Meet Pooja Chathoth, India’s First and Only Female Ship Surveyor

A ship surveyor is an integral part of shipping, tasked with monitoring whether a ship is built, repaired or recycled per rules laid down by ship classification societies such as the United Kingdom-based Lloyd’s Register and conform to other statutory regulations.

Like Indian women seafarers before her, Pooja has managed to break another glass ceiling in the Indian shipping sector as a ship surveyor.

Born and raised in India’s southern state of Kerala, Pooja didn’t have any clue about her ‘feat’ till she joined training at Lloyd’s Register more than two years ago.

After completing her Bachelor’s degree in naval architecture from the Sree Narayana Gurukulam College of Engineering in Kochi, Pooja tried her hand to join the Indian Navy, which, she said, was her “big ambition”. “But it didn’t work out,” she said with a chuckle, clad in a bright orange suit with ‘LR’ embossed on it.

Prior to joining Lloyd’s Register, Pooja worked for a marine and offshore design firm in Kochi or Cochin, which is fast emerging as a maritime hub. She soon realised she was not cut out for a “desk job”, saying she “always wanted to be physically active”.

Her parents were cool about their daughter’s choice of profession.

 “My family had an idea what I am going to do once I got the job. I had told them what Lloyd’s Register is, what the value of LR is. They are very proud of me being a LR surveyor… There is no barrier for women, she says, to take up ship surveying as a career.

“Physical fitness is required because for each survey we have to go on board the vessel, we have to see each nook and corner of the ship, it can be a normal place, sometimes we have to crawl and go inside a small tank and sometimes we have to climb. So physical fitness is very much important. Pooja explained to dispel the notion that surveying ‘work’ is not for women.

The safety of the vessel is key to surveying.

“That is the most important role of a classification society; to ensure that the ship possesses the relevant certificates to be fit to sail. Currently, I am concentrating on hybrid type general cargo vessels because I am in new construction. I know more about that, but I have been to a lot of bulk carriers, LNG/LPG vessels and FPSO (floating production, storage and offshore),” she revealed.

As a surveyor, her task is to ensure that the ship is constructed per class rules framed by Lloyd’s Register as well as other statutory regulations.

“My task is to verify these things; at the end of the day, I will issue certificates on behalf of Lloyd’s Register and the flag administration (where the vessel is registered). This is mostly common for all vessels; only small changes will be there depending on the type of vessels. If I have any concerns, I can tell it to the shipyard or the ship owner. It is our responsibility to support our clients (ship owners and shipyards) and if they are making some mistakes, to guide them and take it to the right path. So, it’s a teamwork,” she pointed out.

The fact that ship survey work does not have a ‘specific timing’ fit well with her personality. On some days, she works from 9 to 5, on some other days, she works during night and sometimes in early morning. It depends on the type of survey to attend to, she mentioned…

With shipping moving big time into green technology to meet climate change goals, how does she update herself with the latest developments in the industry? “Most of the recent updates are there inside LR only. Secondly, I like writing technical papers and I’m used to researching a lot. The best part is that I have a super cool professor from my college with whom I am in touch with. We used to jointly write technical papers and that’s how I improved my knowledge,” she said.

·       Tags : Lloyds Register, Naval architecture, Pooja Chathoth, Ship designing, Ship surveying