Background sound: calls one of the crew members: “Chief supply officer, prepare for the reception. I repeat: “Chief supply officer, prepare for the reception”.

CHIEF SUPPLY OFFICER: We are on the main deck; much time has been spent here. I am Vitalijus Aleksandravičius, the ship’s boatswain. I have been a part of this ship for ten years, since 1999, when we brought her to Lithuania.

CHIEF SUPPLY OFFICER: I miss that youth, when we felt like being immortal, everything was interesting, we had fun, though we knew each other’s limits and didn’t cross them. At sea, we were not only sailors, but also a team working towards a common goal, bound together by work and belief in what we were doing. When someone didn’t do his job, it affected all of us: one person’s negligence could undermine the efforts of five or six people. Doing our jobs honestly and responsibly was like an unwritten rule that we all felt deep in our hearts. There was no room for simulation. The ship was our home and the sea was what connected us.

Background sound: “Your service is over.”

SHIP: Let’s head towards the stern of the ship.

SHIP: We approached an afterdeck. Two underwater robots rest here, waiting to be released into the deep, mysterious sea. Their task is to submerge into the darkness, where the human eye can never reach, and identify what lies beneath, on the seabed. A crane situated on the afterdeck gently lowers them into the water like using a hand, and then gently and slowly returns them to a safe place. This crane is not only a tool, but also a bridge connecting different worlds: the ship and the depths of the sea, the ship and the outside world. The crane carried food supplies on board, lifted boats, rafts or other heavy objects off the boat deck.

CHIEF SUPPLY OFFICER: Mooring of the ship is art and I have always been engaged in it: watching from the deck, letting us to know when we were getting too close. Nevertheless, even the most experienced commanders have left a mark – a small dent in the bow. All the commanders of “Sūduvis” knew which dent was theirs, and they would tell me about it with a smile.

SHIP: Every dent is a silent mark of history. Ships, like people, carry the weight of all the moments of the past. But at the same time, every bump, every mark, every calm day at sea joins the great ocean of history, where every event is a wave that leaves its mark on the shores of eternity.

SHIP: Let’s go inside the ship.