All at sea
Carol Shum Wai-kwai clambered into a blue boiler suit, strapped on an orange life jacket, and took her place in the queue to jump four metres into a swimming pool and struggle into a waiting life raft. Later, Ms Shum, 21, fought 30-metre flames roaring from a pit filled with 150 litres of kerosene.
With a dozen other diploma students from Tsing Yi Technical College studying marine and electronic communication, Ms Shum was taking a week-long course at the Seamen's Training Centre in Tai Lam Chung last week, intended to kick-start a career at sea.
It was not an option Ms Shum was considering. '[The seamen's training] is compulsory,' she said. 'Most graduates are working for pager companies, that's what I want to do as well.' For Timothy Kwong Tsez-yeung, 22, the course was another certificate to put on his resume. 'I'm not very interested in the sea, but I suppose if there's no other choice maybe I would consider it.' Their indifference troubles Jack Haworth, 61, manager of the training centre run by the Vocational Training Council. '[Being a seafarer is] a very satisfying job,' he said, 'working together in small teams, making friendships. And of course you have plenty of time to study, read and develop any hobbies you have.' But young adults like Ms Shum and Mr Kwong are not convinced. Seafaring is a dying profession in Hong Kong.
Foreign-going and Pearl River seafarers must register with the Marine Department. In 1971, 51,876 were on the books. Today there are 2,971. The average age of Hong Kong seafarers is now over 50, and climbing.
It is with more than just sentimental concern that Mr Haworth, an old sea dog who with his white hair and beard looks the part, views the decline of his profession here.
Many seafarers spend only about 15 years at sea before coming ashore to work, said Mr Haworth, who left his Liverpool home at 15 for a career at sea and moved to Hong Kong in the mid-1960s. There are dozens of crucial shore-based professions vital for the functioning of the SAR's container port, the world's busiest, which can be undertaken only by ex-seafarers.
They include ship planners who decide how to pack containers on board, shipping company superintendents, harbour pilots who steer in vessels over 3,000 tonnes and all foreign-flagged ships, marine surveyors, hydrographers, coast guards, officers on Macau and China-bound ferries, officers on weather ships and cable ships, lecturers, Marine Department officials, even the Director of Marine.