For many Chief Officers, these are an evil necessity I am not talking about cruise ships where passengers are the lifeblood, but the smaller numbers that tend to venture onto cargo ships For the Captain and others onboard they provide, with a few reservations, a pleasant addition to the ship The food usually improves as well However, passengers mean that their cabins require looking after A passenger with a blocked lavatory/W.C is not so willing to wait till morning to get it fixed, even if they did block it in the first place Doors loose on hinges that rattle or something rolling in the deckhead are the kind of work that, if just dealing with the ship's company, you could give them a screwdriver and say 'fix it yourself, but not so with a passenger While there may be extra catering staff onboard, there is no addition to the deck crew They will want to go on deck, which is very inconsiderate but you can't lock them in their cabins! That means clean washed down decks every day, deckchairs washed, put out in the morning and taken in at night and of course the swimming pool, if you have one, has to be cleaned out each day, not filled with junk as happens on so many ships Add that to the fact that, unlike cruise ships where you can stuff passengers full of food and drink, take their money and pour them back down the gangway after a couple of weeks, these passengers tend to remain for months and, inevitably feel that they know the ship better than you and are happy to point out to the Captain various faults with your department and possibly yourself 89 So the Chief Officer has a point when he feels that passengers are not necessarily a happy event onboard Either way, you must ensure that the various requirements that fall on your department are undertaken to ensure their welfare and pleasure are catered for They have paid for their passage and, in the end, you should want to ensure that they have a pleasant voyage in the ship Your constant courtesy is of course expected 90 One particular morning, I had already had an interesting conversation with the Captain as someone had the temerity to leave an oily footprint on his otherwise immaculately holystoned deck We had onboard an elderly rather deaf lady with her nasty little terrier named Dolly The problem was that not only did this brute frequently make various deposits over the white wooden decks, but each time the sailors tried to clean it up or even walk by the thing changed into a crocodile and bit them After some days spent having the messes cleaned up and the sailors patched up, this particular morning was the limit, with two heaps of dung and the Bosun bitten I suggested to the lady that we should make a kennel to keep Dolly from falling over the side From the Bosun's remarks, this was a distinct possibility That evening, all the passengers were looking at me in horror and, when summoned to the Captain's cabin after dinner, it transpired that the lady had told all that I had threatened to nail Dolly in a box and throw her over the side No matter the distortion of truth, I had to apologise to the lady and to Dolly, and vow life membership of the RSPCA to all the other passengers The only good thing that came out of it was that the Bosun and the crew thought I was a great chap and they wanted to make the box 91