2024-07-26 12:16:06
Hence the idea, to say the least original, that Abdelfattah Bouzoubaa, former Captain of the Long-Cours of the merchant navy and privileged witness of this flourishing period, had to create a virtual maritime museum dedicated to the preservation of the memory of this part of the recent history of the Kingdom.
“The aim of the museum is to preserve the country’s maritime memory for future generations and potentially revitalise the Moroccan (maritime) industry,” said Mr Bouzoubaa, who worked in particular within the Moroccan Navigation Company (COMANAV) and as an advisor to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), in an interview with MAP.
Driven by the desire to preserve documents and archives dating from this period, he recently donated to “Archives du Maroc” the collection which he used for the creation of the virtual museum of the Moroccan merchant navy (
“This donation aims to contribute to enriching the History of Morocco. This is better understood when it is illuminated by small stories such as those told in the documents given to “Archives du Maroc””, explains Mr. Bouzoubaa, who also holds the rank of Commander of the Merchant Navy.
“I thought that the best way to preserve the work done would be to entrust it to this institution whose vocation is precisely to preserve public and private archives,” he adds.
Inaugurated in 2022, the virtual merchant navy museum is a collection including brochures from Moroccan shipowners, monographs and emblems of shipping companies, correspondence, photographs as well as technical descriptions of Moroccan ships, among others.
Most of these archives and documents were collected by Commander Bouzoubaa during his long career, making them freely accessible today on the virtual museum website, a true showcase of this flourishing era of the merchant navy in Morocco.
A keen connoisseur of the national and international maritime environment, Mr. Bouzoubaa recalls that at its peak, in the late 1980s, the Moroccan merchant navy had a commercial fleet of around 70 vessels of all types: container ships, refrigerated ships, general cargo ships, chemical tankers, oil tankers, bulk carriers and car ferries.
Moroccan chemical tanker and refrigerated ship fleets occupied an important place internationally in their respective markets, while car ferries provided more than half of the passenger traffic between Morocco and southern Europe, he testifies.
“All this existed at one point in time, and it was necessary to keep a memory of it. That’s what I tried to do,” says Mr. Bouzoubaa, for whom it is important to “keep a trace of this heritage for future generations.”
At the time of the golden age of the Moroccan merchant navy, there were about twenty shipping companies, two of which were public. “These companies published brochures to present their services and their ships, and by a happy coincidence, I kept them,” he recalls.
Mr. Bouzoubaa also wanted to preserve “the photographs, some in black and white, others in color, of Moroccan ships that no longer exist today or that are no longer under the Moroccan flag.”
“It’s interesting to see how a shipping company is born, develops and changes hands or disappears,” says the former Commander, who has sailed the four corners of the globe. He has always been passionate about the seafaring profession and he highly recommends it to young Moroccans.
“In my time at the maritime school, there were no girls, it was a boys’ job. Today, at the Higher Institute of Maritime Studies (ISEM) in Casablanca, half of the students are girls, it is a very important change that reflects the evolution of Moroccan society.”
“The job of merchant navy officer is very educational and requires a good knowledge of English because it is the language of international shipping,” insists Mr. Bouzoubaa.
As for the constraints, the former ship captain does not hide the difficulties of the sailor’s job.
“When you are at sea, you can be away from your family for months. The job is hard, of course, but it is well paid and, once you have gained experience, it is easy to find a position in land-based functions for those who want it,” he assures.
“What you also need to know is that at the international level, it is considered that there is a shortage of approximately 30,000 navigating officers for the world’s merchant fleet. It is a very globalised profession (…) so there is work internationally,” he explains, adding that many young officers have started a career as navigators in international shipping companies.
2024-07-26 12:16:06