The correspondent of The Maritime Telegraph had a great opportunity to meet Captain Hemraj Shetty, Director, Fleet Personnel of Seaspan who shared his story of success and some advice for being successful.
MT: As far as we know you used to be a captain. Was it your childhood dream or maybe you are from a maritime family? Why did you decide to go at sea?
H. Shetty: When I was a child, my ambition was to join the Indian Navy—the defense side. I tried twice to gain admission, but I didn’t get selected, so then I thought about the Merchant Navy instead. I applied to a few companies in India, and started my career as a cadet with one. I liked the sea. I loved adventures when I was growing up, and that attracted me to the sea and to sea life. That is how I started my career. I was a captain for seven years and, in general, worked at sea for 23 years. I then had a family. When my daughter was born, my wife said to me that I had to drop anchor and come ashore. So, 17 years ago, I came ashore for an office job at the same company with which I had been sailing. That was in Hong Kong, and I was there for two years. Shortly thereafter, I joined Seaspan, which was opening an office in Vancouver and had only one ship at the time. Now we have 103 ships. The sea has always been my passion and my love.
MT: What was your first impression when you joined the vessel?
H. Shetty: I was a young, 19 year-old boy. My first impression was that life on board was not like being at home with your mum and dad around you. When you go to sea you are on your own, but that independence helps you to learn more every day. First you learn to be focused, and then you learn to be diligent at time-keeping. I had very good officers and crew on my first ship, so I didn’t have any problems. Many people find it difficult to adjust on their first ship.
MT: What impressed you most of all?
H. Shetty: The most impressive thing was visiting countries, visiting people, visiting different cultures. In 1979, two months after my joining as a deck cadet, the ship came to Odessa, and I have such clear memories of that. It was a good experience.
MT: How did you communicate with your wife during your voyages?
H. Shetty: Back in those days, we wrote letters and sent them to the post. It took about two months for each letter to reach home. We also called up home using onboard Radio / VHF communication system prior to Satellite phone call facilities came into existence.
MT: What was the duration of your contract?
H. Shetty: When I started, it was nine months, and when I was a chief officer, it reduced to 8 months. Once I became a captain, it was six months, with three months at home between contracts. These days, contracts are much shorter. Captains and chief engineers undertake three or four month contracts, but the nature of the work is also different. We visit fewer ports now and fast turnaround on container vessels. There is high stress factor in this kind of schedule, leading to possible fatigue. As a company, we take this into consideration and feel that four to five month contracts are okay for management level officers, though we generally don’t keep captains and chief engineers on board for more than four months.
MT: Did you face any unusual situations when you were a seafarer?
H. Shetty: The only unusual situation faced was bad weather. Technology was not that advanced as compared to now. The satellite images can tell you where a typhoon is. I had quite a bit of experience going through very severe storms, but I’d not experienced any deaths on board through my sea career.
MT: Does the work at sea differ from the work ashore?
H. Shetty: Work at sea is very different from work ashore. At shore, you generally go home at 1700 hours, and you don’t work on Saturdays and Sundays. You are with your family, friends and your dog. At sea, life is so different. You are disconnected from a big part of your life, and your employer should understand and appreciate this. Your life at sea is very different than your family life. The most challenging part is isolation from your family, and that is something that we as a company try to mitigate by timely relief.
MT: What do you like the most?
H. Shetty: At sea, you live with 20 people, the ship is your home for four months, and your workplace and living quarters are the same. The good thing that I see on board is that our seafarers see beyond each other’s differences in nationality and work as a unified team. Being on board can be like living on an island. If you are the captain, then you are the king of the island. The king can be a good king, the king can be a difficult king, or the king can be a weak king. It really depends on your personality and style of leadership. Being a good king and looking after your people is very gratifying though.
The seafarers can do anything, they can fix anything: engineering problems or social problems. That is what you can’t find in youngsters in the industry ashore.
MT: What kind of leadership do you use in your team?
H. Shetty: The leadership that we use in our team is one based on mutual respect. The leader respects everybody and ensures that clear communication is always maintained within his team. Then, it is about working as a team, team building, listening well and leading by example. Leaders should always set positive examples. The success of the ship’s performance depends on the leadership.
MT: Do you think you are a strict and demanding director?
H. Shetty: I wouldn’t use the word “demanding.” Instead, I would say that we expect performance, and the requirements for good performance are very clear: do what you have to do, and what you need to do. As ship managers, we expect our team to perform to customer requirements. But we work as a cohesive team. We always engage captains / chief engineers in decision-making processes and we do not instruct the captains or order them about. Instead, we give them advice and allow them to make their own informed and well-considered choices.
The charterers can instruct that the captain take the ship to some port, but if the port is not safe or similar, then we can help the captain and give him advice regarding what he should do. Charters generally want the vessels to follow specific routes, but sometimes bad weather or other circumstances require the captain to take an alternate route. If this alternate route consumes more fuel, or takes longer, then charterers may not be happy. In such cases we help the captain by giving him advice on the weather, but we cannot tell him “goes this way” or “go that way”—we never do that. We simply advise him of the possible risks and challenges. Ultimately, he knows the conditions on board and in the surrounding area better than anyone.
MT: What difficulties did you face along the way to your success?
H. Shetty: I’ve been with Seaspan for 16 years. We started with 20 crew on board our first ship, and now we have 4500 people manning a fleet of 103 operating ships. My challenge has been to hire the right people, train them and build the Seaspan culture, because everyone that we recruited joined us with different work cultures, operating style, system and procedures. The biggest challenge for me and my team has been to align these seafarers to our Seaspan culture. And that is still a challenge. It takes time.
MT: Tell about your family.
H. Shetty: I’ve been married for 27 years. I have two daughters; one is 22 and is in university now. Right now, during summer break, she is working as an intern at Seaspan, getting some office experience, but she is not in my department. The second daughter is 13. I have a 14-year-old Labrador dog. My second daughter was born in Vancouver. We are all Canadian citizens now and had to give up my Indian Citizenship, and I need a visa to go to India now. We are well settled, and my family is happy there. I don’t think they want to live anywhere else.
MT: How do you like to spend your free time with your family?
H. Shetty: Monday to Friday, I spend time with them in the evening, and on Sundays we spend time together as well. Hiking, backpacking and climbing mountains are my favorite hobbies, so on Saturdays, I do local outdoor activities. We do a lot of conditioning training for high altitude summits. During winter season I do a lot of snow shoeing activities and ice climbing. My objective is to continue summiting high altitude peaks. I just want to see how high I can go.
MT: What do you think it takes to combine a successful career with a happy family life?
H. Shetty: For a successful balance you have to be able to separate office and family life. When you come home it is family time. You need to devote that time to the family. The important thing that you need is a very supportive partner. She has to be understanding. It is more about understanding and respecting each other. And the most important thing in family life is trust. We do at least two vacations with the family. The balance between family and work life is important. When the family is not happy, you are not happy, and then you are not happy at work.
MT: What is your best vacation?
H. Shetty: My vision of vacation is back packing and climbing expedition, but the ladies at home aren’t happy with that. They like to go to places of interest, like historical places. They are not fond of the beach, preferring museums instead. Currently, they’d like to visit Norway, Greece and Italy. My daughters are good at painting, and my older daughter likes to go to museums to see the paintings and other artwork.
MT: Do you spend more time with your family now or when you were a seafarer?
H. Shetty: There are two differences here. During my sailing career, when I came I had a three-month vacation. Sometimes it’s a bit too much. At times, I think a job ashore is more stressful, there is too much pressure, but it depends on your position. You constantly get emails. The work ashore tends to be more challenging and more demanding given that you are managing 100+ ships, while on board you are dealing with just one vessel. But the challenges are different. I think at this stage I would not want to go back to sea. I think I spent more quality time with the family when sailing, though the separation while onboard was painful as well.
MT: Did your wife sail with you when you were a seafarer?
H. Shetty: My sailed with me on three ships when I was a chief officer for 5 to 6 months each time. Once I got my command, my wife sailed with my daughter for 3 months but after that she didn’t do it because a ship is not the best place for a child.
MT: As far as we know you have a dog. It is said that a dog is a true friend for a person. Is it true for you?
H. Shetty: There is a big fight at home about my dog. When my older daughter was seven-years-old, she kept begging for a dog as she was the only child and claimed she was lonely without a brother or sister. My wife wasn’t a dog lover; in fact, she was scared of dogs because when she was a child some dog bit her. So it was a big challenge to convince her to bring a dog home. Finally, Bailey came home as a 6 weeks Labrador puppy and was meant to be for my daughter, but he only followed me, obeyed my orders and saw me as the Master. My daughter was not happy about this. Then my second daughter was born after a year and this brought bigger challenge to manage a very hyper puppy and a new born baby. In the end everything went fine but he still remains my shadow which causes tension at home.
MT: How often do you visit your native country?
H. Shetty: I was born in Bombay. I lived there for about 35 years. Seaspan has a Mumbai office, and I travel there every four months on business. But I stay there only for three days. My whole family has moved out of India. My father passed about 13 years ago, my elder brother lives in the USA in Boston, and my sister and two brothers are in Sydney, Australia. My mother was alone, so she went to Australia too. We have a family reunion at least once a year, whether it’s in Boston, Sydney or Vancouver.
MT: Are your sister or brothers in the maritime industry?
H. Shetty: No, I’m the only one who became involved in the Merchant Navy. My three brothers and sister are in different profession.
MT: Why did you decide to start climbing?
H. Shetty: The sea and merchant ships always fascinated me, but the other thing that fascinated me was mountains. I have loved the mountains from a young age, and have a large collection of books on climbing. It was something I wanted to do from the start, but when I was in Mumbai there was no time for it due to sailing. One of the reasons I moved to Vancouver was the mountains. The first ten years in Seaspan I had no time for climbing. We were growing up and there was a lot of work. Then, about three or four years back, some of our office staff went for a day hike that included a small climb. Eight finished in about one hour and I took two hours and 20 minutes. I was so disappointed. I was taking 10 steps and I was breathless, which made me realize that my fitness level was not good. I was about 95 kilos then, but am now 84 kilos. I engaged a personal trainer, joined several mountaineering groups and started to take climbing lessons. I am active member of Alpine Club of Canada and have done several expeditions with them. This year I did a three week backpacking trip to Patagonia and completed the “O Circuit” around Torres Del Paine and also did some hikes around Fitz Roy and Cerro Torres range in Patagonia. I’m training for Everest Base Camp trek with Mera Peak summit in 2018.
Climbing is a dangerous sport. It is considered an extreme sport. You have to know your limit and how far you can go. We take lots of courses and go with teams we know. The best part is that you challenge yourself. It’s not like in racing—there is no first in climbing. It’s just teamwork, you and your heart beating.
MT: Do you have any other hobbies?
H. Shetty: Sometimes, I watch football. Otherwise, my hobbies are doing my family picture collages and my family tree. I am trying to trace my family’s history for the last 200 years, and I’ve succeeded in going back four generations so far. It is very hard to find this information. My work is also my hobby.
MT: Who and where do you see yourself in 10 years?
H. Shetty: My passion is people, and I make friends very fast. So, my 10-year goal is to make more friends, and to help those in the seafaring community meet their dreams and enrich their aspirations. Part of this is doing what I can to ensure that they have secure employment, family care, health care, and opportunities to move further. I am in a crewing department, so caring about people is my job. I want to see a Seaspan progress as well. As far as my career goes, I would certainly want to see me taking bigger challenges as the company grows.
MT: Let’s imagine you found a bottle with a genie. What three wishes would you have?
H. Shetty: My wish would be to find happiness for everyone. If everyone is happy, then I am happy too. Life is all about happiness. Also, I want to wish for all children in the world to have the opportunities that I had when I was growing up. My third wish would be to make this world a better place for our future generation to live peacefully without any conflicts.
MT: What do you advise for the person who starts his career without any powerful parents or money, but who has a strong mind and a desire to become successful and to achieve his goals?
H. Shetty: I always tell all youngsters to be honest with yourself, and to be very clear about career goals and what you want in life. Hard work, dedication and integrity pay in long terms. As long you can focus on that, any amount of luck, money or powerful connections will not bring you success. Make best of any opportunity that knocks on your door, take it whatever it is. Ultimately, be true to yourself, and be dedicated, because it is hard work and dedication that pays during difficult times.
