Spared cost of wrong declaration

Lal Singh

In the Indian Merchant Navy, officers serving on ships are permitted to take along wives on a voyage. This facility is given once a year to the captain and the chief engineer; lower ranks are permitted once in three years. The officer has to give an undertaking that his wife is not in the family way. But sometimes this is not disclosed, inadvertently or otherwise. And that is what happened on a ship where I was the chief engineer. An electrical officer, called ‘Batti saheb’, was given permission to take his wife along.

After completing the formalities, she boarded my ship at Calcutta, bound for European ports. Since the Suez Canal was closed, the ship had to take a much longer route via the Cape of Good Hope.

When our ship was off South Africa, he informed me that his wife was unwell. Since there was no other woman on board, the captain and I visited his wife, who appeared to be more composed than her husband. She explained that she was showing signs of a miscarriage. This was a tall order for us as there was no professional medico on cargo ships. There was just one officer, with a basic first-aid certificate, who dispensed common medicines. For a serious medical problem, we would take advice and direction from an international facility, International Radio Medical Centre (CIRM), having its headquarters in Rome, commonly known as Radio Rome. This organisation provides free medical assistance to seafarers of any nationality worldwide, navigating on all seas, through radio.

All requests reaching the CIRM are handled by doctors on duty at the headquarters. After contacting them and explaining the patient’s condition, we were given details about the precautions, intake of medicines and keeping the patient in a particular posture to stem the bleeding.

The ship was scheduled to call, in about a week, at La Palma port, part of the Canary Islands in Spain. There it was arranged by the CIRM for a medical party to board on the ship’s arrival.

Since the woman’s husband was in distress, another officer was entrusted to ensure her well-being. The required guidance was taken from Radio Rome. When our ship arrived in La Palmas, the medical team did a thorough check-up. Their remark was greeted with glee when we were commended for having done a professional job of treating the patient, which obviated any need for her being taken to hospital as she had recovered well and was fit to continue her voyage.

Our efforts were well rewarded, as the ship didn’t have to be diverted or the patient evacuated by helicopter, which would have made it a very expensive operation. Even the electrician who made the wrong declaration was spared from paying a fine.

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