After 11 years of lecturing at the Wavelink Maritime Institute (WMI), it is time to bid farewell to our beloved lecturer, colleague and friend, Captain S.K. Menon. An ex-seafarer with a passion for the sea, Captain Menon started his seafaring journey in 1964 on a training ship in India. From a young cadet, he sailed the high seas and rose the ranks, eventually attaining the rank of a Captain – the most respectable title of any seafaring deck officer, and an esteemed achievement in the maritime industry.
He sailed with the company ‘Neptune Orient Lines’ which had a collective agreement with SMOU, making Captain Menon an SMOU member since his seafaring days. Being a seafaring member for more than 25 years, he saw the union progress through the years, evolving to what it is today.
RETIRING FROM THE SEA
It was not until the late 2000s when the global financial recession hit. Captain Menon recalled feeling that “it was time I hung up my sea boots”, and made the decision to retire from his seafaring career of 45 years in 2009. Finally, with the freedom of a retiree, Captain Menon wanted to spend his time with family – something that he had to sacrifice over the years while he was earning his keep out at sea.
Two weeks into his retirement, the maritime industry came back knocking on Captain Menon’s door in the form of a phone call, offering him a temporary position at WMI for half a year. “There was a class (of 8 cadets) going on, but no lecturer”, Captain Menon recollected. An ex-lecturer had decided to leave, opening up a position at the institute.
As written in history, Captain Menon stayed on beyond the initial 6-month stint to teach more than 300 deck cadets across 18 cohorts under the Tripartite Nautical Training Awards (TNTA) programme.
BACK TO THE MARITIME INDUSTRY
The transition to a shore-based job required some adjustment for Captain Menon. As a master of a ship, he was used to being the highest authority, but at WMI he had to adjust to the hierarchy of the office. Fortunately, the shift was not a painful one for him as his superiors were also mariners he knew as colleagues and peers from his time at sea. Having worked on ships with crew members for extended periods of time, Captain Menon was also equipped with the people skills needed to thrive in the office environment.
Another reason for taking on the position was the valuable experience he wanted to pass on to the next generation of Singaporean seafarers. “We are here to pay back (to) the industry what the industry has given us. It has been a fulfilling life for us at sea, so it is only right that we need to give back to society what we have earned,” said Captain Menon when speaking about why he stayed on as a lecturer at WMI.
The TNTA programme was initialised by tripartite partners to boost the Singapore seafaring core by training more Singaporeans to become seafaring officers. Captain Menon was an obvious choice for the job with his impressive years of seafaring experience.
CAPTAIN OF A TIGHT SHIP