Drinking At Sea

Many seafarers like to have a drink or two! The mantra, "work hard, play hard" introduced itself to most cadets when they first walked up a gangway and stuck with them up to and into the dizzy heights of Captain and Chief! Certainly less people drink at sea today than say five years ago (and way less than twenty years ago), but in general those at sea know how to hold their alcohol, to work with sore heads and to make the most of a trip ashore when the opportunity arises!

Today, I tend not to drink that much! I have reached the stage in life where it takes me three days to fully recover from the banging headaches that seem to proceed each and every session! In fact, I would go as far as to say that now I only get 'drunk' twice a year and that might just be an exaggeration! I was though brought up on beer like many British seafarers were! At the tender age of nineteen I joined my first ship in Hamburg, Germany - I saw the ships bar before my cabin, I went ashore before I went down the engine room and I had a hangover before I knew if I was going to be seasick or not!

My mother suggested politely once that I should try and phone her before I started drinking! This would help both of us, her to understand at least something that I burbled and for me to remember that I had after all called her.

Today, with heightened safety awareness and 'don't drink and drive cultures' being hysterically promoted on land, many companies have stopped stocking alcoholic drinks onboard their vessels; they have shifted from wet to dry without blinking an eye! Where once vessels sailed around with better stocked bars than the Speckled Hen on the corner (and far cheaper) they now have subdued lounges with reading lamps!

The idea or picture that has formed in many peoples minds is that ships float around purely by luck; the Captain propped asleep on the chart table with a bottle of rum as a pillow, the mate half-on half-off the toilet and unable to stand up without laughing hysterically, whilst the chief is in the engine room draped over a dirty and smelly engine that is running off the fumes from his mouth! A simple picture but …………..

I, like many, don't drink very much these days! Not because the companies tell us not to but because I would rather spend my money on my family back home than to wash it down the plug hole or on making phone calls at the big white telephone! Many others are of the same mind. Many have stopped drinking because of bad livers from substance abuse, many have stopped because it turns them into people that they are not (angry, depressed or overly happy) and many others still have just stopped because they have so much else to do in life! There are though equally as many seafarers who will never stop drinking and that the transformation of a wet ship into a dry one has no effect on at all.

It is true; many people drink less if there is no bar! Some forego the simple pleasure of having a beer or two after work because there is none easily and readily available. We will probably socialize less and turn to watching a movie, pondering over the stern rail or retiring to our cabins alone, earlier than we would if we had a beer or two! Conversely, those who cannot live without the stuff will drink it whether or not it is allowed onboard. In fact the rash copycat issuance of a 'no drinking policy' by the desk jockeys from Head Office simply causes underground drinking to evolve. Permanently sizzled and pickled in Gin Captains who once made dramatic pretence of having their first days drink at 5.00pm in the ships bar, can no longer do so. They simply have the duty watchman to run ashore in port to purchase enough stock of their favorite fluid until the next port, have agents supplying alcohol wrapped in suspicious looking black bin liners, or if they can still walk in a straight line to go shopping themselves as soon as the ship docks. Professional Third Engineers who will never rise up the ranks, who once held sessions in ships bars, are now serious recluses as they drain bottles behind closed doors.

People will drink if they want to, regardless of the rules and regulations applied. Ships leave harbors under the charge of mates and masters who have no recollection of the event the next morning, they still assuming that the vessel is still safely tied up alongside. Engineers start engines for departure and then fall asleep behind the switchboard. Stopping booze onboard does not prevent it being onboard. Producing policies does not prevent seafarers jumping ashore before the first rope has been placed on the bollard, getting absolutely plastered and then returning to the vessel only when the last rope has been lifted. In fact the stopping of alcohol on vessels has in fact produced an unsafe environment; now others onboard no longer know who has been drinking and who has not! Little cliques set themselves up as closer shipmates gather in cabins and behind closed doors, the captain drinks with the chief, the 2nd and 3rd engineers sup beer in the mates cabin! The openness has been removed, the drinking goes on!

The other day we were talking about drink! This was partly instigated by a Russian colleague who was talking about life during the period of communist rule! He lives in Sakhalin, the remote Island on the east coast of Russia - one of the harshest environments in the country if not the world and very remote indeed. During the years of communism vodka was often hard to come by and in many instances impossible to get hold of! Not to be outdone various ways and means of obtaining the morning after headache were instigated. One of these was to poor some cleaning fluids down the inside of a very cold steel pipe! It is not hard to get the pipe cold enough, with minus thirty degrees in winter the ambient temperature was perfect. As the cleaning fluid flows down the inside of the steel pipe, it freezes to the walls, leaving the alcohol ingredient to continue to the bottom and the waiting bottle beneath! Another method used to get high was to pour a tin of Brasso (brass metal polish) through a loaf of bread to extract the alcohol base.

Even in Newcastle, England where the cost of alcohol was prohibitive to some, methods were found to continue the habit! One seafarer told me that this drunk used to step into Boots (the large chain selling everything from soap to condoms), open up a test bottle of 'Old Spice' aftershave and swig the lot! He might have been drunk, but by god he smelt nice!

The simple rule of prohibiting alcohol onboard vessels does not make people stop drinking! I take for example a group of Russian seafarers who took to extremes their determination to continue a lifelong habit. As I have mentioned previously drink onboard ships was typically duty free and thus cheaper. If seafarers have to go ashore to buy their booze they will most likely aim for the cheapest bottle available, it's not quality that matters here it's quantity. These Russian seafarers went ashore one fine day to stock their larders! In the shop they came a cross a large five liter container that had "alcohol, 95%" written on it and nothing else indicative of the contents. Whether this substance was based on hops, berries or grapes, was anybodies guess - it was cheap, strong, easily transportable and in front of them so nobody cared! They drank themselves stupid on this stuff! They mixed it with water, they mixed it with fruit juices and they drank it neat! What did they care! They drank it onboard against all vessel rules and I'm sure they enjoyed every single minute of it.

By turning once social and wet ships into dry ships the word "play" has been taken out of the equation. No longer is there a drink avialable to instigate dialogue amongst newcomers, no longer can the hair be let down and the job forgotten about, just for that little while. Now seafarers are being forced into social recluse, each with their own laptop, each passing their servitude onboard without resort to laughter or smile and each very much alone in thought! I don't want to promote drink as a base for acceptable social behavior. Then again, I will be the first to admit that life with the freedom to drink or not to drink is far better and viable option than the abrupt "you will not drink" policy. I have experienced both over the last twenty years and I prefer the former, I prefer to have the choice! Whether or not companies roll out 'no drinking laws' ships will still sail into piers with sizzled captains at the helm, engines will still be overhauled entirely by engineers with their eyes shut and drink induced fights will still occur!

Just a final point! If ship-owners were required to enforce their no drinking laws, maybe through spot breath checks, (or by dawn raids on cabins for hidden substances) the whole world's merchant fleet would come to a grinding halt! An estimated two thirds of crews would be at fault, either through getting totally pissed ashore and sailing out of port sizzled, having a bottle or two tucked away under the mattress for a rainy day or through actually drinking some onboard. What are you going to do? Sack them all? I don't think so.