Guardians of traditions: Sovcomflot and SUR congratulated seafarers and merchant marine veterans

There was organized the celebration of the Day of the sea and river fleet workers.

On that day the ongoing crew members of the Sovcomflot Group and retired veterans received congratulations and thanks on their professional holiday. All of them have comitted their lives to challenging and incredibly interesting work on board cargo ships. Each of them has a lot of amazing stories from their maritime experience.

Novoship President Alexey Khaydukov addressed the heroes of the celebration with warm words:

– We continue to perform effectively despite all the challenges arising and this is largely due to your professionalism. Thank you for your work, I wish you all health and prosperity!

Nikolay Popov Chairman of the SUR Local Trade Union Organization of the NOVOSHIP congratulated the veterans on behalf of the Seafarers' Union of Russia: “All of you dedicated a huge part of your life to merchant fleet and sea, you had been working with devotion and professionalism. Thanks to you we were able to raise a worthy new generation of young seafarers. Good health and longevity to you!”

For a number of years Sovcomflot together with Seafarers' Union of Russia has been implementing a program to support ratings. As part of this project entering retirement ratings get one-time cash payments and letters of thanks. Most of today's heroes of the occasion have worked at sea for 30-40 years and remember with nostalgia their first vessels, friendrly crews and even ... prolonged voyages. An extemporaneous poll revealed that a year long voyage was not the limit for a Soviet seafarer! They were friendly welcomed in various ports all over, but of course they always wanted to go home.

The children of many of those seafarers have followed up maritime dynasties and now work in shipping in command positions. Experienced seafarers wished the youth who just learn the ropes of maritime professions to study hard and have a strong will to learn. “You should listen out for elders as they remain the guardians of traditions and professional expertise that are always relevant,” Aram Basentsyan, Boatswain of the m/v NS Corona added. “You can’t come on board as a passenger, everyone should know that.”

He was echoed by the awarded captain of SCF Amur Aleksey Kakora: “Seafarers should maintain self-control and cool-headedness until the completion of the contract. If a person cannot do this then this is not his profession. Alexey along with captain Boris Tekuchev and ship's cooks Nikolay Shevyryakhin and Sergey Berezhnoy received letters of recognition and thanks from the company. In their turn they also wished their colleagues well-being and health on the eve of the holiday.

Source: STO SUR