Sea

Spausdinti   Supplement to article

New tradition emerges to honor people who have given their best years to the sea.

Maritime holidays

Lithuanian seamen will be awarded with a new award, Marine Veteran’s badge. At the same time, they will be given a special certificate. Each badge will have its own unique number. This award was established by Lithuanian Seamen’s Union and the Association of Marine Veterans.

“I hope that the first badges will be awarded on May 20^th, which is European Maritime Day,”- claimed the chairman of Lithuanian Seamen’s Union Petras Bekeza.

The award will be given during state and marine festivals, institutions and organizations celebrations, public holidays and personal anniversaries. Special commission will be established to decide on the awards. The chairman of the commission is Petras Bekeza and his assistant is Sea Veterans Chairman Vytautas Petrulis. Other members include the representative of Sea Captain’s Club Algirdass Kulbokas, Executive Director of Lithuanian Free Shipping Association Gintautas Kutka and Lithuanian Maritime Safety Administration Deputy Director Robertinas Tarasevicius.

Lots of candidates

Label of Marine Veteran will be awarded for those seamen who spent working no less than 12.5 years and have a common employment in the sea of 20 years. The purpose of these awards is to notice best sailors, who are dedicated to their work and have helped to promote culture of shipping, maritime tradition and contribute to raising the prestige of Lithuania as a sea country. Another goal of the award is to extinguish seamen who save human life and sea property. Also, sailors who are working for sea port companies in developing maritime transport and implementing advanced manufacturing technologies will be able to qualify for the award. Separate awards will be given for those sailors who became university lecturers and training center’s teachers who are contributing in preparing specialists by using progressive methodologies, propagating maritime culture and traditions and publishing educational textbooks.

The second badge

Since 2004, Lithuania has an award for a Sea Transport Employee. Its founder is the Ministry of Transport. Every year this award is provided for 10 to 30 specialists of this area. The purpose of Marine Veteran award is to notice not only those working in the field, but also contributing publicly for the marine culture. The founders of award want people to nominate specialists who are noticed in their service. The desire is to involve a lot of people in the process. In such a way, the award tries to unite people and to strengthen the link in maritime community. The idea to have these awards was raised last year. The sketch was selected from five other options. The winner author was Vitalija Miciene. Badges were made by a company named Telsiai Practice. According to Mr. Bekeza, the tradition to award a badge was taken by Klaipeda City Municipality, Lithuanian Shipowners’ Association, Klaipeda Sea Cargo Company, Sailors’ Credit Union, Association Sea Veterans and Lithuanian Seamen’s Union.