Life as a Cheap Slave?

The very first time I went onboard my first ship, I seriously don't know anything. I thought life's onboard a merchant navy ship is exactly like a navy ship. I thought that I'll be working so hard like 24 hours a day, no camaraderie, no socializing, and all sort of negative things cause when I was in my first year, my seniors used to fed me with all the bad and negative things about their cadetship life. So I expected the worst and it turns out that life's onboard is not bad at all :) I learnt a lot. All the crew and my officer treat me professionally like an officer. My captain and officers trusted me a lot too, they even let me do a solo watch. When we were transisting Singapore/Malacca strait, my captain and officers even asked me to take action. It was an unforgettable moments of my life. The ship was like my second home. The sea was like my playground and the peoples were like my family. All I can say that my first ship was the best.

From left: Bosun, me, oiler and DC Suffer from Singapore

That's me, the lady on the right is my 3/O wife and those two kids are my captain's children

From left: 3/O Irfan,Suffer, 3/O Fares and me!

Talking about my second ship. Only one word can describe it. HELL. Sorry for my language but it was the worst 7 months of my life. A lot of bad things happened there. It was a nightmare. I rarely eat. I barely sleep. Sometimes in one day I  work for almost 18 hours. I lose my weight up to 48 kg. Can you imagine that sometimes in one day , I just drink 5 cans of cokes and didn't consume any food at all? I was really a cheap slave back then. I chipped and painted the deck every single day and doing watch at the same time too. Sooooooo exhausting. Can't even study though. The management was not really good too. The hell life went on for almost 6 months. But as the old folks says, there's always a rainbow after rain. And yes, at the end of my seatime, I met with the most awesome captain ever! The best captain I'll ever meet! In just a short time , I learnt a lot from him. He inspired me to get my class 1 and I hope that one day I'll get to show my class 1 ticket to him :D

That's him! The most awesome captain ever!

So after all life's onboard is really one of a kind moment. It's like a turning point of my life too. I regret nothing in my life even if those memories were full of hurt and pain,  I still look back and smile because it made me who I am today.