Syed Qalbe Muhammad
The merchant navy is a tough job, and you can’t deny the truth that seafarers earn in dollars, a comparatively good salary compared to shore jobs. On the other hand, the list of sacrifices seamen make is long.
For ratings, most companies offer 9-month contracts, and sometimes it extends to a year due to global tensions, unavailable suitable ports, agent and immigration issues, and other similar causes. Leaving a family for at least 8 to 9 months is the most painful part, as your children grow up in your absence. Many seafarers miss festivals, family occasions, and both happy and sad moments with relatives and friends.
The most challenging part begins once you leave home. You must adjust to life onboard, familiarize yourself with the vessel and crew, adapt to irregular sleeping hours, food, living conditions, the behavior of superiors, and company and international regulations. There are no excuses for not adapting quickly.
Despite these hardships, there is a universal truth: people can survive without food and water, but they can’t survive without internet anymore. From newborns to people of all ages, the situation is the same. At sea, everything has gone digital—training certificates, flag state surveys, required books, and even navigation are now digitalized. Yet the key workers, the seamen, are still not fully digitalized.
Real-time communication with companies is now easy, and some owners can even monitor their ships from home. Unfortunately, most companies still do not provide internet onboard for their sea staff. Only a few provide 24-hour and sufficient digital access for all crew members. Most have not digitalized to the required standard.
Most companies provide only 1–2 GB of internet per month. If you divide 2000 MB by 30 days, that’s about 67 MB per day, which is insufficient even for voice calls on WhatsApp with family and close friends. Some companies still provide less than 1 GB. There is a dire need to provide sufficient internet and satellite TV onboard, as situations change within seconds. Many seafarers are unaware of current and previous events, and due to limited data, they have little information about their families.
Providing these facilities may be slightly expensive for owners, but it creates a healthier atmosphere onboard. When crew members are connected, they are less likely to engage in backbiting, bullying, or waste time waiting to buy SIM cards in port. They can focus on their work and cargo watches instead.
In the past, when the internet was not common, seafarers spent a lot of money on calling cards and SIM cards. As industry standards rise, there is a dire need to provide British and European-level facilities to seafarers. This would help the industry, owners, and workers thrive, and reduce stress onboard, especially for tanker sailors who spend long periods away from shore.
Most banking applications are now internet-based. Receiving salary and checking payments through internet banking is necessary to avoid spending money on calls just to check balances.