Hobbies at Sea

Everybody has a hobby of one sort or another. And just to make sure that all readers are on the same wavelength the Oxford Dictionary of current English, 3rd edition quite clearly states that a hobby is: an activity done regularly in ones leisure time for pleasure.

For the average landlubber, an activity undertaken regularly during time away from work could include a thousand and one different vices, illegal activities or run of the mill and dead boring time fillers that stretch the imagination for continuing interest. Train-spotting probably gets to the top of the list for a hobby that wastes money, consumes many and baffles the non-believers, stamp/coin collecting et al not far behind. Of course there are hobbies that go beyond the weird like those who spend every waking hour trying to look like a lump of recently solidified flow of lava (known in the business as fitness training or muscle toning) and those of both sexes who seek perfection through silicon, enhanced sizes and the fully unnatural look.

For a seafarer a hobby is harder to maintain and to keep up the interest in. Train spotting for one would never keep on the rails, due to more time being spent on the high seas than on dry land. Fridge magnet collecting and flower arranging also tend not to appeal to the average seafarer, not only due to the time spent away from home. The landlubber’s image of the Jolly Jack Tar the sailor typically revolves around the bottle of rum. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (3rd Edition) though, the drinking alcohol is not really a hobby as it encroaches upon working hours and is not really for pleasure – especially the next morning.

In short a seafarer is in a harder position to have and to maintain a long term hobby than those ashore. Collections of unique items from exotic lands are probably the more common hobbies found: tea sets from Japan, carvings of wooden elephants and memories (and a phone number) of woman loved being high on the lists.

Some seafarers do have serious hobbies that they have had since their first days onboard, that they keep up with a passion and apply themselves to on a regular basis. The Third Engineer who spent every spare moment in his cabin sorting, building and polishing his large wooden model of the Cutty Sark gives credit to all hobbyists ashore and at sea for dedication, enthusiasm and single mindedness. The fact that when he came to go home, to take his completed hobby with him to be displayed proudly amongst his previous models he found that the finished product would not fit through his cabin door. Subsequent Third Engineers thus had to occupy the cabin with a nearly non-scaled version of this majestic vessel looming over them for years to come. Building scale models of ships is though quite a common hobby and a very relaxing one too – as long as it is remembered that it is not feasible to dismantle half of the accommodation block to get the thing out and home.

NB: Chief Engineers who bring their Volkswagen Beetle engines with them and spend the whole trip stripping, polishing and rebuilding them are not classed as serious hobbyists as they tend to undertake this project during normal working hours - typically when they should be attending to the vessels own machinery and especially not when they rope in the cadets to do the cleaning and polishing that they themselves are unwilling to do.

Navigating Officers tend to turn towards the collection of items rather than the more technical hobbies that engineers apply themselves to. Sextants, compasses and chronometers, ships bells and calipers tending to be high on the lists with many ships now limping around the world without these items fitted.

Strangely enough it seems that cooks like collecting bridge navigational aids rather than cooking utensils as proven by the recent exploration of a fishing vessel that sank in a lagoon in Tuvalu. The vessel, whilst at anchor and unmanned, one day just tipped over and vanished beneath the green and blue glass like surface without a ripple or sound of its impending demise. A couple of weeks later some divers went down to remove any equipment that could still be of use for the nearby Maritime Training School. Upon surfacing they handed over their haul along with the news that they had found the chronometer and the sextant in a drawer in the cook’s cabin.

Today, with ships now resembling the insides of a computer, with flashing lights and electronic devices controlling the movements of the vessel it is harder to maintain some of the older hobbies that older seafarers used to have. It is now very rare to see a large wooden steering wheel in place, this icon of seafaring having been replaced by a set of push buttons or black knobs that can be found in any car, vehicle or computer joystick control box. Binnacles are now something that most confuse with barnacles and the Telegraph provides the news on a daily basis – hardly a collector’s item.

In some places around the world the collection of ships items is still a big game and none more so than in the Philippines. One Master recently docked his fishing vessel to discharge his load before proceeding back out to his fishing grounds. Being a typical seafarer he decided to wet his throat whilst ashore to build up his Dutch courage for another few weeks facing the elements. Upon his return to the vessel, slightly the worse for wear, he ordered his Chief to crank up the engine and once ready he told his crew to remove the ropes fwd and aft. When the last rope was safely off the bollard ashore he made his first movement of the day. He pushed his stick to 10% astern and waited for the usual movement of the vessels stern into the jetty. Yet on this occasion nothing happened, the engine powered up, the revs showed the correct increase yet the vessel did not move. The Captain assuming that a strong current was present and with his bow drifting away from the jetty decided to go ahead. Again the engine powered up and the revs showed the correct increase but again the vessel did not move. The Chief Engineer was called and he reported in due course that everything was working correctly, that the engine was turning, that the shaft was also turning and that nothing was untoward at his end.

Subsequent investigation and after much head scratching and confusion it was found that the ships propeller was not where it should be. These lovely brass items typically reside on the end of the shaft and in the water so that when the shaft turns it turns and thus the vessel is moved along. The disappearance of this valuable and shiny piece of equipment was eventually found to have been removed by a budding collector of such items, in the dead of night by simply cutting off the end of the shaft. Naturally this keen and illegal hobbyist would sell this for the scrap value that it had.

Seafaring as it is today is no longer the glamorous and romantic occupation that it used to be. A Captain is no longer the respected figure of the community and an Engineer is just the man who shovels coal. For this reason many current seafarers tend to live in the past when it comes to collecting and to their hobbies. Houses that they live in, if the wife allows it, become designed like ships bars, all teak and polished brass. Paraffin lamps surround the balconies and treasure chests store where others use closets. The idea of sleeping in a hammock appeals despite being out of fashion not soon after Columbus set off to the Americas and a brass porthole or two, a figurehead of a mermaid and an original copper diving helmet do wonders as conversational pieces.

It is by far preferable to have this type of hobby than to be a modern seafarer collecting black plastic knobs, electric light bulbs (60 Watt, 240volt), soft sprung mattresses and chronometers that look like a cheap plastic $2.50 kitchen wall clock.