Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1539640
Photographer Alastair Miller talks to Captain Abdel Fattah, as he steers the Viking Aton along the Nile and through ancient history. Conjure up in your mind's eye an image of a cruise ship's captain. Tall? Possibly. Male? Perhaps. A neatly pressed uniform with a glitter of gold braid, as befits his rank? An unmistakable air of authority as he strolls the bridge, in calm command of his vessel? Well, the fabulously named Captain Abdel Fattah Muhammad Khalil Abbas Abu Shouq fits none of these stereotypes—other than being male. The vessel he commands is the Viking Aton, one of the newest Viking river ships sailing the Nile River between Luxor and Aswan. His beard—now turned white—and the turban on his head frame sharp, coal-black eyes that constantly monitor his ship and the river it sails on. He wears a traditional Egyptian galabia, which flutters and flows behind him in the wind. High up on his forehead sits a dark, bruise-like stain, a sign of religious devotion, caused by decades of praying five times a day. Few people alive know this river better than him, with its constantly shifting sandbanks and currents. He has been sailing on it since he was six years old. When I spoke to him (through a translator), he told me about his father, older brother and their felucca sailboat, and how together, they transported cargoes of traditional ceramic water containers from the north of Egypt and delivered them along the Nile. And years later, after getting qualified, completing his military service and marrying a wife chosen by his family, he was offered a job as an assistant captain on an Italian river cruise ship. And now, at age 69, he has spent more than 40 years sailing river cruise ships up and down the Nile. I am curious to know about the difficulties of navigating a ship on the Nile and so he tells me about the high and low water levels, depending on the season. Of hidden rocks, whose position has to be memorized, of sediment deposits and sandbanks that appear and disappear. And of the winds and the currents that can push a ship this way and that. Navigating the Nile is not easy, so at the start of every season he sails alone, in a small felucca, from Luxor to Aswan to inspect the river for himself, leaning over the side of his boat with a long stick, testing the depths of water. Skillfully combining the cutting- edge technological equipment you would expect to find on a modern just-built ship with his decades of experience and intricate knowledge of the river, Captain Abdel proudly guides the Viking Aton safely and efficiently along the legendary Nile. CAPTAIN Abdel Fattah 53 Call us on 138 747 (AU), 0800 447 913 (NZ) or contact your local Viking travel advisor