Sidharth Dharmarajan, 4th Engineer, Stena Contender
The sea has a way of demanding your full attention at all times. But it is not always the storm, the rough swell, or the failing engine that tests you. Sometimes, it is a split second in a workshop below decks, under the hum of fluorescent lights, that becomes the moment you carry with you for the rest of your career.
I was doing my rounds through the lathe workshop when something caught my eye. The tradesman at the lathe was deep in his work, focused and steady, but something felt instinctively wrong before I could even articulate what it was. I moved closer, and then I saw it. He was wearing cotton gloves. Not the appropriate lathe gloves, but ordinary cotton ones, soft, loose, and almost predatory in how easily they could catch a rotating spindle. I opened my mouth to speak. I never got the chance. In that fraction of a second, the glove snagged, and the lathe began pulling his hand toward the chuck with quiet, mechanical indifference. There was no time to think. My hand found the emergency stop before conscious thought had even fully registered the danger, and the machine went silent. He stood there, pale, his hand still attached to his arm, shaken but whole. What stayed with me afterward was not the drama of it, but the ordinariness. This was not a catastrophic event at sea. There were no towering waves or engine room fires. It was a routine morning in a workshop, and routine is precisely where vigilance tends to go to sleep. We grow comfortable, and comfort is where accidents are quietly born.
As a 4th Engineer, I am still learning, learning the machinery, learning the systems, learning the vessel. But that morning taught me something no classroom prepares you for: that authority carries a physical weight. When you walk into a workspace, you are not just observing. You are responsible. The moment I felt something was off, long before I could name what it was, that instinct was asking me to act. And the difference between acting on it immediately versus hesitating for one more second could have been the difference between a man going home with two hands or not.
I often think about my father, who spent years in the dry docks and brought me to see ships before I understood what they truly meant. He held my hand as I walked across the gangway for the first time, nervous and wide-eyed, and gave me the courage to take the next step. Perhaps that is what good supervision really is, being present enough that someone else can face what frightens them, and alert enough to catch what they cannot see coming. The sea asks many things of you. That morning, it asked for nothing more than a clear eye, a steady nerve, and one decisive move. I hope I am always ready when it asks again.
About Sidharth
Sidharth Dharmarajan, 4th Engineer, Stena Contender.
Sidharth Dharmarajan is a Fourth Engineer focused on the safe and efficient operation of shipboard machinery. His responsibilities include engine room machinery operations as well as the maintenance of lifesaving appliances, firefighting equipment, pollution prevention systems and personal safety equipment within engine room and machinery spaces. Dedicated to mastering his craft, Sidharth aspires to take charge of the engine room in the future. Away from work, he enjoys travelling, following sports, reading and occasionally writing
