An orphan at a young age, Simran Choudhary dreams to be a Captain on a ship. She is 19 years old, and hails from a small village of Ghamroor in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. She is presently studying at the prestigious college, Training Ship Rahaman (TS Rahaman) through a scholarship provided by Taylor Maritime Investments (TMI).

A shy, soft spoken girl, who proudly wears the uniform in white, depicts the hunger for achieving the stars with her sheer determination, wit and strength. In a heart-to-heart conversation, Simran shares about her family, dreams and mentor at the three-day Tamar seminar held in Mumbai in mid-November 2022.

Feeling Lucky

Coming from a very humble and less fortunate background, Simran lost her parents at a very young age. She lives with her elder brother who is unable to cater to her educational requirements. With no one from her family in the maritime field, Simran feels lucky and privileged to study in a very reputed maritime college TS Rahaman. She is grateful to her company VR Maritime Services Pvt Ltd (VRM) and TMI for giving her this scholarship.

Why shipping?

I did not know what to do, how to do it and from where to start? In 2021, our company CEO, Capt Sanjay Prashar visited my aunt’s village, and she said my niece is unemployed, but has passed from non-medical science with good percentage, could you be of assist to her. He asked me to visit him at his office where he told me about the Merchant Navy profession and I decided to pursue my career in this field. I gave an interview at his office, and after passing the interview I gave the IMU-CET and cleared it too. Capt Prashar is my inspirer and mentor, and I am thankful to him.

Good Experience

I can’t explain in words. I’m excited and didn’t even think I would be studying in such a big college. It’s a good experience.

Be clear to achieve your goals

If you want to be in this profession then you have to concentrate on what you have to do and how to do it. If you are clear on how to do it and where you have to start then you can achieve your goal.

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Providing bespoke and personal approach

Having been involved in shipping for over the last 36 years, I have got a pretty wide scope of experience, as a Chief Engineer where I sailed for 14 years, and then came ashore in 2000 to pursue a career at ashore, where I have worked as a technical superintendent, fleet manager, fleet director, and technical director. “So, I always try to make sure that I stay connected with people onboard, the life onboard itself, and try to visit ships myself where I can, and when I can,” says Mr Martin Peter Henry, CEO, Tamar Ship Management.

On his recent visit to Mumbai for the Tamar Seminar, Martin talks about the challenges faced during the pandemic, recruiting more women on ships and ashore, scholarship programme, decarbonisation and piracy.

Coping with COVID restrictions

In my 22 years in ship management, COVID-19 was the biggest challenging era that I’ve had by far. When we got to late June 2020, it was evident at that time that the crew were going to be stuck on ships for much longer periods than their contracts. So I formed a crew task force team within my company and in that team there were the whole of my crewing team and all the managers of the other main departments.

We met sometimes twice a week and we went through every ship in our fleet in details and we gave each vessel a code from black, red, amber to green. And we were constantly looking at ways to change crew and staying in front of the regulations and the restrictions around the world. The idea was that we were there to help our crewing department perform the best that they could and also to raise the profile of this very important topic to the absolute highest level in the company and keep that focus there.

Managing the lingering COVID-19

We still meet on a weekly basis, monitor the ships and their contracts. We monitor the percent and amount of crew that is becoming close to complete their contract. We often look to replace the crew earlier than in the past during pre COVID, where the crew is seen to stay till end of their contract. If we see an opportunity if it is little bit earlier and in a good place, no restrictions good travel prospects that’s when we release the crew earlier. That’s generally how we are managing that today.

Nationalities onboard

As we were badly impacted during COVID-19 with Chinese crew. I decided that we should have a more balanced crew makeup across all our fleets. So I got basically 4 crews Indian, Vietnamese, Pilipino, and I have got others. The Indian crew is the biggest, followed by the Vietnamese and the others smaller. What it means is that I have got a fairly balanced fleet, and I am not 100 percent just relying on one pool of crew.

Teamwork, Trust and Transparency

The One Team motto is Teamwork, Trust and Transparency. This means the guys onboard, Tamar, VRM and the other big manning agents that we work with. We are one team and are goal is to get the same successful results and provide a very good service to the vessel owners that what’s One Team. One Team is a two way street. I have a very flat management setup where I am in charge and then after that I have got my team who are my generals. (Smiles).

Ratio of women in your company

This is quite new for us. We got one female Ukrainian cadet, she is on her second contract at the moment. Now we got 2 female cadets finishing their trainings and next year they will be ready to come and join our fleets. In today’s seminar, I presented a session on Female Onboard, though there were not much female in the room. That was okay the message was to help the men officers to be respectfully prepared when a female comes onboard, which is important.

Our ships are typically handy size bulk carriers which we managed that are quite basic, some of the older ships for the lower ranks and ratings have shared shower and bathroom facilities. If for some reasons one of the female cadets had to go on one of those ships, we would respectfully ask one of the officers to move out of their cabin and give it up for the lady. But generally, I wouldn’t be sending them on such ships. We have other ships which have separate bathroom, we will put them on those ships. In case for their first contract, we can’t send two girls together, I will simply make sure there is a young cadet with them and we will be properly prepared.

My background is I have supported women in shipping for many years now. My first lady was a Chief Officer in 1997. I have worked on passenger ships, where there were lot of ladies doing all sorts of jobs. I have had two female technical superintendent working for me also when I worked at CMA CGM, a container company and at Tamar Shipping in Hong Kong 50 percent of the shore staff are female. And so I support women in shipping technical superintendent, fleet manager, fleet director, and technical director in a bigger way I can. And watch this space, we will have more female onboard Tamar vessels absolutely with the support of VRM, who will help us to find young ladies that are interested to come and have a career at sea.

Approach to recruit more women on ship and ashore

(Smiles) It is a very good question and not an easy one to answer, so nice thank you very much for that. I mean it is always about raising the profile that’s what you want to hear and that’s what you are doing here raising the profile. There isn’t lot of woman out there that know this. I have a daughter who is 21 years old. She has been on many ships visits over the years with me. She has worked in my office, and she has been working in one of the manning agent office and I expect next summer she might spend some time at VRM office and she absolutely helps me to raise the profile of woman in shipping in her own little way. But we need a more of that, we need more interviews like this. How many girls out there who know that they can do this that they can make a very nice wage, a career and it doesn’t have to be at sea forever, it just the start. Then we can start to see women in other areas of shipping too. Why not I would like to see it?

Scholarship programme

Taylor Maritime Investments is a biggest logistics ship owning company in London, where we manage many vessels for them. They have shown some interest in our cadetship programme, which Tamar and VRM have been developing, building and recruiting cadets. We will be visiting families of the underprivileged in the remote areas of Himachal Pradesh, which is the hometown of Capt Prashar. Here, we will be presenting the families with scholarship on behalf of TMI, so that we can help them step up the ladder and have an opportunity of a life at sea and we are absolutely looking forward to it. I am so thankful that I am part of it. And we want to thank Taylor Maritime for wanting to participate in it. In fact they have conveyed that they would like to continue this gesture on an annual basis.

Ships are decarbonised ready

We started Castle Marine Services 2 years ago, and their main service is to provide decarbonisation services to our ship owners and other ship owners as well. We are able to help ship owners to assess what their EEXI level is for their ships, and also give recommendations to install certain devices that will improve their CII ratings, which will be coming out on the 01st annual survey for the vessels next year. 01st January is when the first CII will come into force. We are also monitoring it on the basis of operational information provided to us.

But let me tell you that we are not able to turn the ships green overnight. The ships that we managed are average 10 to 12 years old and they do not have the super modern technology behind them either, and so there is a limit to what we can do. But we are certainly helping owners to optimise their vessels performance, and at the same time giving the best or least amount of carbon CO2 into the atmosphere.

Piracy and Preparedness

I remember an incident that occurred under my management in the Gulf of Guinea, where the pirates boarded the ship and took away the Captain, Chief Engineer, and Chief Officer into the jungle of Nigeria. We didn’t hear from them for 5 weeks, and then we got a contact from the captivators, and then the talks went on for another 6 weeks and they were finally released.

So I am very familiar with piracy in these regions. Therefore, I prepare my ships, crew and also advise owners and give them recommendations to ensure that we don’t have a repeat of such an incident. Especially, when the ship has to transit via Gulf of Guinea, we strongly tell our owners to ensure that the charterers have hired an armed escort to take the ships into Nigerian borders, so that there is no worries for our ships when they go here.

One Team Policy

We are a small company. I am accessible and approachable and I directly talk to the crew and I want this approach to continue even if the company grows. We have a formal whistle-blowing policy, where the crew or staff can actually report any incident or policy that needs to be put in place. They can also use the instant messaging applications such as Whatsapp, Viber to name a few, to inform me about any grievances. It goes back to the One Team scenario that is message we want to give.

As a ship manager, we take all possible care to ensure that the ships are upgraded and cater to the welfare of the crew. For instance: whether it could be fixture and fittings or provide additional syllabus that is good for them. We are putting in place a mental health policy, and also providing further opportunities on assisting them to recognise their health onboard.

Losing opportunities

When foreign owners are giving opportunity to our Indian seafarers, I think the DG Shipping is should bring in more people and hold more examinations that couldn’t be done during COVID-19. They should hold colleges accountable if they are not teaching the cadets properly and just rushing them to DG Shipping for exams.

As far as the junior ranks are concerned, yes there are far surplus. But, we are still stuck with the 8000 figures of Masters and Chief Engineers. Until we see the growth in the top 4 ranks, we are not going to see the growth in the junior ranks and ratings.

Capt Sanjay Prashar, CEO,

VR Maritime Services Pvt Ltd

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