Chapter 795: Chapter 541: Show No Mercy!
By the time Han Yu rushed to the riverside in a flurry, the senior sister and Old Jiang had already taken control of the situation on the cargo ship.
The Captain, Second Officer, third officer, and one sailor were seriously injured. Old Jiang and two auxiliary police had already transferred the four ashore.
From Old Jiang’s understanding, the Captain and the third officer belonged to the same "trench", while the Second Officer and that sailor were in cahoots. After disembarking, the two factions were still cursing each other and it’s likely they would have come to blows again if the police hadn’t been there.
Considering safety, Han Yu decided to split the group into two.
He had Old Jiang take two Cooperative Defense Team members to take the Captain and the third officer to the Sanhe Health Center, while Guo Weitao disembarked with two auxiliary police to take the Second Officer and the sailor to the Tianbu Health Center, to prevent them from fighting again in the hospital.
Han Yu then boarded the cargo ship on Supervision 39 to find out what happened from the Chief Officer, Chief Engineer, Water Head, and other crew members.
Han Xiangning was not idle either. Considering that half of the cargo ship’s senior crew members were involved in the brawl, she immediately decided to detain the ship. Whether those people were injured or not, a team like this was not suitable for continued sailing.
She asked the Chief Officer to urgently contact the shipowner and arrange for a new crew to replace them. Then, together with Old Jin, she started to inspect the cargo ship.
With the ship’s management team fighting among themselves, one could imagine the ship’s maintenance wouldn’t be great.
One would not know until they inspected—the inspection indeed turned up a pile of problems, and they issued so many fines that their hands went numb.
Han Yu queried several crew members, including the Chief Officer, and after taking dozens of statements and his wrist aching, he found out roughly what happened and returned to the Dunship. By then, it had gotten dark. Old Jiang and Guo Weitao had also returned from the two health centers.
"Let’s summarize the situation. Old Jiang, you go first."
"Alright."
Old Jiang opened his briefcase, took out the statements from the Sanhe Health Center, and said with a smile: "The Captain said that although the Second Officer has the certificate of a Chief Officer, as long as he hasn’t been promoted, he will always be the Second Officer, and his salary and treatment will not be as high as a Chief Officer’s.
Last July, the former Chief Officer disembarked for a holiday, and the Second Officer wanted to be promoted. He approached the Captain, hoping he could recommend him to the company. The Captain thought the Second Officer was not competent enough for the position, so he did not recommend him. The Second Officer held a grudge and used this crew change as an opportunity to incite the crew to make trouble and even fight."
The provisions cost for cargo ship crew is usually high, especially for international trade ships.
Under normal circumstances, there are provisions left over, so the surplus is distributed to the crew members at intervals.
Regarding the usage and management of provisions, each ship establishes a provisions committee according to regulations, referred to as "P.C." As for the members of P.C., some ships have their acting Chief Officers serve as the chairman, while others are directly chaired by the Captain.
On this cargo ship, the P.C. chairman is the Captain. The chef has to follow the Captain’s orders. Every time they dock, the chef gives a shopping list to the Captain, who then contacts the suppliers to deliver the supplies to the ship and settle the payment.
Han Yu questioned several crew members, including the chef, and after reviewing the ship’s menu for the past two months, he said, "The shipowner provided plenty for provisions, but the ship’s food is mediocre, and not much was refunded. The Captain must have pocketed a good deal of money."
"Secretary Yu, is this our responsibility?"
"No, it isn’t. But they fought until they bled, and we must figure out why they fought each other."
Han Yu then looked back at Han Xiangning, who was sitting at the end of the conference table listening like a leader, and emphasized: "The ship is a closed society. Harmony among crew members directly affects the safety of navigation. For example, they fought on the ship today, but they were navigating on the Yangtze River. What if it happened at sea? To put it bluntly, a trivial matter could lead to fatal consequences!"
Han Xiangning nodded in agreement, resting her chin on her hand, "That’s why I’ve applied to our superiors to detain this ship and formally notified their company to arrange for a replacement of the Captain, Second Officer, third officer, and the sailor."
Han Yu nodded and turned to say, "Captain Guo, we’ll board the ship again later to get a good understanding of the provisions’ use from the chef."
"Yes."
Guo Weitao responded and chuckled while looking through the statements: "But according to what the Second Officer and that sailor said, old habits die hard. There are many other reasons for their fight."
"Tell me, what reasons?"
"The Second Officer said the Captain is not only corrupt but also very irresponsible or, should I say, incompetent. For instance, crew members who want to be promoted have to bribe him, otherwise, he won’t recommend them to the company. The sailor involved in the fight actually has a third officer’s certificate but never had the chance to be promoted and had to stay as a sailor."
Guo Weitao looked at the statements and continued: "Last October, the former third officer disembarked for a holiday. That sailor had the opportunity to be promoted to third officer, but because he didn’t bribe the Captain, the Captain didn’t recommend him, and the company then arranged for the current third officer to board."
A ship is like a small society. Things that happen in society can also happen on a ship, so it’s not surprising.
Han Yu sighed and pressed on, "What do you mean by irresponsible?"
"The Captain favours those who are good at brown-nosing. The current third officer is a sycophant and is considered a confidant by the Captain. The third officer is not serious about his work. When organizing the deck crew to chisel rust and repaint, he doesn’t work properly but instead smokes and chats with the Water Head, slacking off with the sailors."
Guo Weitao took a sip of water and added: "The Second Officer said that one night, when he went to the bridge half an hour early to take over, the lights in the bridge had to be off when navigating at night, or they would affect visibility. Initially, he didn’t notice due to darkness, but after adjusting to the dark, he found the third officer actually sleeping on the high stool where only the Captain and the pilot should sit, lying on the console."
Han Xiangning immediately frowned slightly.
Old Jiang was equally shocked and couldn’t help but ask, "If the third officer sleeps during his night shift, who sails the ship?"
"Auto-pilot." Han Yu also realized the problems within the ship’s team were significant and explained, "Large ships can be programmed to navigate automatically. This technology has been around since before World War II, but it can only navigate along pre-planned routes. With current auto-pilot technology, it can’t automatically avoid oncoming ships."
Old Jiang asked in astonishment, "So, the third officer’s behavior is very dangerous!"
"Extremely dangerous, extremely irresponsible!"
Han Yu nodded and turned around, signaling Guo Weitao to continue.
Guo Weitao glanced at the interrogation records and continued, "The Second Officer noticed the problem and immediately called the Captain, asking the Captain to come to the wheelhouse. After the Captain was briefed on the situation, he only scolded the Third Officer a couple of times, because they have a good private relationship. He neither punished the Third Officer nor reported to the company. The matter was just left unresolved."
As the Port Director, Han Xiangning knew the seriousness of this issue better than anyone. She looked up and said, "This situation is very important, Captain Guo. Please accompany me to the hospital tomorrow. I must investigate this thoroughly."
"Okay."
Guo Weitao smiled and continued to report on what was learned at the Tianbu Health Center that afternoon.
Unaware of the gravity of the situation, Han Yu was completely convinced after hearing the report.
If everything the Second Officer said was true, the atmosphere aboard that ship was absolutely corrupt.
The Captain embezzled the sailors’ food expenses and took bribes. He was irresponsible.
The Chief Officer was timid and afraid of trouble, always following whatever the Captain said.
The Second Officer appeared upright and honest, but when faced with a problem, instead of stepping forward to stop it and protect the company’s interests, he gathered allies secretly and collected "evidence" against the Captain, Chief Officer, and Third Officer. He even bought a small recorder to have a bribe-paying sailor secretly record the Captain receiving money.
The Third Officer wasn’t in a position to take bribes, but he was no better. Not only did he constantly flatter the Captain, but he was also irresponsible about his work...
In summary, everyone was looking out for themselves.
Those who could take advantage of the situation did, and those who couldn’t or weren’t in a position to, schemed and slipped through, their ulterior motives blatant.
The moral decline aboard the ship had reached such a low point that Han Yu began to wonder how the shipping company was even managing things. Suddenly, Old Jiang mentioned, "I also asked the Captain about the work on the ship during the inquiry."
Han Yu reflexively asked, "What did the Captain say?"
"The Captain mentioned that this ship is registered under a state-owned sea transportation enterprise, but the real owner is a private boss. He probably knew that Chief Han would uncover many problems. He said it’s not that he is incompetent as a Captain, but that the shipowner is difficult to serve."
"What makes the shipowner difficult to serve?"
"He used to be the Chief Officer on this ship. The previous Captain was very responsible and maintained the ship well. But that increased costs, like for scraping off rust and painting. It required buying paint and paying the sailors for labor, which the shipowner disliked, so he fired the previous Captain. He then became the Captain by learning from his predecessor’s lesson. He didn’t dare to spend more of the shipowner’s money and just tried to scrape by."
Concerned only with making money and not on maintaining the condition of the ship, no wonder the atmosphere on the ship was so poor—it’s due to top-down mismanagement.
Although the ship belongs to the shipowner, how it’s managed directly affects maritime safety.
The more Han Yu thought about it, the angrier he got. He turned around and said, "Ningning, when you encounter such shipowners, you from Port Supervision need to conduct strict inspections. If penalties are due, then penalize heavily without holding back!"
Han Xiangning, the professional she is, said without hesitation, "Don’t worry, I will call the safety inspectors tomorrow for a thorough checkup. We’ll check everything inside and out. We have to teach the shipowner a lesson and make it memorable."
Having spent so much time on the dunship, Old Jiang was very aware of the discretionary power held by Port Supervision enforcement—it could be broad or narrow and sometimes there was differential treatment, a double standard.
For instance, inspections on inland river cargo ships weren’t as strict as those on ocean-going vessels.
And the inspections for coastal vessels weren’t as strict as those for international ones either.
Of course, there were reasons for this.
Many domestic vessels in China are old, and even the new ones do not meet the standards and norms of ships from Western developed countries. If inspections were to be carried out as rigorously as the Port State Control (PSC) by port inspectors in Western developed countries, not many of the large and small vessels on the river could meet the standards.
China is in the process of negotiating to join the WTO, aiming to align with international standards.
It’s said that even after joining, there will be a transition period on some issues to allow domestic businesses to catch up, and Port Supervision’s management of water traffic operates similarly.
But Guo Weitao was not thinking about how the "Boss Lady" would heavily penalize the ship next, but asked, "Secretary Yu, how should we handle the investigation of the four who fought?"
"From the initial verbal altercation to pushing each other and then escalating to a brawl, it’s unclear who threw the first punch - in their case, it can only be considered mutual assault. But because the assault took place on a ship and during navigation, affecting maritime safety, it must be dealt with severely."
"How severely?"
"They are all injured, but their injuries are not serious enough to warrant criminal responsibility, as the hospital suggested observing for one night. Once they are discharged tomorrow, we will apply for their administrative detention in accordance with the Public Security Management Punishment Law and Jiangnan Province’s Maritime Security Management Regulations, detaining them for a few days to make them remember this lesson."
"Yes, I’ll prepare the application materials right away."
As soon as Guo Weitao’s voice fell, Han Xiangning smiled and said, "Remembering the lesson doesn’t mean much to them."
Han Yu subconsciously asked, "What do you mean?"
"This is just the public security’s punishment; we from Port Supervision have not yet penalized them. You were one of the sailors too. Do you think they could still be Captains, Second Officers, or Third Officers?"
"I almost forgot you govern both the ships and the people."
Realizing this, Han Yu turned around and said, "Captain Guo, please assist Xiang Ning in the investigation and evidence collection tomorrow. Figure out all the disorderly things these people did on the ship, especially their violations of maritime and waterway traffic safety. See if we can revoke their certificates, preventing them from ever sailing again!"
"Secretary Yu, isn’t this a bit harsh?"
"If we go easy on them now, that means we are being irresponsible to the sailors who might work under them in the future, and to other sailors navigating the sea and the Yangtze River. Allowing such people to sail will inevitably lead to accidents. And when accidents happen, it could cost lives!"
