By Capt. Emmanuel Tsikalakis
Capt. Emmanuel Tsikalakis is the President of Panhellenic Union of Masters and Mates of the Greek Merchant Marine.

The Greek shipping, as it is widely known, has the great privilege to be in the enviable first place, at the top of the maritime industry’s pyramid, internationally.

 The Greek master and the Greek seafarer too find themselves in a parallel development course with their industry, thanks to their hard work, their sharp spirit, their healthy competitive mood, the need for professional survival in the globalized labor market they perform, their inherent seamanship and,  last but not least, the hefty naval tradition of their own country.

Capt. Emmanuel Tsikalakis 

According to estimates by qualified shipping analysts, which have seen the light of publicity, over the next 10 years there will be a request for 150,000 frontline executives for the needs of global shipping!. Therefore, it becomes clear that the challenge for our high ranked Greek seamen will be great.

The Greek master  and  the rest  of  the  distinguished   seamen  of our  country must be at  least  able sto  co-exist worthily among their equivalent professional colleagues all over the world, to retain their recognized superiority and remain competitive and be good connoisseurs of the objective they serve, that is primarily their ship and through it, of all the complex expanded commercial needs and so much more, of the contemporary shipping industry.

“The seaman is the world’s  most beautiful profession,” Captain Panagiotis Tsakos emphasized in a relatively recent interview, and he is quite right, “And the most demanding in nowadays” I will add myself, with all due respect to the great experience and offer of this great Greek seafarer, master and businessman.

Not only because the maritime profession has become more demanding and beyond traditional standards, especially regarding the masters sector, but also because it requires specialized and constantly renewed knowledge for the management of the  contemporary ships and the handling of the companies’ and operators’ requirementsm.

In nowadays, with the Marketing, the Public Relations, the Crisis Management, the Certified Services, and the Secure Management in flourishing, the master's has been upgraded and redefined furthermore.

In the modern globalized environment, the master is no longer just a person who manages the ship and exercises power on  those who work on it!. The master functions as a modern manager and he is called to play a more complex administrative role with knowledge that can clearly be extremely useful for the interests of the company he serves. By participating in the vital development of a shipping company, in addition to his formally registered obligations, the master is directly responsible for the company’s economic and commercial policy, for the submission of all kinds of reports, for the safeguarding of its assets, and the preservation of its  good reputation.

Among the most important skills a modern Master, and by extension, a “career seaman”,  must possess  in order to respond to his role are: 

•  A high-level education, which must get outside the conventional classroom standards.
•  strategic thinking and execution, 
•  development of partnerships and strong ties of trust with the company’s associates in each port, 
•  human resources management,
•  marketing and public relations, 
•  the knowledge of  foreign languages, 
•  PC skills, 
•  specialized technical knowledge,
•  modern meteorology, etc.

Our country is at a historical point and the Greek master and seaman, who continue to be “national capital”, are part of the great change we are seeking  in order to rectify the Greek economy.

The aim of our seafarers should be to preserve their competitive superiority through a more qualitative and more modern teaching, through continuous education and training, equal opportunities of knowledge acquirement, through highlighting and exploiting the highly talented executives.

Yes indeed, the vessel technology  keeps changing, so seamen have to evolve accordingly. Α lot is heard and written but only a few can foresee developments in the future way of  construction and  navigation of ultra-modern or even  solar-powered  ships.   Therefore, clearly, the role of the human factor in the possibility of unmanned ships will change, but I do not believe that the role of the seaman can be devalued or zeroed to such an extent that it will not exist at all on board! Let’s not forget that too many procedures are being handled by people at the ports, in the companies and in the services of each country, let’s not forget the uncalculated factor of the weather conditions and of course many other basic technical issues such as navigation, docking, loading and unloading.

The future and the developments regarding the ships are ahead of us, let us see that fact as a challenge to improve the nautical profession and the working conditions of our seamen. Our state must help with determination all the young professionals who man the vessels of the world’s major shipping companies, so as to rekindle the proud Greek seamanship and to be proudly represented in all the ports around the world.