ALL AT SEA
 |
| Will and Tim settle down to a week
of naval training |
What
job requires you to be a trained fire fighter, to survive at sea and
be a team player?
It
is the profession that built the British Empire, the Merchant Navy.
Once we
were a nation of sailors, now in the 21st Century there is a recruitment
crisis.
So Inside
Out enlisted the services of three ordinary 16-year-olds to see if they
would ever consider a career at sea.
Tim McArthur,
Amanda Powell and William Berritts, three young students from Margate,
never thought of a career at sea? And that is the shipping industry's
problem.
Inside Out
enrolled the three of them on a one week course at the National Sea Training
Centre in Gravesend.
This is
one of just five training colleges left in the UK. The National Sea Training
Centre runs more than 150 specialist maritime courses for those looking
for a life at sea.
Although
2,000 students come here every year to study, most are from abroad or
over 40 years old.
Among the
intake are beauticians and hairdressers about to start on cruise liners,
an Australian lad who will crew yachts in the Caribbean and a group of
Ghurkha soldiers from Nepal who will become security guards for shipping
companies.
High
status profession?
In the 18th century seamen had a very high status among the working class
men of Britain.
The money
was good and they got to see the world.
During times
of war when the Royal Navy press ganged people into service, merchant
seamen would be their first choice as they already had the skills.
 |
| Fitted
out with all the mod cons you'd expect in a four star hotel |
What is
it like working on a modern merchant vessel?
If they
pass the course our students will be spending a day on one of the biggest
and newest British container ships in service.
Sea survival
courses at Gravesend started back in 1918 when the college first opened.
Famous
students
Over the
decades some famous faces have been on this course.
Singer Tommy
Steel started out in the merchant navy as did Deputy Prime Minister John
Prescott MP.
At sea,
even though your surrounded by water, a fire onboard ship can be devastating.
Metal conducts heat and smoke kills in seconds.
It's all
a far cry from the Merchant marine hey day in the early 1970's.
Then the
average age of the British seafarer was 27. It was a golden era, when
half the world's cargo ships were registered under British flags.
British
flag lowered
It soon
began to go wrong. By the mid-seventies cheaper foreign labour, industrial
disputes and a downturn in the global economy saw the British merchant
fleet decline.
And when
it comes to safety at sea, it is often the ships flying Flags of Convenience
that pose the biggest risk.
An academic
study was made of one specific part of the English Channel. They found
there were 257 vessel movements and 68 of them were near misses. That's
26%.
 |
| The
Tricolor posed a danger to passing shipping |
Last December
a Norwegian cargo ship called the Tricolor was hit by another vessel,
the Kariba, registered in the Bahamas.
The overturned
with the side of its hull touching the surface.
A bad situation
then bordered on the farcical when it was rammed by a third ship, a Dutch
Antilles registered vessel called the Nicola rammed the Tricolor.
Months later,
the hull of the Tricolor was cut up and brought to the surface
to reveal its cargo - 拢30m worth of luxury cars.
High
tech age
That is
why it is so important we keep training future mariners to the highest
standards. Someone has to set a good example. Especially in today's high-tech
shipping.
Merchant
ships are vast metal structures run by computer with a small crew who
need to be highly skilled.
But what's
it really like inside one of these new super vessels?
The P&O
Nedlloyd Barentz was built in 2000 and has a top speed of 25 knots,
she constantly ploughs the world's seas delivering cargo from port to
port.
Inside she
is fitted out with all the mod cons you'd expect in a four star hotel.
Five floors, all connected by lift.
This ship
goes to sea for three months at a time, the crew have to be able to relax
when off duty and the facilities certainly seem to impress Amanda, Tim
and Will.
So what
do our three young people think of a career at sea? It is decision time.
A Yes,
a No and a Maybe
One thing
they agreed upon was that it had been an action packed week.
And they
have learned that the British shipping industry needs young people like
them, otherwise it might sink without trace! | 
