Karachi shipbuilders waiting for tide that lifts their boats higher

Muhammad Khan, a resident of Machar Colony — a coastal town tied to the shipbuilding industry for a long time — was only 15 when he joined the boatyard, where new seafaring vessels are built from keel to the mast and old ones, including modern-day launches, are brought in for all kinds of repairs.

“Shipbuilding is a craft as old as Hazrat Noah (AS),” he tells Geo Digital, “Our elders chose this profession many decades ago and we are following in their footsteps.”

A variety of seafaring vessels are constructed at this boatyard. These include ships, boats, launches, and even fishing trawlers. However, almost everything involved in getting these ships up from the ground and into the sea is done by hand.

“We are deeply disappointed in the government for not providing the requisite facilities to shipbuilders, even the injured workers. Because of this, many skilled workers have given up on their craft and taken up new lines of work,” laments Khan.

According to him, this business is not even registered due to which the workers have to face problems.

However, Karachi’s boatbuilders take all these challenges in stride and do not let themselves be daunted by the vagaries of the times.

The unmatched skill of these artisans is reflected in the fact that while shipbuilding across the world is done with the help of boat-building plans (blueprints), Karachi's boatbuilders do not rely on them.

Aoun Ali, another shipwright in the colony, says he was merely 14 when he joined his father in this profession. Despite having a BSc in Mathematics, Aoun chose to follow in his forefathers’ footsteps to make a career out of boat building.

At first, he would make regular boat-building plans. “However, now the skill has improved beyond architecture and engineering. Shipbuilding is second nature to us now and we no longer need blueprints to do it,” he says proudly.

That is not to say the shipbuilders have entirely discarded the use of blueprints. Aoun says that if any official organisation commissions any work, the builders use plans. “For instance,” he adds, “we prepared boats for Karachi Port, which we worked on using boat-building plans given to us by the institution. It’s just that our shipbuilders are not dependent on maps and can do their work skillfully without having to use too.”

Speaking on the matter of the types of wood used in the process, Aoun informs Geo Digital that initially Burma teak wood from Burma was used in shipbuilding.

“However, after it became expensive, we began to use pine wood from Malaysia. When that too became too costly, we began to import wood from Congo for the hull of the ship, and local wood for its structure.”

For all their skills, the shipbuilders do not shy away from admitting that the real challenge in the whole process is wood cutting, which is the most crucial and dangerous part of the profession.

Manzoor Ahmed, another worker in the Colony, has spent a large part of his youth chopping wood in the yard. He says that the first time he saw the cutting of wood, he was stunned and wondered how he would handle the wood’s weight. “But when a person sets his mind to a task,” he chuckles, “Allah gives him the courage.”

He says that when the wood breaks, like a bare sword it can hit any part of the body. “But after years of experience, we are not afraid anymore.”

However, Manzoor highlights how the rising inflation has affected the livelihood of these builders. “In my early days, I worked as a helper for Rs600 a week … now the labourers are paid Rs6,000 a week in the boatyard,” he reflects.

However, shipbuilding is merely one aspect of their job. At the end of the day, the sea is everything to these shipbuilders: friend, comrade, and enemy. As soon as the water level rises, these shipbuilders push their creations into the ocean, hoping that God will protect them and their handiwork.

After the launches are ready, they are brought to the shore with the help of cranes. From here, Javed Hashmi and his team take over. A crew of 20 to 25 people works to launch the ships into the ocean.

Hashmi too has been associated with this work since his childhood. His lifelong experience as a seaman allows him to deeply understand the immensity as well as the profundity of the ocean.

“The seawater rises on the first and fifteenth days of the moon,” he informs Geo Digital.

“As soon as the water rises,” Hashmi continues, “crew members lower the ship into the sea with the help of a crane and greased planks, which are slid under the vessel while it is still on the shore. Then it is handed over to the sea with the help of two boats.”

Hashmi says that he and his entire crew wait for the water to rise and pray that the ship does not hit the seabed. If the water level is low, the ships get stuck in the seabed and it takes many months to get them out.

The story of these beach-dwelling boatbuilders, carving their living out of the finest of the seaworthy woods, while keeping their ears to the breezy whispers of the whimsical as well as the dreadful ocean, reads like a romance, but in this tale, Adam's son is not waiting for the descent of a fairy, but for the ascent of the sea.