Another wonderful day for the guests to enjoy. For a cruise this late in the season it is shaping up to be a very good one. A pity about cancelling the first port, Bar Harbor, but wind can happen anytime of the year and is not really related to this time of the year here. But it is dry and sunny every day and that is something to be very happy with.
I did not see much of that sunshine today as I was buried deep in the dungeons of the ship, where we have a training room for the crew. Today was Examination Day for my students with a total of 33 “graduating” in the fascinating science of how to lower a lifeboat, how to keep those inside alive until being rescued, and the most recent addition to this, how to keep up the morale up of those inside that boat. The 33 included 9 different nationalities and each nationality comes a different way of looking at exams and reacting to it. Each race, each nationality has a different way of reacting and as a teacher or in this case an examiner you have to be in tune with that.
Running a Western European style of doing an exam only works in Western Europe. Some of the crew will freeze up completely when it comes to a formal approach, when during one session you have to show that you know-it-all. When that happens, people will fail who in reality know everything and thus you eliminate a crewmember who would do very well but stumbles over that one exam.
What I have been doing in this situation, is to constantly run little exams during the training and test each student on the presence of the knowledge. Especially with the Asian students the knowledge is often there, it just takes a little bit of effort to get it out. I had promised them that I would not require a long and multiple question exam. I was just going to ask 3 questions and if I saw that they would answer without delay, then I would know that they had the knowledge at their fingertips.
And that worked, the answers were spouting out, apart from the occasional stumble over some very alien words. A hydrostatic Interlocking Device is not a name that you use every day and is certainly not in your daily vocabulary if you come from Bali. This ship was the first where they all passed and thus I could congratulate 33 brightly smiling crewmembers, who had spent most of their free time for the last 12 days reading the training manual and trying to remember how many sickness tablets there are in a lifeboat.
Tomorrow my day will be filled with teaching Crowd Management and how to deal with agitated guests during an emergency. Psychology recognizes a number of standard forms of behavior: unpredictable, fearful, panic, or no reaction at all to name a few: and all the stages in between, including enhancements caused by alcohol, and the crew is more and more required to know at least the basics of it. To get that across to a multicultural crew is not always easy and I am finding that 33 years of experience in the cruise business certainly helps as I can come up with real examples to illustrate what sort of behavior they might come across and how to react to it. One should not forget that an Indonesian or Pilipino crew member might have a hard time even recognizing symptoms of fear and anxiety in a Caucasian. Different races react in different ways. Apart from it being useful it is also great fun to do. Everybody likes to share memories and anecdotes, and if it happens to be educational as well then so much the better.
By that time I was done with all that, the sun was setting and the Maasdam was sailing out of Charlottetown harbor. The ship is now going towards the St. Lawrence River and has to go around Prince Edward Island. As explained recently we cannot go under the Confederation Bridge as the whole area is full of lobster and crab pots, even where they should not be.
Tomorrow is a sea day as the ship sails up the St. Lawrence towards Quebec. The weather is supposed to be sunny again but very chilly. A temperature higher than the low 50’s would really amaze me.
September 19, 2014 at 3:22 pm
So glad to hear Crowd Management (i.e., the psychological aspect of emergencies) is included in your training. That has got to be the hardest part of it – as you point out, not only do different people react differently, it looks different in different cultures. Your extensive experience and your ability to communicate, esp. via anecdotal info, is a huge plus. Thanks for covering this.
September 19, 2014 at 4:34 pm
This blog is a fascinating read. Your insight into the various crew reactions to testing the knowledge they have gained is amazing, and then, as you point out, after 30 years you have seen some amazing things in the cruise industry to use as examples. Thank you Captain Albert……..Ruud H
September 19, 2014 at 5:17 pm
An onboard condensed presentation of what you are teaching the crew would be of interest to some of us guests. I think that those of us who book the Behind the Scenes Tour aboard the ships that have them available would find such information very, very interesting.
Perhaps you might be able to pass such a suggestion along to the Entertainment Department Director for a new onboard activity?
September 20, 2014 at 4:41 pm
Thank you for reading my blog.
We do, do such presentations on the longer cruises. blow up a life raft on the stage, take the guests through all that can happen and that because of good training does not happen. On short cruises there is not much time for it. The daily program is too full.
Capt Albert
September 19, 2014 at 5:52 pm
Captain Albert
So good to have you back and to get your insights from “behind the crew only door.”
In all of your years at sea have you ever had to put down life boats in an emergency situation? If so I would be thrilled to hear your thoughts as I think others would.
Thanks and regards,
Roger
September 20, 2014 at 4:38 pm
No I have been lucky. I joined Holland America the year after the demise of the Prinsendam (I).
But I could devote a blog of how it would go. Especially now with all the communicators that are adding to the lifeboats.
Thank you for reading my blog
Captain Albert
September 20, 2014 at 7:48 am
Hello Captain Albert, are these training and instruction sessions supplementary to the instructions given by one of the deckofficers or do they replace them?
September 20, 2014 at 4:36 pm
This is a new start as we are upgrading our alarm systems. I train the whole crew and then leave all the training instructions behind and then the officers will continue for the regular trainings as usual.
thank you for reading my blog
Capt. Albert