The voyage that I had been forced to
undertake was a mixture of joy, novelty, loneliness and melancholy of a
sea-men. During those periods, I used to write long emails to some friends,
a part of a promise as well as a means to keep myself engaged. Below is
the text written at the insistence of the Commandant of the ship Monsieur
Francis L'Agrippe, an officer of France Telcom Marine. The text
is an excerpt from all the random thoughts that came
to my mind during the stay of more than two weeks in high-seas.
Dear Readers, this is my first time on-board and that
too in a mission and I was little overwhelmed. CS Vercors seemed huge at
the berth at Cochin but while it slowly crossed the known port of Cochin
and ventured into the waters of the Arabian Sea, a land-creature like me
shivered. It is something like a plate of blue and our ship seemed like
a toy. It was a lesson in humility. Initial euphoria being over, I settled
down in my cabin and found a very important signal - ......._______ 7 short
pulses followed by a long beep. A signal meaning - ABANDON SHIP. I hope
no captain in the world wants to press those buttons nor any crew wants
to hear those beeps in their whole lifetime at sea. The smell and ambience
of the ship is unmistakably French - the effiminate decor, the glorious
kitchen with fresh coffee smell, a menu hung at the wall where dishes sound
more like the name of a novel or a movie than eatables and the final and
mother of all sauces - Bon Appétit. A good chef understands that
Hunger is the best sauce and I think that translates into something like
- May you have a good hunger. Another thing I noticed that mystic love
of the crews for their language and you should have tremendous control
over tone to speak exquisite French. I remember a story I read in my school
where a student of Alsace finds that instead of French, German will be
taught at school. In the story entitled, he says, crying - Vive La France.
While I made a tour at the ship, I visited wheel-room and the Bridge. Behind
the wheel-room ( a matter of tradition - where a wheel is kept and is the
central command and control centre for a ship with RADAR, GPS and other
navigational data and propulsion parameters) is the map room where all
the seas of the earth are neatly tucked under mahagonhy drawers. The map
or chart tables are so big as to accomodate 20 people in dinner and the
cartographic maps are beautiful. Then there are weather reports, ship movements,
pirate alerts, storm warning, undersea profile and other navigational data.
I just wonder of those intrepid courageous men who have navigated unknown
seas of the world with sail and mast, hope and greed, excitement and avarice,
power to dominate and the power to explore. I saw a small fishing boat
at night _ no radio, no communication and only hope, Mother Courage. History
of navigation is history of mobile geography - the gyre which has unwound
to give new geographies, which in turn put prpopelling terms to historians
fancy- The New World, Ex Orientè Lux, Dark Continent, Ivory Coast,
Cape of Good Hope, Colonies and Colonialism, Slave Trade, Imperialist exploration
and cross-cultural contact which produced results which none have the fullest
idea and in short, those navigational charts, over centuries have shaped
our historical and cultural destiny. I was also thinking that the mission
of cable lating that we are doing now and which I think will connect Asia
and Africa through hi-speed optical cable is also a continuation of that
urge to connect, to know and to communicate. It is a continuation of the
spirit of those navigators who have kindled the inspiration of authors
and poets of greatest gifts - Captain Nemo and his Nautilas, Dante and
Homer with the story of Ulyssess's voyages in all seas and so on. The name
of the ship is NC VERCORS ( Navaire Cablier or Cable Ship ) derives from
the the name of a French writer who flourished during the Occupation of
France by Germany during 1939-44), as told to me by one of the officers
on-board. Other ships are named Fresnel, Rene Decartes, Ampere - all French
philosophers and scientists. What a wonderful tribute to Rene Decartes,
without whose co_ordinate geometry, navigation would have been in its infancy.
I think thanks are due to those people responsible for the nomenclature
of the ships. I wish the next ship may be named Nautilas or Jules Verne.
A glorious Sunset at Indian Ocean, taken from the side-deck of CS-Vercors
Our mission was silk smooth until the fifth day when there
was a cut detected at the cable. The whole operation got delayed by five
days. However, all is well that ends well and we successfully completed
the laying operations with weather remaining thankfully steady. But during
those period I understood that boredom, lethargy and melancholy are strongest
enemies of a mariner, stronger than bad weather. There has to be a perpetual
mental struggle to remain out of the reach of that melancholy - the sireni
song of Lotus Eaters. French wines on board and in general, deserve mention.
Wine, I presume is not only fermented alcohol of different colours in a
bottle but is a bottled memory or Memory of a bottle. Thus while I sip
white wine of Burgandy in the salon (in small pre-lunch apéritif
) and wonder - the hands that plucked those grapes can be anywhere now
- in youth, in middle age or who knows in the grave. But the wine is a
great preserver of Memory, memories to rememeber and perhaps, memories
to forget. We, in India also have our memory preserver - our pickles. In
this great art, we have prisoned seasons of the year into bottles and its
an art no less complex and awe-inspiring than making of mummies by those
Egyptian priests. Wine and Pickles remain seems to me man's one of the
successful attempts to fight the fever of forgetfulness. The crews in the
ship speak considerably good English and overall, communication is no problem.
They are also very helpful and to an inexperienced man like me they were
singularly helpful. Merci to all of them. Now, I mention about Captain
of the ship, the Purser and the Doctor, each one requires individual mention.
The Captain is a widely read in history, science and is very eager to know
about other culture and customs and also with a wonderful sense of humour.
Next is the Purser, who while smokes his Romeo and Julietta cigar with
his gold chains shining, I feel Marlon Brando would have had a run for
his money in The Godfather . And the young doctor of 64 year old educates
me about French literature and have a very sharp and occasionaly érotique
humour. Once in front of a snake-charmer in India, he ooffers fifty dollars
to the charmer to make the same thing happen to his genital as the snake.
I wonder what was the charmer's response. His manners are so animate that
I told him perhaps that what has been a gain for the ship may be a loss
for Parissene stage. I think that made him very happy. Our Captain has
a credo of moderation in everything and this young man is fond of conversation,
which he calls Communion - a very secular and liberal interpretation. I
will always remember a picturesque description for people whose teptation
for food is high - They are digging their graves by their teeth.
And Quite flows the Wine...
Merci. Au Revoir.
Thanks to all of you for listening a long monologue for
so long a period and I dont know whether it has done anything to your spirit
but to me, it has been a great booster to my melancholic idleness that
some ppl whom I know must be reading this.
regards,
wordsmith
6 deg 12 min lat N
92 deg 1 min long E
On board CS Vercors on 05/05/2001 Ship time 1330 Hours