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Myomalwin
In 1941, at the age of fourteen, K.T Lwin, son of nationally well-known educator Sayagyi U Ba Lwin of Myoma High School left home and went overseas to join the I.M.M.T.S, Dufferin, in Bombay as a c...view moreIn 1941, at the age of fourteen, K.T Lwin, son of nationally well-known educator Sayagyi U Ba Lwin of Myoma High School left home and went overseas to join the I.M.M.T.S, Dufferin, in Bombay as a cadet. After he successfully completed a three year course and was ready to pursue a merchant marine career, the British Governor of Burma desired that he should join the Kings Royal Navy. The author therefore joined the Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, a small but elite volunteer coastal force consisting of naval gunboats operating on the Arakan front against the Japanese. He achieved his first command of a gunboat at the age of nineteen in the Burma R.N.V.R and transferred to the Burma Navy in 1948 when Burma achieved Independence, and was awarded the title of Sithu for meritorious service in the Navy.
He joined the first Burmese owned ship, S.S. Pyidawtha and later became the first Burmese harbour pilot at the Port of Rangoon before promotion to Harbour Master. In 1959 he transferred his services to the Burma Five Star Line as Marine Superintendent and Head of Technical Division. In 1971, he established Burmas first Institute of Marine Technology as Principal before retiring from Government after thirty years. He pursued a shipping management career in Singapore and in Thailand where he managed the first Thai privately owned liner shipping companies until 1980. Since then, he has established his own family crew management company which provides a full complement of trained Burmese seagoing personnel to foreign ship owners which employs over four hundred seafarers.
Now at eighty nine, Capt. Lwin still attends office daily and travels extensively between Myanmar, Thailand and Australia where his four children five grandchildren and two great grandsons live. He likes to be known as the only Master Mariner who has acquired more flying time than sea service.view less