First Officer likes to bake for the crew
In profile: Svea Harder, First Officer on the “Budapest Express”.
Shipping was one of the main topics of conversation around the dinner table at home. But when your father is a sailor and your mother a shipping agent, that’s hardly a surprise. Svea Harder has been talking about shipping since she was a little girl in their apartment in Moorburg. The quiet Hamburg suburb borders on the Container Terminal Altenwerder – an idyllic town on the edge of the busy city. Growing up, Harder’s home and garden were not only filled with cats and chickens, but also tales of far-off lands that her father brought back with him from his travels. Going to sea herself, however, was not something Svea Harder had considered as an adolescent. That is, until she accompanied her father on a longer trip on the “Humboldt Express” shortly before she finished school. The trip showed her what she could expect from a life on the waves. Her mind was made up and her career path was set.
As a first officer, the 30-year-old now bears a great deal of responsibility on Hapag-Lloyd ships such as the “Budapest Express” (8,750 TEU). Her main roles lie in managing cargo and safety, leading the deck crew and acting as a deputy for the master. “Working independently and taking responsibility, being part of a team, always being on the move, concentrating hard on the different tasks you have to do on board – that’s what I love about my job”, says Svea Harder. And she also likes the other side of things: being able to switch off completely in her free time. Last autumn she was made Chief Mate. “That means more responsibility, but I love a challenge.”
She began her training with Hapag-Lloyd as a nautical officer’s assistant in 2008. Her group was the first to work on the new “Kuala Lumpur Express” training ship. “It was like a class trip”, remembers Harder. “The master let us go on-shore to explore a few times, we even went to the Great Wall of China.” She then spent four years studying nautical science, spending a full year at sea in total. In 2014, Harder started as nautical officer on watch on board the “Budapest Express”, the container ship she most recently worked on over New Year’s Eve. “You can see how important that trip I went on when I was 18 was for my career. The job on board has proven to be exactly what I’d expected.”
The issue of “women on board” is one that still affects Harder. She has seen first-hand, as many women in the still male-dominated field of shipping have, that some colleagues feel they either need to protect her or test her limits. She is almost always the only female crew member on board. But she deals with this masterfully and makes it clear quickly that she can handle things herself. “You have to leave your feminine charm at home. But if you know what you’re doing, you’ll very rarely have any problems on our ships”, says Harder. But she doesn’t feel the need to hide who she is: When she has some free time on board, she likes to bake cakes with the ship’s cook – much to the delight of the rest of the crew.
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