Beneath the surface 16

Training, training, training!
As with all new contracts on board ship there was a certain amount of training to endure. Our first session was the fire training. Marrissa and I arrived at the officer’s bar where the fire officer greeted us with a nod. He stood silently by the video with his hands on his hips and sighed while Marrissa and I sat down. After some fiddling with switches he pressed play on the video.
‘Shit!’ he said.
Of course it didn’t work. There was no image and muffled dialogue. The fire officer quickly became frustrated and rushed us through all the fire eventualites. ‘If there is fire try put out! There are four types of fire extinguisher. Blue - power, red - water, cream foam and Black with funnel CO2. Choose right extinguisher for correct fire.”
After the whirlwind explanation we were taken on a tour of the lower decks where we were shown watertight doors and fire screen doors. The watertight doors divided the sections of the ship to stop water passing between sections. The idea originated from the sinking of Titanic. The fire-screen doors closed off sections of the ship to stop fires spreading. It was always necessary to know and on every ship I ever joined it was always part of the training.
For the fire finale Marrissa and I were taken up to the bridge where the control room was located. The bridge was positioned next to the Captain’s cabin. As we walked past we peered in. His cabin was a vast space of dark wood and huge windows. No wonder he became a captain, he got to live in a free penthouse and had no idea how difficult it was to swing a cat in the crew cabins. Where he lived he could swing a cat all day long without injury! Of course there was a downfall - he lived next to the bridge, three steps from his cabin and he was at work.
The bridge was positioned at the front of the ship overlooking the bow; it was an expansive room with huge windows. Technical instruments decorated every available surface and there were plenty of brass phallis resembling instruments arranged through the room. Marrissa and I stood by the door. Silence. The officers paused from their duties, in your imagination I guess you would imagine that officers were extremely attractive - wrong! This ship was driven by fat Swedish officers who had noticed Marrissa in the same way a vulture notices a carcuss. Giving them a seductive look she caressed the brass secturn, ‘very nice…’ she said fluttering her eye lashes.
I don’t know whether it was an act but she appeared to be an innocent girl who was completely unaware of how the men were looking at her. Dinner! Maybe it was how she survived on board, but potentially wanking a secturn suggested something other than innocence. What’s more Robert had kindly reminded me that both Marrissa and I were now in the ranks of new meat. There had been talk in the officer’s bar once we had left the previous evening. He expected me to be pleased but there was no compliment in being viewed as a piece of dead animal with the potential to be porked!
While Marrissa wanked every phallic looking device she could lay her hands on, I was shown all manner of techy instrument. The device that revealed the location of the ship’s location once it sank was of particular interest. After five minutes of ship submersion the devise was released and worked like the black box they have on planes.
At the end of the tour we were given a brief tour of the lifeboats. It turned out the crew were allocated life rafts while the passengers and officers were provided with life boats. Our training officer suggested that we had more chance of survival in a life raft. I was not born stupid! I did not agree, they said that to make you feel better. If a life boat had twice as many rations per person why were you more likely to survive? I know I am female but having breasts does not affect my intellect.
‘During evacuation the guest is priority. You will do everything in your power to make sure the guest is safe. Only then you will consider your own safety,” said the Chief officer.
‘Yeysss,” said Marrissa.
I remained silent. So lets get this straight - my life is considered less important than a rich ninety year old decrepit who isn’t going to survive anyway. Honestly… I do not owe any of the guests my life and if it comes down to it I will NOT sacrifice myself for a stranger. The brain washing had started. Admittedly I would do my best to help but faced with the choice of my life or someone else’s I know what I would choose. Please do not tell me that anyone would choose another’s life unless it was their child. We all know the truth, I just happen to write it.
Anyway I could feel my hands clenching - Bollocks to brain washing! What’s more I could never get over the fact that essentially someone paid for a holiday and in that value the shipping line included a crew member’s life to be sacrificed. Free sacrifice with every holiday. Yey! Maybe that could be a new sales technique upon arrival a cocktail followed by a sacrifice.
Oh goodness, it seemed there was also a hierachy of survival. The Officers had more right to survive because of some gold tinsel decorating their arm. I didn’t know whether such an assumption frustrated others, maybe I was cynical or self preservation was my genetic. In terms of society we seem to have missed the value of the miracle of life. What people exchanged for money was insane and I am always disturbed by how life was valued in terms of metal chunks. Money was constructed for exchange - at one point shells were exchanged. Would you sacrifice a life for a million shells? No I didn’t think so…
Rant over.