Assalamualaikum, and welcome back to today's video.
Today's topic is going to be very interesting.
This is based on a lot of the questions
I've received from my viewers every now and then.
Reason being, the merchant navy business isn't very common,
and a lot of people don't know about it.
Of course, the questions we get asked are about our lives onboard,
but they're about ships, too.
I will try to answer ten questions out
of these (very interesting) questions.
Our ship's Junior Officer Hassan Haider will be asking all the questions
and I will try to answer them.
So, let's start the video.
Ready. Shoot.
"Sir, first tell us how big vessels/ships are."
Well, they come in all different sizes, but you know,
they're giant objects floating on water.
The first example I have is this vessel we're in,
this is about 274 meters long.
that's around 900 feet.
To put it simply,
if you walk two full rounds (front and back) on this ship,
you'll have walked 2 kilometres.
So that's how huge this vessel is.
When we talk about width, it's around 48 meters, or 158 feet.
This ship is actually 50.34 meters high, or 165 feet.
Keeping in mind perspective, our viewers are actually looking at different objects,
they're not looking at ships, of course.
This height can be compared to a 16 story building.
And the area this vessel takes up:
approx. 7000 16 story, 280 sq. yd. (or 10 marla) flats can be fit in.
All their roofs could be combined to make a large deck,
where you could fit in swimming pools, courtyards, cricket fields,
hockey fields, football fields, etc.
So that's how huge a vessel can be.
And this is one of those mid-size vessels.
There are smaller ones and bigger ones.
"Sir, a lot of people ask about
where you live when you have to spend 4 months on a ship."
Well, this is, by far, one of the most interesting questions we get asked.
Normally, our friends see trains, planes, and cars as modes of transportation.
i.e., places with seating arrangements.
It's quite different with ships, they're not made to simply go from point A to point B,
you can actually live in them.
In other modes of transportation, you usually get seating accommodation,
public toilets and food at the most,
but ships are completely different.
You get offices for working,
you get bedrooms for resting,
you get workshops for electrical work, for mechanical work, maintenance jobs, etc.
You have the cargo control room for controlling all the cargo-related equipment,
that's where all the unloading and discharging work is done.
You have the engine control room where you control all the ship's machinery.
You also have a navigational bridge where you completely navigate the ship,
taking it from point A to point B.
Accommodation and control rooms are all air-conditioned.
The navigational bridge is also completely air-conditioned.
You have mess rooms, galleys,
different places for entertainment,
i.e., gyms, swimming pools,
so you have all those things built so you can stay on board.
It's a proper living place.
All these facilities, even your rooms, offices, workshops,
cannot be compared ones back at home,
as we're sitting in my office right now, they're enough.
So ships like these have all the facilities to sustain a proper life onboard.
"Do you all just get to eat fish?"
No, no. Absolutely not. It's not like that!
Again this is another one of the very interesting questions people ask,
they have this notion that we only catch and eat fish.
It's not like that.
We don't just eat fish. We have a lot more options than that.
We have a different store for dry provisions,
we have the meat room and the fish room for frozen items.
Then we have a vegetable room for all the fresh items. They're all proper rooms.
Imagine just enlargening a refrigerator, turning it into a room.
So we have all those storage spaces for all our food and such.
So we don't only get fish. I mean we do get fish to eat,
not that we don't eat it at all, we do.
It's one of the main ingredients of our food.
But it's not like we only eat fish. We have all sorts of food.
We get different options three times a day.
"Sir, another interesting question."
Yes, go ahead.
"Sir, how do you hit the brakes on a ship?"
Well, that's another interesting question!
Because normally, all modes of transportation have brakes,
aeroplanes included.
But it's a completely different story with ships.
Ships don't have brakes,
and when you tell someone this, they panic a little.
They ask, "How do you stop a ship when it doesn't have brakes?"
There's a specific way of stopping vessels.
We put the ship's engine on reverse.
And when the engine of a ship starts going in reverse,
that applies a braking force, stopping the ship.
But unlike your normal modes of transportation,
the ship doesn't exactly stop after going 10,15, or 20 meters.
It's a huge object floating on water, always remember that.
So even if you put an engine in reverse,
there's a certain distance she still travels
and that distance is in kilometres, not meters.
So you have to pre-plan all the passages,
everything related to the passage, including your engine movements, in advance.
Even if you have to decide in a moment, you still have to have decided that earlier on,
i.e., if you want to apply the brakes or not.
Simply speaking, that means,
are you going to operate the engine in a stern preparation or not?
You have to make all sorts of calculations
in order to make sure you're not going to collide
with another ship or object in the process.
So, no. We don't have brakes
but we have the main engine which we operate in stern to stop our ship.
"Sir, how many gears does a ship have?"
Ships don't have gears either.
They neither have brakes nor gears.
The engine in a ship is similar to one in a car
but unlike your usual mode of transportation, especially cars,
were the gear ratio and engine's RPM work together to provide torque and power,
on a ship, there are no gears.
A ship doesn't have gears, with the help of its main engine's revolutions,
we decide the speed at which our ship will go.
So basically, for increasing and decreasing speeds,
we have to alter the revolutions per minute, i.e., the RPM of the main engine.
So ships don't have gears, we increase and decrease the ship's RPM
to adjust the speed of our ship.
"Sir, people often ask me this question. I'm sure they've asked you as well.
Where do you stop a ship at night?"
No. A ship doesn't stop.
We don't stop a ship anywhere, it doesn't stop anyway.
It's a very expensive piece of machinery floating on water.
Operating it is expensive too.
So until or unless there's a good reason,
we don't stop vessels. Day or night, they're always on the move.
Until or unless, like I said before,
if the ship has to be anchored for maintenance purposes and such.
A ship isn't built for stopping, it's built for being on the move.
So our vessels are continuously running throughout the day or night.
There's also always someone on the navigational bridge
(where we navigate the ship), keeping watch,
ensuring that the ship is being navigated safely. Day or night. 24/7.
Until, of course, we reach a port in order to load and discharge cargo,
and like I said before, if the ship needs to be anchored somewhere.
Otherwise, a ship never stops.
"Sir, this is a question even I thought of when I was a kid.
If a whale bumps into a ship, does the ship end up sinking?"
No, not at all.
Of course, some have seen whales in the movies,
or (their skeletons) at museums.
They're huge. But compared to vessels,
they're minuscule.
A whale is nothing in size compared to a vessel.
Whales are very smart animals, actually.
They can sense when a huge object is approaching them,
so they get out of the way.
They have very good senses.
There are some areas where ships bump into whales
especially the eastern part of the USA.
And to cope with this vessel strike problem, they have a law
where ships must keep their speeds below 10 knots when passing the area.
Because that's a breeding ground for whales
and since it's a breeding ground for them, it's abundant with whales.
And ultimately, one ship or another is bound to collide with a whale.
Nothing happens to the ship, but the poor whale could get injured.
There have been reports of whale deaths too.
So they've made this law for ships to slow down,
so that the most that can happen to a whale is slight injuries.
So a ship is never harmed when it collides with a whale.
This is because they're a lot bigger compared to them.
A whale could be 40-50 feet long,
and that's nothing compared to a 900 feet ship.
It's huge compared to whales.
So, no. A ship will most likely never sink
but a whale could die upon collision.
But since they're smart animals, they get out of the way as soon as they can,
"Sir, someone asked me this question very recently.
It's, 'Do you guys go scuba diving also?'"
No. Absolutely not.
In fact, that's forbidden for the safety of the crew.
It's not allowed. We don't have scuba diving equipment, or trainers.
So, in case something goes wrong, we won't have rescue equipment.
I'm not saying you can't do it, but you shouldn't do it since it isn't allowed.
All these rules are made for your safety, anyway.
Our vessels are designed to run, load, and discharge cargo.
It's not for letting people scuba dive.
It's not allowed. It shouldn't be done. It's actually forbidden on a ship.
You shouldn't do it.
You can swim, of course. Ships have swimming pools. But you can't scuba dive.
"Sir, ships are huge."
"They have different people onboard at different places and times."
"How do you relay messages to each other?
Do you have a person assigned for that?"
No. It's nothing like that.
I've been asked this many times before as well.
We have proper telephone exchanges installed for communication.
For every location on a vessel, there's a telephone number.
So if you want to talk to someone at a certain location,
Just pick up the phone at dial that number.
And that number is free of charge.
So you can relay all your messages through that.
It's far cheaper to have a telephone exchange on a ship
than to assign a person for that. The poor guy could die from all the running around.
Apart from that, we also have UHF walkie talkies
in case someone isn't near a phone, i.e., they're somewhere on deck,
or anywhere with no telephone access,
we can always call them on our walkie talkies. Send our messages through those.
So, it's as easy as that.
We don't have a person assigned for that.
"Sir, another very interesting question
that I get asked a lot. I'm sure you get asked that more often.
"It's, 'Whenever you sign off,
does your ship drop you off at your assigned location?'"
No, no. Not at all.
Like I said before, a ship is a very expensive piece of machinery to operate.
It's not easy to operate it either.
And it's not a good idea to travel on a ship to a certain country just to drop someone off.
It's too expensive to do that.
So, what we do is, when we sign off and sign back on,
we travel by air.
From our home country to where the vessel is.
We do the same thing when signing off,
after we reach a port. We go by air back to our home countries, whether they be
Pakistan, India, or the Philippines.
Because taking a vessel for signing off just one person, is not just impossible,
it's too expensive.
So we travel by air back home. Not via vessel.
"Sir, that wraps up today's question and answer session,
thank you so much for the time you've given us."
You're welcome buddy! The pleasure is all mine.
I'm really happy to answer all of your questions today and I hope this
cleared a lot of doubts regarding our professions.
"And I hope this cleared up a lot of misconceptions regarding ships."
Well, if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask us!
We'll be more than happy to reply.
Ask any questions you regarding ships in the comments,
and we'll try to make another video of these series.
Take very good care of yourselves.
Remember me in your prayers.
I'm Zahid Nisar.
"And I'm Hassan Haider."
ALLAH be with you.