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sailors long waiting to use it. It was 120 degrees and mosqui- But while the comfort level on board has improved dramati- toes everywhere. Then you’d get to the phone booth, you’d cally, Bernhard senses a loss of camaraderie along the away. make your call and there’d be nobody home, so you’d get “It used to be four guys in a room, now it’s everyone in their bumped to the end of the line,” Bernhard remembers. “You own room, with their own head. We used to have one message lived for that phone call, and that was it for the next three a month from the of? ce. Now you’re getting 100 emails a day. weeks. Well, that has all changed today. If you need to, you It’s great to have satellite TV, but if the TV goes out the guys can make a call at any time.” complain because they don’t have 2,000 movies at their ? n-

Bernhard in fact says that communications from ship to gertips. That’s the kind of rumblings you start to hear.” shore is likely the single biggest change in seafaring life to- Gone too are the freedom of port calls, of spending days, day, as with phone calls, email and internet, constant connec- weeks and maybe even a month in port, particularly in the tion is available, and indeed necessary in order to attract and container shipping sector where calls are measured in hours, retain the younger generation to a life at sea. But similar to not days. “With Matson we usually still get an overnight, the technology driving marine operations, the advantages of which is pretty good for a container company, but it’s gotten enhanced amenities at sea is not always black and white. so squeezed (time-wise) that there is not much of a life outside “On my old ships we had a library and a lounge with a doz- of the ship. In some ways that’s a good thing, because while en books that the seafarer’s institute would donate, and maybe some of the stories sound interesting in retrospect, they were a few magazines from 20 years ago. If you were lucky that painful during the process.” was your ‘library’. For big events like the Super Bowl we had “I love my job; but some of the fun part is getting squeezed ‘Voice of America’ and ‘Radio Moscow’ to listen in. That has out by legal regulations and oversight that is immediate and all changed tremendously,” said Bernhard. “Today we have a swiftly dealt,” said Bernhard. “There’s not as many of the tra- full library that we made ourselves; I have a full gym, we have ditional swashbuckling stories left out there, or just different a media and movie room; we have email that we run daily, we types of adventures. You have to be ‘Cool Hand Luke’ with get satellite TV and satellite radio on the coasts.” everything, but then look what happened to Luke in the end.” www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 37I 34-49 Q4 MP2016.indd 37 11/9/2016 12:19:51 PM