Naval Military Academy Lecturer Kalin Nedev: Everyone on the Ship Should Be One Family

Everyone on the ship should be one family, Dr. Kalin Nedev, the Electro-Technical Officer (ETO) on the Bulgarian military research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (NAVAL RSV 421) and lecturer at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA) in Varna, told BTA.

He was one of the three lecturers from the Faculty of Engineering of the NVNA who accompanied 23 cadets on board the NAVAL RSV 421 during a training voyage from Varna, on teh Black Sea, to Cartagena (Spain). The practice took place as part of the vessel's voyage to the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island.

Nedev said that he had always wanted to work with children to guide them through his experience gained on the difficult path he himself had walked. "I wanted to work with children, for me they are children", Nedev said, adding that they need guidance. However, he noted that he joined the Naval Academy because of his father, who was also a ship's ETO. Nedev shared that he basically inherited the trade. His father was the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering while Nedev was a student. 

"We try our best to get students to think and also to use all these resources that are available to them now, because in our time they weren't. The internet is an all-encompassing luxury that everybody has, but it's not used enough to find information to build on professionally, and it's all out there," the senior assistant professor noted.

"Along with that, we are constantly trying to improve the technical facilities at the university. There are a lot of hurdles, as in any other field, but with what we have we try to make the best possible training for everyone. But sailing the ship brings education closer to reality, unlike a training simulator, for example. In the end, there is a need to physically confront the problem or the task at hand, not just stand in front of the computer," he pointed out.

"A ship's ETO day passes routinely - with an early check to see if anything is defective. I ask them questions: how does a particular mechanism work, what does it need to work. They need to start ruling out some of the possible options. The human brain has a specification - when something happens and there is a problem initially, it always looks for the most complicated solution. I try to nudge the cadets that it's something simple - a switch or a fuse, but it's seems like a huge problem to them because they're not familiar with the system. But little by little, when something breaks or malfunctions at some point, they suddenly start learning how it works," Nedev said.

According to him, there has always been and will always be a prejudice between generations that, but with the right approach and focusing attention where it needs to be, Nedev believes that things work out.

He is of the opinion that the dull moments in the monotonous daily routine of sailing should be made the most of by the engineers, and, although their responsibilities and activities are divided, one for the engine, another for the boiler, another for the separator or power-generator, day by day, mechanism by mechanism, they should learn to make sense of everything on the ship, even if it is not in their sphere.

The key to a job well done on a ship is camaraderie - the crew must find common ground - it is extremely important to do the job as a team when a group of people are in one place together for a long time. Yes, personalities are many and different, but on a ship everyone should be one family, Nedev is convinced.

RSV 421 is sailing across the Atlantic on its way to the second stop on the voyage to Livingston Island - Mar del Plata off Argentina. The ship is expected to arrive there in early February.

BTA's Daily News editor Konstantin Karagyozov is the only member of the media who is travelling on board the ship to Livingston Island and back, and will cover the Bulgarian expedition on site throughout the stay in Antarctica.

All media outlets can use the Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log for free.