Kan Seng Chut – Engineering Apprentice & Sailing the Seas Part 2 | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. After making Chief Engineer, Kan Seng Chut decided to come ashore to work in ‘land jobs’. He reflects on the revolution brought about by container shipping, which benefited Singapore’s global trade. At the same time, it was a mistake, he feels, for his one-time employer, the pioneer shipping line Neptune Orient Lines, to sell off its container ships. Kan himself part-owned three container vessels when he went into the marine business, though this was affected by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/0uBWysUostU Part 2 | https://youtu.be/dDXJqIZEsnU Part 3 | https://youtu.be/F877qyiKwWA 00:00 The Container Revolution 04:36 Australian Port Workers 09:19 Chinese Ports 16:45 My Time at NOL 21:52 Discussion of the NOL Question 29:38 Killing the Golden Goose? 34:58 Buying Ships at Singapore Shipping 40:16 Odesta & Venturing into Business 49:56 Crisis in 1997 54:58 Office at Golden Mile Complex 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