Captain Suneha Gadpande On Her Journey To The Top Brass Of Merchant Navy

In 1995, when Captain Suneha Gadpande was in class seven, she used to watch a television serial starring Pallavi Joshi titled Aarohan. The show was about the Indian Navy and the three women joining the Indian Navy after their graduation. Captain Gadpande also wanted to join the Indian Navy.

To make the dream a reality, she started preparing for the National Cadet Corps (NCC). According to her, if one has this, then one does not have to appear for an exam and can directly be called for an interview.

But in Class 10, she got to know that girls cannot join the Indian Navy after class 12 through the National Defence Academy (NDA) like the boys. (Girls are now allowed from this year onwards).

Suggested Reading: Suneha Gadpande: First Woman To Lead Cargo Ship MT Swarna Krishna With All-Female Crew

Captain Suneha Gadpande

It was a major shock for Captain Gadpande because if she cannot get into NDA and then get into the navy, then what should she do? “Then I got to know that I can complete my graduation and then give SSB-SC and after that, I can get admitted into the navy,” she said. However, fate had other plans for her.

In 2002, she cleared her class 12 by August same year. She got selected for the engineering test and scored the seventh rank amongst girls in Madhya Pradesh. She then got the mechanical grant for NIT Bhopal. In class 12 she had also took the IIT exams and qualified for the screening. However, she could not get into an IIT because she was not able to qualify for the cut-off.

Then as things proceeded she one day got a call from the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) for an interview based on her Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) ranking. This is where her journey and stride for the merchant navy began. It was a profession unknown to her at the time and ended up becoming her life. In a conversation with SheThePeople, Captain Gadpande delves into the details of her work and how she rose to become the first Indian woman to take her promotion to Captain at a multinational shipping company.

The Only Woman In The Room

When the interview letter for SCI came in, Captain Suneha Gadpande handed over the letter to her mother. Her next step was to prepare herself for the interview. This is when she started enquiring about what the merchant navy is and what her role will be about.

“During the interview, I was the only girl there and my father was outside worried thinking that I had gone mad. I asked the interviewer if I should finish my engineering first or join as a nautical officer. They said that doing the latter would be better as this would be the first batch of girls. I was confused, not scared because leaving NIT was a big decision for me,” said Captain Gadpande. But she left NIT after studying for four months there.

A Step Away From Boarding

On January 1, 2003, she started her four months of training along with two other girls. At the time, they were at in-house training and Institute Of shipping Corporation Of India at Powai. It was four months of training. “We were told that SCI had only two female officers–one of them was a radio officer, who is responsible for communications and signals, and another was a medical officer,” she said.

Captain Gadpande said that everybody whom they met kept telling them that it would be a difficult undertaking. “I was an 18-year-old who could not understand the difficulty as we were doing whatever was required of us like studies and training, exercises, everything. I was also the batch commander,” said Captain.

After training, they got the opportunity to be part of a ship. When the talks began, as usual girls were never posted on board. Nobody knew how girls would be trained because they were still cadets and they had to do everything from scratch. Thus, it was a difficult call for the SCI to decide on how to send and where to send the girl cadets.

Initially, there were talks that they should be sent to a passenger ship just to see if they can survive on the ship or not. But Captain Gadpande put up a fight that she will not go on a passenger ship and would like to go on an oil tanker. “We did get an oil tanker after that,” shared Captain, proudly.

“For us to be more comfortable on board, our company asked our chief officer to also invite his family as if they could bring along their wives it would help the girl cadets adjust. When we joined our ship, we joined with the wife of our Chief Officer. It was a good gesture by the company to give support because frankly, no one knew what was going to happen next,” said Captain Gadpande.

On-Board

The three girls–including Captain Gadpande– boarded the ship in July 2003. They joined at Visakhapatnam port. From there, their training began and it was for about 24 months. They were given classes, training and then sent for practical training.

Like for commercial pilots, their flying time determines their promotions similarly for the merchant navy it is the sea time. It is regulated by the DG (Director General) of Shipping. It is basically the Government of India which does this regardless of whether you are in an Indian or foreign company.

A cadet needs to have 24 months of sea time to appear for college and take part in basic courses like fire fighting courses, safety and lifeboat courses, amongst others. With all this, they can sit for the exams for the next rank.

The hierarchy in the merchant navy is divided into three departments–deck department, officers who join this department only get promoted to the rank of Captain, engine department, which takes care of the machinery on the ship and the salon or gallery department.

In the deck department, in the beginning, one becomes a cadet, then a nautical Cadet, then Third Officer, who is responsible for safety and firefighting on the ship then a Second Officer, who is responsible for the navigation of the ship, Chief Officer is responsible for the maintenance of the ship and the cargo operation and finally the Captain, who is responsible for the entire ship.

The most important part of the merchant navy is, particularly the commercial part, which is how to carry cargo from one place to another, how to load and discharge. “To speak in a crude language, we are truck drivers who transport oil tankers or containers from one place to another at a very large scale. You are taking care of a billion-dollar cargo–the smallest ship will be carrying 55,000 metric cubes of oil that means 55 thousand multiplied by 1000 litres of oil,” explained Captain Gadpande.

Her Adventure

Captain Gadpande has travelled through the piracy sea. According to her, it began in late 2009.

By 2009, she had become the Chief Officer, who is also the security officer. “I was the only one, I am not aware if there were any before, but at the time it was the only ship trading in the Gulf of Aden. Our ships used to go through Somalian waters and we have seen the piracy areas and the piracy boats that have chased us,” she recalls.

Growing Up

Captain Suneha Gadpande had always seen her mother going to headquarters and seen police officers all around her. When she boarded the ship with officers around her, she did not feel awkward.

“The awkwardness was for the men in the industry that girls are here. On our ship, there were 30 people out of which only three were girls,” she said.

She was not unknown to situations wherein the majority was of the boys. While studying mechanical engineering, the total number of students in the batch was 80 and we were only seven girls.

“Bhopal is a very small town and it is nothing related to metro cities but the environment at my home was very liberal. Like my elder sister is a doctor, my brother is a mechanical engineer and my father is a retired manager from RBI. So in the home, there was always a saying that do whatever you want to and build your own life,” she said.

When she came on board what hit her was how she will change people’s mentality because no one sees you as a cadet but as a girl. “Then I also realised that this is not just in the merchant navy but is everywhere. The learnings on this front took time because there was no girl before you, so whom to ask these questions,” she said.

The one special thing that all three women on board had, according to the captain, was they never gave up. “We were the benchmark for the girls to be in the merchant navy,” she said.

Have more women joined the profession?

Captain Suneha Gadpande with her team

“Yes, I have seen more women join in. Everybody keeps saying that it is difficult, it is not difficult to work there but it is difficult to handle the mentality. No one tells you how to do it. This profession gives you perks, travel time, and makes you independent,” she said.

But the recognition is still missing. “Yesterday, I went to my doctor who asked me about my profession and I said that I am in the Merchant Navy, the doctor was taken aback and asked as what and I replied as captain. The doctor was flabbergasted and asked, are women there in the Merchant Navy?” she said.

Despite there being 300-500 women in the Merchant Navy from India, the profession is absolutely unknown. When Captain Gadpande had joined, she did not know what a Merchant Vavy was.

“This profession is hidden and no one talks about it. Although world’s trade is being led by shipping,” she said. Adding, “If people do not know about Merchant Navy officers and crew, then how will the girls come to know that a job opportunity like this is also available?”

During the pandemic's first wave, everything was closed down but ships were still running. When India went into lockdown, Captain Gadpande was in China for a month. The entire responsibility of the crew and officers was over her. During the second wave, her ship was roaming in India.

Everyone knows about the Indian Navy because it is talked about. People are told about their lives but when it comes to the Merchant Navy, there is not much being said and known about, she added.

Creating History

At the time of her promotions, Captain Gadpande came to know that Indian women were not taken by foreign shipping companies. Women engineers were still taken but there was no chance for deck officers. When she started taking exams, her male batchmates were able to go for foreign companies but not the women.

“Whenever we used to call the openings for them, we were first asked if it was for our husband, brother or father. They said that they don’t take women, my basic question was why do you not put this on your advertisement,” she said.

“In 2012, I was going to get command. I was in a government company and the promotions are very steady. But I left it to join a Japanese company in NYC, where I did not know what and when I would be getting a promotion. I joined there as a second-in-command. For promotion, I had to keep increasing my sea time. I was the only Indian woman in that Japanese company and that is why I was awarded by the President of India as one of the 100 women achievers,” she said.

After that, she changed to a Denmark (Danish) company. There were other women of other nationalities in that company and she had heard they do not discriminate. There she realised that getting the promotion, will take at least four years and the thought kept running that she was not married yet and the biological clock was ticking, what will happen to family etc. She decided to stick with the profession and freeze her eggs so that she does not face any issues with her maternity.

Then she got her command in a Danish company and to date, she is the only Indian woman who had taken a promotion there, on the basis of the requirements to be a captain according to that organisation.

“My eight years of struggle was only to take command in a foreign company. I had gotten everything that I had thought of doing. Then, I thought that I want to be a single mother. I thought of taking a 3 years break but it gets difficult for an organisation to take you back on deck after that long break,” she said.

After that, she got an opportunity to command an all women officer ship with 14 officers. Even now when she goes back to see the photograph, the thoughts of all the wrongs and difficulties that women face to get here vanished. “My mind becomes peaceful so that we do not have to prove ourselves to anyone,” she said.

(Feature Image Credit: Captain Suneha Gadpande)