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He is candid, outspoken, and amusing. In his interview with SeaVoices, Benjamin Yip, who is a 2nd Officer at Pacific International Lines (PIL) and an SMOU Exco Member, spares no effort in telling it like it is.
Call it chance or attribute it to an algorithm, Benjamin “magically and mysteriously” landed on a Wavelink Maritime Institute (WMI) Tripartite Nautical Training Award advertisement when he was browsing through the host of diploma courses offered by Singapore Polytechnic. He got intrigued by the nautical studies program, and one click led to another, and he found himself attending the WMI’s job opportunity briefing and, subsequently, the “Meet-The-Family” session.
His father had no qualms about Benjamin choosing to go to sea. “He keeps reassuring me that if all this does not pan out, they have more than enough funds to sponsor an overseas university degree for me. My mother is a deeply religious person. She told me that she felt eerily calm,” he says.
“I was going through a quarter-life crisis then,” Benjamin shares. But “I believe that I have found my current ikigai (a Japanese term which translates to “a reason to live”; a passion that gives life joy) ”.
With a deep sense of calm and serenity, Benjamin gave seafaring a shot. “It was a big gamble in hindsight to be perfectly honest. At that point in time I knew NOTHING about the industry. Absolutely ZERO. No one in my family nor my social circle talks about the maritime industry, let alone seafaring! But for some reason it just felt right.”
He was the only one in the family that was pursuing seafaring, or so he thought.
It was only after he became a seafarer that he he found out that his maternal great-uncle was a long-time SMOU member and was a marine engineer in the Republic of Singapore Navy who transitioned to shore. Benjamin also discovered that his late maternal grandfather was a pioneer-generation Sembawang Shipyard worker.
“In a way, I had some familial connections to Singapore’s early maritime years,” he reasons.
Like the generation before him, Benjamin displays dogged determination to function well in the face of stormy seas.
“The biggest challenge even up to today would be, not surprisingly, seasickness… But watches must still be kept. I know that it is my mindset that is the most important factor. The belief that this is not forever, only temporary. That it will make me stronger by pushing my limits. And perhaps the greatest weight loss program known to man,” he relates.
He recalls an unforgettable night watch when he had seasickness on board the smallest ship he had sailed on then, when the South West monsoon in the Bay of Bengal hit. “The ship was very light at that time. It was the pitching and heaving—imagine a never-ending roller coaster ride—that got me.”
He had made the mistake of drinking too much water for fear of dehydration and taking a nibble on a butter cookie on an empty stomach. He made it to the bridge toilet in time to purge. But that wasn’t the end.
“The body has the amazing ability to surprise you with even more miracles, as I had a second episode just a few minutes later. It was as if the floodgates had been broken.
My captain then suddenly came to the bridge and heard my re-enactment of the Merlion at Marina Bay. To put his concerns to rest, I washed my mouth, came out from the toilet, and greeted him normally just like I would every night and pretended everything was normal, fine, and dandy, as if nothing had happened seconds ago.
The fact that I could still stand and answer his questions professionally probably convinced him that I could carry on the watch, which I did.”
This speaks volume of how tenacious a seafarer he is.
Benjamin acknowledges that seafaring has the trappings of the 4Ds—dangerous, difficult, dirty, and dull. In his opinion, it takes someone somewhat unorthodox in Singapore to relish such a life—someone like him.
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