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Constant Herfst
(born 1960) is a captain with MF Shipping Group. He commands product tankers on routes between the UK and Ireland. Since 2019, he's represented employees on the pension fund’s Pension Council on behalf of the captains' association. Constant wrote this column in a personal capacity.
Culture riding the waves
When I was only six, I already knew I wanted to be involved with ships. After primary school, my parents sent me to junior secondary school, but through the good offices of the headteacher I was fortunately allowed to attend the Oranje Nassau School for coastal, Rhine, and inland navigation in Harlingen. It was a totally different culture to the West Frisian middle-class community that I came from. Looking back, I found it incredibly impressive how the boatmen managed to keep all the pupils in line. It was a good education, and I have fond memories of it.
My first job was totally different – a huge failure. I found myself in a culture based entirely on appearances: the skipper thought the most important thing was the neat-and-tide image that the ship presented to the outside world. It was all about scrubbing, swabbing, and polishing until you almost dropped, with lousy, cheap food to eat.
‘So just what do you want,’ asked my dad. I wanted to be an officer out at sea, preferably on a sea-going tug. I was assigned to a Wagenborg ship, as a trainee seaman. Two guys from Cape Verde, George and Alcides, took care of me like seafarer fathers. It was hard work, but for me it was just the right thing.
Two guys from Cape Verde, George and Alcides, took care of me like seafarer fathers. For me, it was just the right thing
After my time as a seaman and then another course of maritime training, I was taken on by Seatrade. That was 'us against the rest of the world'. Sailing to West Africa, especially Nigeria, was a job passed down from father to son as a kind of an art. In the ports, we were confronted by theft, corruption, extortion, and unwarranted fines. In our struggle against the outside world, we sometimes felt totally miserable and alone, and that led to us building up really strong bonds with one another.
Meanwhile, there was a new wind blowing in the world of merchant shipping – the accountants were taking over. Quality systems were introduced, with stacks of files and spreadsheets with inspections. We found ourselves in a culture of suspicion. We now have to show that maintenance has been carried out, with photos to prove it. But of course things sometimes still go wrong. With a lot of contract workers in the sector, it's often difficult to uncover the truth. They sometimes keep their cards close to their chest; after all, they could lose their job. Fortunately, it has changed now into a no-blame culture – you don't just look at who did something wrong, but what it was that went wrong. Unfortunately though, people are often secretly judged harshly for their mistakes anyway. It would be a good thing if we did that a bit less. ←