MAMA SAN'S PLACE

February 04, 2018 Sunday

Location : Incheon, Korea

After the long wait for an approval on my shore leave ., I finally got the chance to roam around again in south Korea after three months. Honestly I think it’s a bit unfair that I have to wait for a month just to get a chance on shore leave in the first place, its totally a bummer that this is the procedure in Shell / Nakilat principal and very repressing.

Anyway I'm not surprised that this will be case given that SHELL is a "Perfectionist" kind of principal and that terms here are rarely fair to Filipino's and this includes shore leaves. In reality a sailor working here wouldn't enjoy his work at all because of the so many restrictions.

I remember back when I was in the Oil tanker type of ship ., there is rarely any restrictions on shore leave and that almost everyone is allowed as long as they arrive on time before the ship leaves. Absolutely almost everything there was very easy to handle., and it’s very different on what shore leave is in LNG ships.

Since I finally got to roam to south Korea ., my main goal to find some part replacements for my Nintendo Switch and second objective is to get at least some memory upgrades in SD card for my Nintendo Switch as well. Third objective is to find antibiotics for my recent skin infection (Boil) to be specific I have to find amoxicillin. There were four of us who finally got a chance on shore leave and was dropped off on a store called "Seaman's Center" ., It's not actually a seaman's Center - just a store named on it., ( the real Seaman's Center is actually just on the other side of the street) .

We never actually got to roam around Incheon due to weather problems and its still too damn cold (as in -4 degress celcius) to stay out outside so most of the time on shore leave was spent in a subway dealing with an Indian cellphone dealer., (which Oiler Danilo is annoying., and his chat dealings with the Indian goes on like forever) .

the remaining half an hour was spent in a small mall called "Emart" which for I wasn’t able to get amoxicillin antibiotics for my ongoing skin infection (Boil), I assume that probably buying antibiotics here in south Korea needed a prescription and that the pharmacy store there is basically has nothing important in their shelves compared to small pharmacies store's in the Philippines which I can buy antibiotics almost practically everywhere without prescriptions.

While buying a few chocolates on the small supermart ., a Korean cashier probably mistook me to be Korean looking from my haggard pale look (must have been my ongoing bad skin infection) and asked me where I'm from., I replied I was from the philippines.

Just to mention ., On the way to Emart - we practically circled around than going on to the usual route because Oiler "Danilo's" meddling on which direction we should go., we almost went way off on the path and was already near a ferry passenger terminal.

 When we got on the rendevouz area (mama's sans place) it was around 7pm. A.B. "Mario Manalo" mention that internet connection on Mama San's place was strong and fast enough to accommodate downloads so I immediately wasted no time and quickly put up my Nintendo switch to download some games I bought on the Eshop and as what they said , internet in korea is really fast AS A HUNDRED TIMES FASTER THAN IN THE PHILIPPINES. In the span of thirty minutes I was able to finish the downloads on two games that I bought "Pokken tournament" (pokemon fighting game) and Voez (a music game) ., If I only knew that internet here in mama san's place was this fast - I could have arrived a bit earlier to finish off some heavy download games which I still have on my Nintendo.  Probably If I had arrived earlier I could have finished downloading "Skyrim" game on Nswitch.

Most memory upgrades I got was from mama san's store. The 64GB SD Card, although it not enough or suitable for my Gaming console it is however perfect for my other mobile gadgets like tablet and Action camera.

At around 7.30pm we were picked up by the bus and was put straight back to the ship.  When we returned I was told by BOSUN Berlix to take a rest for about 6 hours then be on the deck watch at 4am to 8am in the morning.

FIRE SAFETY HAZARD

JOURNAL ENTRY : January 25 2018, Thursday

For the moment , I had now been enjoying the full extent of online banking and checking on my account details and doing some money transfers. Imagine I'm doing a financial transactions using my mobile phone or computer on what should be done in a bank.

Internet banking and Mobile phone banking is been around in the Philippines for more than a decade and yet here in the maritime industry ., it is still unheard of and probably is still a new concept. Some of my crewmates here never even heard of it , or practically never knew it existed at all.

It may take a while for the general population of seafarers in the maritime industry to fully be even aware on this kind of Financial technology since internet onboard ships is still newly introduced.

Now for the moment , it looks like that my regular allotment salary for me hasn’t arrived yet even though its already the 25th of this month. (Delayed salary perhaps ??) . I had been checking it via mobile banking and verified it again via internet banking and the results ended up the same., - The salary hasn’t been wired transferred yet.

What could be cause of the delay ?

In other news related

"GADGETS ARE TO BE INSPECTED DURING CABIN INSPECTION"

Seriously ??? Even my personal electronics are to be checked this time around ? Apparently the longer I'm staying here in this ship (and in general in UPL - Shell / Nakilat ) Their "safety" polices keeps getting worse and more bizarre. Honestly I don’t see the point on why they have to check my personal belonging which includes my electronic gadgets.

I do know their looking for fire safety hazard but checking my electronic gadgets is a bit over the top and from what I'm looking at its already a violation of my privacy and civil rights.  I'm not comfortable some person is just simply barging around the cabin inspecting and looking on my personal belongings and effects.  Even if its for the sake of so called "fire safety hazard" .

In other news

A Filipino Superintendent boarded this ship back in Lass Raffan and now is conducting some sort of "motivational" lectures to the whole crew. During those meeting session he explains the working culture in this principal

GETTING ON MY SKIN

Journal entry : January 15, 2018 Monday

It's just only been at least 11 days since my last entry but it felt like I haven't wrote anything for month. Time for the moment seems to passes slowly on this ship., and it's because of the work environment of "every day is Monday" here.

On the past few days , this ship berthed on its home port on Rass Laffan, Qatar and I went on a shore leave which turned out to be a total waste of time and was not allowed to even go outside the port facility and go to Doha. Basically we were just in the Seaman's Center and stayed there wasting time.

I was hoping that I could really get out the port and buy some stuff on the local mall (mostly electronic stuff) , but apparently it was disappointing and I would be better off staying with the ship and sleeping.

On recent news ….

Relations with Filipino crew members are getting sour ., and I haven't faced any situation like this since Stolt Strength and Cape Tallin. Got me caught off hand honestly , never saw it coming.

Two incidents at least that I had been at odd with them , and the most recent annoyance I had with them is on the fire drill. Which they kept pressuring me to wear a fireman's outfit and when the time came that I was wearing one , I was being heavily criticized about what I'm and heard some unnecessary bitching comments from A.B. "Wendel"  saying "is that what your previous ship crew does when you have fire drill"

I mean "What the fuck !!????" 

If I knew this would have happened , I shouldn't have bothered going with it in the first place - such ungrateful sons of bitches !!!! The fireman's suit was uncomfortable to wear (at least in tropical weather in Singapore area) especially during an outside temperature of 35 degrees Celsius. The mask was so airtight that I have problems breathing with it and nearly panicked when I almost suffocated, (which they had to actually switch on the oxygen tank for me ). Anyway I really had regrets of wearing the suit and from now I'd just stick to my muster list duties and won't go beyond that , to avoid bitching from these folks. 

SOME GOOD NEWS

JOURNAL ENTRY DATE : January 04, 2018 Thursday

Not all in this ship (and working practices ) is bad. On the recent safety meeting .,  Captain KOLANOVIC said that dry dock (ship repairs) will be delayed and that it will be around august.,

Upon hearing that I was relieved, and in some extent grateful that by the time this happens , I will be long and gone on UPL Shell / Nakilat . I don’t have to worry to go thru that kind of trouble, especially if the management terribly sucks like this one. For now I'm more than happy that dry dock of this ship will not happen within my contract length and whoever some unfortunately fucker stumbles upon this situation in Nakilat , he is in for a job in his life.

As for the role of the Riding crew here, I'm not sure how things will go on this point probably from what I heard , they'd just let the "Riding crew" finish the contract and let us off the hook (which suits me fine) ., or a rumour I heard from A.B. Art that we will be transferred to another ship midway on the contract and relived this awful workplace one more time, at least for the remainder of the contract.

Anyway its none of my business as long as I get the fuck out of UPL Shell / Nakilat as soon as possible., be off the road again and search for another company with pleasant work environment suitable enough to sustain my career. 

A WHOLE NEW YEAR AGAIN

Entry log : January 03, 2017 Monday

Location : Somewhere in Sri lanka, Enroute to Ras Laffan Qatar

Another year went and has come to pass again. For the moment New Year's celebration here on board this ship is dry as a Sahara Desert, No celebrations , No parties - Nothing whatsoever. Basically throws off international tradition and holiday out of the window. It was just a plain old ordinary "rest day".

Anyway it's not surprising because this is an Arab ship and Arab's and Muslim's disregard International and Christian holidays, but to think this is a SHELL company management (for all its reputation) and ignore New Year is definitely a big surprise. To make it more worse the management here is "Indian" which doesn’t care less about Filipino Folks

Late in the afternoon on January 01, The Management here did gave a giveaway digital watch and Maglite flash light , just to avoid the embarrassment of having nothing for new year's eve. Kind of like a patch up for the doing nothing at new year's day.

Whatever the case I had already made up my mind not to stay here on this company and principal, its because of this that I'm not staying,  Working practices here are too difficult - too uncomfortable to work with.     

In other news ., I've heard that the next ship captain here will be Indian (oh no ) and from the description of how Bosun Berlix describes it , it looks like it's not a good news . Apparently from what I heard , this ship captain is a company man and hates any form of alcohol content stuff. Crew who are caught inside their cabin to have any stuff that have even the smallest content like rubbing alcohol, mouthwash etc.,. will be immediately fired from the job , (the excuse of summary dismissal is "Violation of Alcohol policy") .

To avoid any entanglements until I finished my contract., I have to hide my rubbing alcohol and mouth wash for the time being until this incoming Indian captain gets off this ship (or I get out of this ship) . But thinking about this policy , I don’t see the logical reason why such items should be banned , after all rubbing alcohol is used medically for treating wounds for eons now and mouth wash is medically used also for disinfectant (getting rid of halitosis).

Just because he thinks he's the captain - he thinks he's so smart, high and mighty  but in reality he's just a normal Seafarer asshole and another Indian ignorant, after all He is a Ship captain , NOT A CHEMIST and NEVER A SCIENTIST. Stereotype seafarers , pitiful and thinks he knows everything in the world.

Another bad news I could write about is that the Indian electrician broke the elevator ., the elevator was working fine until this rats ass Indian electrician messed it up during his so called "maintenance" . Now as a result I am now forced to walk and go up and down on the stairs ways every now and then, it would be fine if this ship is just only a four story building like in most liquid tankers but on my case at the moment , this ship is a seven story height on the accommodation block alone (and more starting from the engine room and up) , so it’s not easy to endure on my knee's using the stairways often. Especially when I'm doing my laundry at 2am in the morning .
 

Working here keeps getting worse., and my only hope now is to reach the completion of the contract within 6 months or less., to get out of this company and principal  

SUBJECT FOR APPROVAL

Entry log : December 18, 2017 Wednesday

There is some good news that arrived

Earlier I was worried that my U.S. Dollar Account wasn't working and that I might be forced to get my salary via cash advance only . Good thing my worries was proved wrong and that my salary was wired transfer to my account which I verified using online banking . Its relieving to hear that my U.S. Dollar bank account is doing fine.

 Latest news on work is that I won't be allowed on shore leave for korea and that I didn’t made it on the criteria and from what I experienced here going on shore leave here is pretty much selected and is subjected for approval.  Subjected for approval ???? What the fuck was that supposed to mean ? I wasn’t a seafarer yesterday and as far as I can remember on my previous ships everyone is allowed to go out as long as time allows it and does not violate any working schedules.,

Life here keeps getting worse as time goes on. They may be technologically advance on some levels but there work practices and how the way they treat their crew is like shit. So anyway that leaves me with zero chance of going out and I have to wait for a month at least to be considered to be allowed on shore leave and it is still yet subject for approval.

As far as I know ., it’s a seafarers rights (and practice) to have a shore leave and this is already an ancient tradition covering hundreds if not a thousand years of seafaring practice.,  ITF has said now that shore leave is a seafarers rights ., the Seamans club and seaman's union in germany says the same as well . However in Shell / Nakilat - this company apparently detains crew and as much as possible refrains crew from taking shore leave. They don’t say this publicly but from their actions its basically just detaining crews in a less obvious manner and method.

Hi tech as it may sound but the thought of someone monitoring your every move on work is a bit stressful ., on this ship every corner has a CCTV to monitor on how crew members work . 

THE DEATH NOTE

JOURNAL ENTRY DATE : December 7, 2017 Thursday

Although it dangerous to be carrying around electronic items , not because it was a safety hazard - but more of a professional hazard. From what I could tell anyone caught having an electronic device outside the accommodation could lead to summary dismissal from work (fired immediately). Especially the "zero" tolerance policy of Shell / Nakilat and to ensure that everyone follows this , almost the whole part of the ship and working area are littered with CCTV's (closed circuit camera) to ensure complete monitoring at all times.

I'm planning in bring outside a small camera , not exactly the typical digital camera but a smaller version. Fortunately for me I have a Liquid image type action camera which I could use originally as an action camera which can be used to take pictures. It small and portable enough to go almost unnoticed but I have to do first is memorize the control on how to take pictures. And if I goes operational I should avoid the CCTV's while taking pictures

On the early morning during the tool box talk , (some sort of meeting before work). The pilot ladder rigging issue on the pilot access was brought up again, and given with its fault finding culture here Bosun berlix is looking for someone to blame rather than make solutions , the same goes as well on A.B. "wendel" . Algerian Chief mate says that it doesn’t matter who's fault it was but what matters is what will be the solution now that the pilot ladder was discovered broken. I just listening amused (and somewhat pity) on how pathetic my fellow Filipino crew mates react on blaming equipment failure to other people and everyone is giving a lot of excuses on it and not going on solutions.  Really pathetic !!!

Working relations here now are starting to get worse all the time., One such  example is my recent entanglement with my job which unfortunately unable to finish in time. My current work at that time was the simple chipping and polishing of rusted areas, Sounds pretty simple but the problem was that some of the areas were not painted well . Why ? Because most of them were not simply finished - not chipped nor polished with a wire brush - so I simply didn’t paint them. Now I'm being questioned by Bosun Berlix and lectures me, worst part is my co-worker O.S. Pomaran who also working on the same site also joined in lecturing me and even blamed me on the same thing. What the fuck ?!!

People here are such back stabber's and fault blamers. I kept silent on what they were saying but my eyes sent message that I was furious on them and just a vengeance I was ignoring them all the time.

In other news….

The recent crew "safety meeting" introduced us to a new (deficiency reporting) system to nakilat said to be replacing from the old "512" form of shell and P.I. System (preventive intervention system). On the meeting , it describes that this new "inspire" system is just a rehashed more complicated version of "512" and "P.I." , basically its just the same and the only difference is that it only add a comment remark - just the same old deadly version , but different variant. A small piece of note pad paper were people get fired - yes kind of a real world version of "Death Note" (anime)

To tell the "512" system of shell and "P.I." is an anonymous reporting system were employees get fired, almost anyone can report a person whom they find to be performing (or using ) Unsafe equipment or practices. Any person who gets reported , has this note directly forwarded to the principal (meaning shell and not UPL) and will be subjected to summary dismissal for accusations of being "unsafe" . The principal (shell) will not hear to the accused of his statement and be fired immediately.

Honestly what kind of company tolerates this kind of practice were you have to back stab people ? They say according to their propaganda that they value "safety culture" , yes that's a point but do they value they employee's right ? From what looking they just find people to be very expendable - and from my personal opinion this system will not earn the respect of employee's and they will only just work because of the fear and terror factor.

From all the thing that Shell / Nakilat brags about and would be inventing. This so called "insipre" , 512 or P.I. whatever is the most useless of all . Funny that they always brags about having the latest and advance safety equipment and even technologically advance ships but from what im seeing right now , is that they only invented a piece of paper that is not "professionally safe" at all. Whoever invented this is barely passable as a human when it comes to thinking as an inventor. Totally worthless piece of shit  ! And misallocated company funds ! They even bragged that this form is small enough to fit in a pocket to be carried everywhere (which I find totally irrelevant ).

Good thing for me , This is Shell / Nakilat and not the "main fleet' of shell ., were this is mandatory (and they do check , to see the crew complies)

After the said safety meeting., it was still about 15 to 20 minutes left before work is over for the day and I can't believe that we still have to be sent back , as if like Shell / Nakilat is going to lose a lot of corporate money if I just missed out only 15 minutes of work time.  

FAULT FINDING CULTURE

Entry log : December 04, 2017 Monday

Location : Ras Laffan Qatar

A few more days and I will be going now for a month here., and the ship has now berthed to Rass Raffan Qatar after almost a two week long travel.  Mooring wasn't that complicated, this LNG ship uses Rope for the mooring and all of them are dedicated for headline , breast line and spring lines. Absolutely no loose ropes for the mooring ops. The mooring is so easy even for liquid tanker standards.

Currently I'm assigned for the gangway and was surprised that handling it was more complicated than I thought it would be.

First off people have are obsessed on details even down to the minute. I can't imagine that (Filipino) crew here pressures to remember even names of the person who visited the ship and on top of that I have to even memorize how many tags are there currently on the ISPS box. ( Which is 15 visitor tags, and another 15 contractor tags). People here are so exaggeratedly on almost everything and if even I miss a small detail, I have to go the trouble of arguing and even explaining it - plus to make it more complicated is the fact that my fellow crew men here have a nasty habit of finding out whose fault it was and blaming it to other people rather than solving the problem head on. Such example was early morning when I immediately greeted with scolding by A.B. Patel, over a small lapse on visitors tags. And it only takes 3 tags for that fucker to be fired up like i made a mortal sin in writing it mistakenly on the Visitors log. It's no big deal for me but for them it's like someday is going to end the world.

Another thing that happened is the 3cm errors I made in reading the ships alignment on the shore side ., The officer's freaked out on my reading and even some of co-workers during the ship that they had to frequently lecture me about it . Unbelievable !!! It's just 3 cm and a person's thumb is even bigger than that gap measurement and yet they react that it's as big as a whale.

Anyway it's easier for them to blame the fault on other people , just to save their own skin from being fired. After all the System here doesn't tolerate even the smallest mistake and its takes only that to be fired instantly without fair judgment. Workers here work because of fear , not for money or for a comfortable environment, but because they're scared of being fired and it’s a very poor motivation.  

I'm ashamed that my fellow Filipino sailors here have degenerated so low. Rather than making a positive and welcoming environment for new crew , they end up dumping their own work problems to the new guys. Plus taking advantage of it. Such an unnatural perfectionist people ! Really pathetic ! And I'm not surprised that most of their younger crew fled out on this company because of this kind of working environment. Their work ethics and work practices are like the seafarers of the old ., Its amazing that despite the modernist of today's era in seafaring like the millennia's generation (and entire generation of seafarers that are exposed to social media etc.) ., there still exist a dark spot and it is UPL - Shell / Nakilat . 

NEAR DISCLOSURE

Entry log : December 02, 2017 Saturday

Location : Enroute to Qatar

"I advise anyone reading this that United Philippines Lines (UPL) / Shell - Nakilat principal to stay away from this company as much as possible because of Overly Exaggerated Oversafety Issues and Extremely uncomfortable to work. Any Seafarer Violating their rules will be subjected to Summary being fired from the Job without hearing their side even on petty offenses." 

Another much to my annoyance on Shell / Nakilat Rules. According to them even slightly tampering or any small slicing the coverall is prohibited - In other words I can't wear them and its "unsafe". Even if the slice on the coverall is 5cm on the side pockets and I do it because I need to let the air in on my coveralls for ventilation especially on this kind of weather. (qatar area)

The problem with Shell / Nakilat is their "Over safety" issue , which is feeding more on their problems than solving it. Given with their "Over safety" rule it even affects their flexibility work tactics severely, to the point that working on their ships is extremely comfortable despite being modern and advance. Their mentality and way of think is so backward that its already considered unfit and unsafety on the modern day seafaring. Any person violating their dogmatic oppressive "over safety" rules will be subjected to being report on the principal (employer) and face summary dismissal (fired from work) immediately and without due process.

Funny , Its never occurred to me (or even though) that they system here is still the  old seafaring ways. Despite having MLC / ILO implementation worldwide, UPL / Shell - Nakilat still remains on backward and left out on the modern world. Their old ways still get to fire people on the job without due process on petty offenses or  because they simply didn’t like the person.  

The Filipino crew here are no different from any typical old generation seafarer's I've encountered long ago  . ARROGANT , COCKY AND IGNORANT as usual.

In other news ….

This ship had recently a safety meeting at the recreation room , nothing special and just the normal talk and stuff until the newly arrived electrician mentioned something about some crew who were not in "proper" safety gear in the pilot access (not wearing safety harness and life vest) . Considering that this is shell / nakilat principal which they have a super exaggerated over policy issues  , It is a big deal for them and considered a grave offense ( enough to be fired ). The electrician is exactly pointing out the details about the pilot access area in which me and A.B. Ronnie were attending at during that moment.

Of course I kept silent given that this new electrician cannot positively identify me  after all I was wearing a bonnet and on top of that most new joiner's will cannot facially recognize crew until after a few days .

Whatever the situation maybe , its certain that it will brew trouble.

RECEIVING FLAK

Entry log : November 29, 2017 Wednesday

Location : Enroute to Qatar

Disappointments have put me off lately., not with work (well most of it) but to some of my so called "friends" on the social media., Recently I had been posting a lot of negative stuff about my employer UPL Shell / Nakilat and as a result two of my former friends (that what I call them now) has said to me that I should keep my mouth shut because I deserve it and I signed the contract willingly, and have just ignore it or deal with it. Another one also said (an Oiler) that there nothing much I can do about it.

WHAT THE FUCK ?!!!!! Do they even know how difficult it is to work with so many restriction ?! Easy for them to say because they never have been on a tight ass security all their seafaring lives' and they perfectly live on their very own happiness bubble. I'm disappointed on them that they could have been at least sympathetic on this rather than immediately side with Companies., They should have at least put themselves on my shoes. - Totally frustrating that there are people like that, a bunch of cowards and company loving folks.

Anyway were Filipino's seafarer's , it's pretty much normal / typical for a Filipino sailor to be a company booth licker - probably on the fact that most of them are a bunch of cowards when they're already questioning the policies of any shipping companies. The Seafaring world of Filipino's is not exactly democratic even on the social media , almost everything is always suppress., here almost everything is free to criticize except "shipping companies" - which some even consider above the law.

Anyway I don’t want to continue to write about those former unsympathetic friends of mine , I'd just simply drop them off on my friends list and that will be the end of it .

In other news …..

Recently during the tool box meeting this morning , it was a discussion about whether the "Riding Party" this ship has (which includes me) will be used for mooring operations and during cargo ops as well. Based on the latest decision made by the captain .,  The "Riding party" (maintenance party) will not be used during that and only regular crew will be on the mooring. As for the Cargo Operations (ship in port) it is still not yet settled but is rumored that "Riding party" will only do the usual day work maintenance stuff.

Guess it means that as a riding crew I'm permanently stuck being on day work which suit's me fine if not best. I have less things to worry about and besides ., I'm not enjoying my work here as well because of too many restrictions. It's just suffocating for me and from my initial analysis the working environment here is too "rigid" and intolerant for me to professionally grow - resulting for me to lose interest in even pursuing to settle here. I'm not even expecting that my evaluation reports (or grades here) will be that high for re-employment., and I won't bother if that is the case, I just want to finish my contract and have no incidents and be back on the road again to find another suitable company . UPL - Shell / Nakilat is not worth the effort, plain and simple. A Company of tight asses !!!

So most likely I'd be doing chipping rust , polishing metal surfaces and painting plus occasional random maintenance work for the rest of six months. Nothing fancy and nothing labor intensive, the only real challenge will be most likely the rumored "Dry Docking" of this ship which will be labor work intensive.

Another rumor I heard on the treadmill was there's a possibility of a "Riding crew" rotation for the O.S. when it comes to watch keeping. Anyway it's still being considered from what I heard , so it's not confirmed yet. What I do know is that O.S. Hesus Pamorada will be swapping roles on deck watchkeep to O.S. "Jerson" by beginning December. Maybe for these two O.S. will be swapping roles on the best of my knowledge, but on my case I think I'm staying as O.S. for the maintenance and don’t mind staying there for a very good reason.

Why the hell would I be working on the job description that is for an A.B. . As far as I know , UPL - Shell / Nakilat is just short changing people on salaries. Imagine I'm doing a job that is an A.B. Unofficially and yet my salary is base as an O.S. plus on top of that I'm officially an O.S. by papers and contract. My salary is just 1129 U.S. here and I will be forced to do work as an A.B. Compared to back when I was with Career NSB where I'm paid higher (1400 U.S.D.) as an O.S. and don’t even have to do a job as an A.B. . As far as I'm concerned UPL - Shell / Nakilat is just paying me short. If they want me to be interested they should paid me a little bit more for my efforts , otherwise I'd just think that they're just scamming me and cheating on the crew -

(problem with an elderly Filipino sailors is that mostly they swindle on work and deceit their fellow younger sailors , like for example your being paid as an O.S. and yet doing work as an A.B. . The A.B. gets to do almost nothing and yet be paid regular as an A.B. , while the O.S. gets to be forced to do his work because of deception and be only paid in salary scale as an O.S. and not as an A.B. )