My childhood: The seas, the woods and to naval architecture

I was born as the first child of my parents. As time has flown away, I still remember my childhood, in fact I am lucky enough to have such an overwhelming time in my life.

Since my father is merchant navy officer , I along with my mom was taken along with him on many voyages across the globe. Henceforth, I’ve been fortunate enough to sail through all the oceans before I turned five, I was luckier enough to have crossed the Panama Canal thrice and to have crossed the international time line many times. I sailed on Indian flagged vessels and foreign flagged vessels after my father had quit from Shipping Corporation of India.

I still recall my golden days when I was on these merchant vessels: I used to sit and look through the window of our cabin and look out only to see the limitless ocean spread across. I remember that, when we were sailing, I used to ask my mom and dad, for how many days we had to sail to reach the next port. In fact, I was taught on how to study the calendar at a very tender age so that I could count the number of days, I needed to sail more to reach the next port. When the sea gets rough, it was pucker time for me. I used to spend most of the time near the wash basin as I used to vomit very frequently as the ship keeps on rolling in rough seas.

I remember my father had kept a screwdriver near the wash basin so that I could use that and push through the holes of the basin whenever the pipe gets congested and blocked as the ship keeps on rolling. Once, during a small voyage, a bird had made a stand at the bridge and I made sure that I pay a visit to it with mom at least 4 times a day whenever possible. I also remember that it was one of the deck cadet’s duty to clean when it poops. Even after around 14-16 years, I remember the expression of his face when he was doing that. In between, I am of his age then now, in between he is a captain now and in the meantime, I am a naval architect in the making.


I believe that this is turning point of the life and I’ve signed up for the bread and butter course of my life.
A naval architect is a professional engineer who is competent in naval architecture, but that will be a lesser better definition to short him with. He make small boats, yachts, ketches, huge liners and of course gigantic VLCCs and FLNGs. He only knows how to make ‘her’ sexier by putting up good curves on her ‘hull’ and by placing protrusions like bulbous bows on her beautifully crafted body.
His unseen creativity work behinds those beautiful and gigantic floating bodies. He is man with multi-skills. He only lays down all his skills in all branches of engineering in his work very unlikely to all other engineers.

Theories explain how sea waves offers resistance to ships propelling forward, how rough seas change the propulsion requirements etc. Now, I am taught and exposed to everything mathematically, more than a decade before ,I had never thought about the existence of those principles.
I actually feel crazy enough to have experienced it in real life since childhood. All through these years, I thought of that incident of losing one academic year as a heck of a thing. It’s only now, I am realizing how good it was to experience all those rolling and pitching at sea and keep on vomiting holding a screw driver.

Now , my professor comes and describes such motions using Greek symbols and second order partial differential equations. Sometimes I feel that vomiting at sea was much better. But ,at the end of all those difficulties ,I hope forward to see a new horizon rising.
I believe that very few naval architects has got such opportunities in childhood so far. Only for now, I've started thinking in the perspective of a naval architect ,the thought process of the naval architects who designed those ships had gone ahead. In the mean time ,I understand how complex the subject is and that too only when I/you try to learn.
I hope you get the point.
Now , my professor comes and describes such motions using Greek symbols and second order partial differential equations. Sometimes I feel that vomiting at sea was much better. But ,at the end of all those difficulties ,I hope forward to see a new horizon rising.
I believe that very few naval architects has got such opportunities in childhood so far. Only for now, I've started thinking in the perspective of a naval architect ,the thought process of the naval architects who designed those ships had gone ahead. In the mean time ,I understand how complex the subject is and that too only when I/you try to learn.

I hope you get the point.

The last time I sailed was long back in the year 1999, it was a reefer vessel: MV Eastern Express. I was a kid then, around the age of four. I missed few months of class at my kindergarten school for the last time I had sailed. Later, the school authorities were reluctant to admit me to class and I was staying in a rural area by that time, which then lacked good schools. So , I had to sign up for the same class next year and I had always considered it as one of my misfortunes to have lost that academic year till a recent time and aftermath which is not considered so now.

When I was onboard, I remember I saw my father getting busy always once some of the machinery breakdown , I have seen him and his men working continuously for hours ,sometimes even without taking a night’s sleep : so is what his job demands and so was his dedication . I saw my father and his men working with the world’s best diesel engines with tens of thousands of billion horse powers. I never knew how complex and cutting edge thing that was then. I grew up watching all these, I've been to different countries in my childhood, and I've observed how things happen there, even though I was out there only for some hours. I grew up seeing how things are managed since very young. All these were not sorted out then or I never had the maturity to understand all of that by then.

Later, as time has passed by, I felt the significance of being having exposed to all that. All these happened in the past millennium and it has been around 16 years since then. I along with my mom had signed off from the last ship I had sailed back in 1999 at Auckland and flew back to Kochi via Mumbai. Kochi never had an international airport then.

At that time, we stayed with my grandparents at my native place which is basically a rural area. I used to roam around the woods, the grounds, the rubber plantations, the paddy fields; there was a dog in family that would accompany me. My grandfather had taught me to swim, initially I was frightened towards the water and I believed that some snake or fish would come underwater and sting me. My phobia about snakes is mentioned in a former post. I used floating buoys, coconuts and cans tied together and at last I realised that all these will help you only to float and as long as I simply remaining floating I am not going to make it. Anyway that was the first lesson of my life on the laws of floatation when I look back presently in a naval architect’s perspective. So, one fine day, I tried being adventurous and jumped into water and I realised that I was not high enough to put my feet down on the waterbed. So, eventually some workers in the nearby paddy fields came and rescued me. So awesome were those days that I badly miss it. Later, we moved onto town and got settled at town area and I had a brother later. At school, I remember that initially I was a shy and silent kid during junior classes which went onto change later as I went across through higher classes. Of course, the credit goes to some of the special teachers who has taught me then. I remember that I used to badly miss my father when he was set on to sail.

After schooling, I joined for engineering, which I always wanted to. I choose Naval Architecture.

It was perhaps when Noah’s ark happened, the term ‘naval architect’ was overheard for the first time. The greed and hunger for man for innovations, adventure and of course: ‘wealth’ made him to move across seas. Then, there was this man whose thought process worked in better and better ways which made better and better ships and that man is called as a Naval Architect.

Lesser people know the efforts made by him and his gang of men working day and night to put such huge structures in water : kilometres of welding ,wiring ,tons of steel used , the principles and paradoxes involved in his thought process and of course : his dedication , all pinned up and brought together right from the scratch.

But, how and why did I choose to be a naval architect? Is it because I was exposed to the world of ships and seas at childhood? Is it because, my father is in shipping and I am most certain of securing a job after I am done with my course. No! My father had never insisted me to follow him or I never joined this course, just because my father is in shipping. Is it because of a good pay factor considered? No! All I’ve got to tell about is a passion, a drive towards what my sole, and my heart points towards. I’ve got friends who are crazy about automobiles. I know people who is so damn crazy about movies, I even know a guy who has memorized the digits of the box-office value of world’s 100 best run movies yet. In fact, he is an encyclopedia of films. Had I not been signed up for being a naval architect, I would have signed up to become a marine engineer.

I had mentioned that when I was a kid, I was exposed to ships and oceans. It’s actually now that's benefiting me. When we are taught new terms and theories as per curriculum , I feet so excited because, I was actually exposed to such terms in my childhood. We were given lectures about the FFA and LSA on board ships, which I remember to have been exposed to during weekly drills when I was aboard. Now I am exposed to subjects like resistance, propulsion, sea-keeping ,motions ,structural design etc. Learning to design makes it feel cool.