knowledge that had been all important when preparing for my exams. All too soon I made the painful discovery that much of it was rather useless in real life. In fact, I barely knew port from starboard, and in general, was very ill-prepared for the life that awaited me on that rusty