Author Bio
Salim Chida was born in Chennai in 1947. His family moved to Kochi soon after his birth. He grew up in Fort Kochi and Willingdon Island. His childhood and adolescence were marked by incessant play down on the beach or up in the mango orchards of his neighborhood.
He had just begun college with a major in Physics when financial hardship loomed over the family. Salim applied to join the Training Ship Dufferin in 1964 and made the cut. Two years of rigorous training followed.
After graduating from Dufferin, Salim began his career at sea as Cadet Officer. In less than eight years, he earned his master’s certificate. He went on to serve as master on several international sea-going vessels. He worked on offshore supply vessels supporting drilling ships off the coast of Mumbai, and as a pilot in the Chennai Port Trust and later in the King Fahad Port of Yanbu. He commanded a series of Capesize bulk-carriers in the latter years of his career.
Captain Salim Chida retired from the merchant navy in 1998 after an illustrious and spotless thirty-year career at sea. Soon after retirement, he migrated to America with his wife to live with his son. Less than a year later, his wife lost her battle with cancer. Salim would never fully recover from that. He lived out his retirement keeping busy, mostly driving a school bus for children with special needs.
A year before he died, he finally relented to his son’s pleas and penned a memoir of his time at sea. He was done with a first draft in March of 2024. In August, Salim Chida passed away at home in Chicago. He is survived by three sons and nine grandchildren.
Synopsis
Salim Chida was seventeen when he left home. He watched his father standing on the platform, waving sadly as the train rolled away. He would never see him again.
He went on to endure two years of grueling training followed by year-long apprenticeships on seagoing vessels. His career at sea spanned thirty years. During that time, he commanded vessels of varying size, from offshore supply vessels to general cargo ships to Capesize bulk carriers. He weathered storms at sea including twin storms in the Pacific doldrums and freak waves off Richards Bay. He discharged cargo over three months at outer anchorage off the coast of Luanda in war-torn Angola. He commanded supply ships off the coast of Bombay rushing supplies to oil rigs in choppy seas. He fought off pirates in the Strait of Malacca. He once climbed up the main mast in bad weather to change a lightbulb while his electrical officer and Boatswain watched from the deck. He performed life-saving first aid on a seaman before rushing him to the nearest port for medical treatment. He oversaw a rescue mission for a suicidal officer who jumped into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii. He navigated by the sun, the stars and charts when onboard navigation equipment failed in the Arabian Sea. He weathered a near mutiny in Brazil as brazen ship-owners delayed the payment of salaries to a crew of forty. He joined his crew in prayer on the main deck as they escaped a relentless monsoon just outside the Gulf of Oman. He escorted many a stowaway to safety. He took a corrupt Chinese hiring agency to court in the port of Yanbu that helped dozens of expatriate day laborers to return home. He oversaw sea burials.
Steeled offers a peek into the daredevilry that was the life of Captain Salim Chida. His forward-leaning narrative reflects his lived experiences, from his boyhood fascination with ships to his bittersweet retirement from a spotless career at sea.