Kan Seng Chut – Engineering Apprentice & Sailing the Seas Part 1 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Kan Seng Chut joined the Singapore Harbour Board’s apprentice programme in 1962 as locals began to replace the expatriate engineers. He talks about his determination to become the chief engineer of a ship and the challenges of working on a ship at sea, such as friction with engineers of other dialect groups such as the Hainanese (he is Cantonese). He explains how one can gain the all-crucial ‘feel’ of the engine from years of sailing. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/0uBWysUostU Part 2 | https://youtu.be/dDXJqIZEsnU Part 3 | https://youtu.be/F877qyiKwWA 00:00 Introduction 01:54 My Family & Career 11:14 To Become a Chief Engineer 15:14 Singapore Harbour Board 22:02 My First Ship 31:27 The Hainanese ‘Gang’ 37:28 Challenges for Marine Engineers 43:59 The Longsai 50:08 Feel of the Engine I’m Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian. I’m interested in the history of Singapore and the lives of its people. In Chronicles of Old Singapore, I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city today. We discuss three topics: 1. People and places. 2. Change and continuity. 3. The importance of heritage. As a historian, I try to stay true to the oral history method on a video format and social media platform. I let the interviewee speak, as the ‘voice of the past’ as Paul Thompson put it. No clickbait, no BS, no posturing. The aim is to canvas a wide range of voices on various aspects of Singapore history and heritage – physical, social, cultural, economic. Do like the video, share your memories below and subscribe to the channel for future episodes. Write to lohkahseng@chroniclesresearch.com if you have any of these stories to share: • Old places or kampongs. • Communities – their way of life & culture. • Childhood & schools. • Work or business. Support Chronicles of Old Singapore on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofOldSingapore Follow the channel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551786759344 Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lks992002 Chronicles Research & Education is my research consultancy on the history of Singapore: https://www.chroniclesresearch.com/ Caveat: this is above all a podcast based on personal memory. As has been well-documented in oral history, memory is not always reliable and what is recalled here should not be taken as fact. However, as Alessandro Portelli noted, the subjectivity of oral history is also its great strength, and what is inaccurately remembered may point to how deeply meaningful the past is to people. #singaporehistory #memory #heritage #nostalgia #oralhistory #socialhistory #history #singapore