Steeled offers a peek into the daredevilry that was the life of Captain Salim Chida. His signature tenacity came out of his struggles as a young merchant marine officer rising through the ranks. As Master, he weathered storms he could not avoid and dared routes avoided by others with an objective eye on the charts and an instinct honed to measure vessel, sea and wind. His spirit of honor and zero tolerance for injustice endeared him to his subordinates even as it put him at odds with owners.

Captain Chida’s easy narrative style reflects his lived experiences, from his boyhood fascination with ships to his bittersweet retirement from a spotless career at sea.

About the Author

Salim Chida was born in Chennai in 1947. His family moved to Kochi soon after his birth. He grew up in Fort Kochi and Willingdon Island. His childhood and adolescence were marked by incessant play down on the beach or up in the mango orchards of his neighborhood.

He had just begun college with a major in Physics when financial hardship loomed over the family. Salim applied to join the Training Ship Dufferin in 1964 and made the cut. Two years of rigorous training followed.

After graduating from Dufferin, Salim began his career at sea as Cadet Officer. In less than eight years, he earned his master’s certificate. He went on to serve as master on several international sea-going vessels. He worked on offshore supply vessels supporting drilling ships off the coast of Mumbai, and as a pilot in the Chennai Port Trust and later in the King Fahad Port of Yanbu. He commanded a series of Capesize bulk-carriers in the latter years of his career.

Captain Salim Chida retired from the merchant navy in 1998 after an illustrious and spotless thirty-year career at sea. Soon after retirement, he migrated to America with his wife to live with his son. Less than a year later, his wife lost her battle with cancer. Salim would never fully recover from that. He lived out his retirement keeping busy, mostly driving a school bus for children with special needs.

A year before he died, he finally relented to his son’s pleas and penned a memoir of his time at sea. He was done with a first draft in March of 2024. In August, Salim Chida passed away at home in Chicago. He is survived by three sons and nine grandchildren.