Follow the fortunes of a P&O engineer as he rises through the ranks and sees the world. In this promotional…
Sarfaraz Khan was one of many South Asian seafarers who worked on P&O’s ships. In his long career, Khan rose to the rank of chief engine room serang, and persuaded family and fellow villagers to join him at sea.
Sarfaraz Khan was born at the beginning of the twentieth century in Zarobi, a village in Pakistan, which was then part of the British Raj. As a young man, he followed three generations of his family and joined the Indian Army. During the first world war, he served in Palestine and Mesopotamia.
Unlike previous generations, Khan set his sights on a career at sea. In 1921, he travelled to Bombay (now Mumbai) and joined the engine room crew on the P&O passenger liner MOREA. South Asian seafarers, popularly known as ‘lascars’, were employed on P&O ships from the 1840s.
From Zarobi to Arcadia
Kahn rose through the ratings, switching from steam to turbo-electric engines on the new ‘STRATH’ liners of the 1930s. In 1954, he was appointed to a supervisory role of chief engine room serang on ARCADIA (1954), reporting to the Chief Engineer.
He had been the first, and only, seafarer from Zarobi. When he returned, it was in his capacity as a serang, to recruit 56 men from his village (and surrounding area) to serve with him on the new liner.
In the late 1950s, P&O ran a series of advertisements in the UK’s national press under the heading ‘Men of the Ships’. Khan was one of the few non-European crew members to feature; revered for his experience in the engine room: “under his exacting eye it will gleam like a hospital clinic.”
Making a mark
In 1961, 40 years after joining P&O, Khan was awarded the British Empire Medal for “long and faithful service to the British Merchant Marine”. At the same time, he was appointed to CANBERRA, the company’s latest and largest liner.
In his long and impressive career, Khan made his mark on P&O and inspired many, including his own family, to follow him.
