The bridge is more crowded than usual with captain, third officer, cadet, watchman and me.
If your idea of a wheelhouse is based on old movies, forget it. There’s no brass engine room telegraph – with ‘Stop’, ‘Dead Slow’,‘Slow’, ‘Half’ and ‘Full’ in big letters. This, so to speak, is the throttle and we're at 'FULL'.
No telegraph bells ringing, no voice tubes, no imposing ship’s wheel. Here's the wheel (smaller than a car's). At sea we're on autopilot, which steers Amber up and down the latitudes and across the longitudes.
Chart table ...
... and one of three radar screens.
One of the few concessions to tradition is a chronometer in a wooden case, although it's quartz and there are other options.
Taped to one of the bulkheads is a sun bleached poster imploring ships to rescue people in obvious distress. In the main, this means illegal migrants, often ignored for the logistic and legal problems they cause. However, earlier this year, Amber was commended for "a job well done" after assisting in the rescue of twenty-four Africans. They had been "in clear need of assistance" off the coast of Spain. The Spanish Maritime Safety Agency said Amber's help was "in keeping with the highest traditions of maritime search and rescue."
On the starboard wing, Captain Radovan Colnar watches as Cadet Hrvoje Musulin learns to use a sextant. Most ships now have ECNS (Electronic Charts and Navigation System); Hrvoje may never resort to a sextant, but it's good to know (for those of us who don't have to learn) some old skills are still taught.
Down seven levels to the main deck.
“The work is generally the same – variations on the eternal fight against rust – and a seaman is always either washing, chipping or painting.” (Mars in Capricorn Beverley Cross 1955)
In 1952, Cross, the writer who married actress Dame Maggie Smith, worked aboard a Norwegian tramp steamer.
The noise of chipping is deafening, so here are two silent, lethal-looking chippers.
Some chipping defies power tools. Ordinary Seaman Manuel Uytoco is chipping this chain link by link.
... and grease - grease everywhere if you're not careful.
Tomorrow we arrive in Morocco. At the bow, Bosun Chris Ramos and two of the crew are preparing mooring lines.
