At home in both worlds: Captain Gerd Rohden

After 28 years at sea, Captain Gerd Rohden made the move to the other side of the quay wall. Gerd Rohden manages a 42-strong team in Hamburg and Genoa who are responsible for all aspects of the stowage process. “We ensure that the right ship gets the right containers in the right port at the right time.” To this day, this still involves a lot of manual work, coordination and negotiation. The land captain loves the variety of his on-shore role: “Whether you’re calculating the hydrodynamic draft of the ships or the verified gross weight of the containers, you need an awful lot of knowledge.”

Conquering the world from an East Frisian town of 13,000 people? It couldn’t be simpler. “I was born in Uthwerdum in the heart of East Frisia, went to school in Aurich and then applied to a shipping company in Leer. Three days after I finished my final exams, I jumped on board a 999 GRT coaster, sailed along the Ems to the Dollart, and then I was off.” As he talks, Gerd Rohden traces the route with his finger on a small globe in his office. It’s an unusual globe, since all it shows is Rohden’s home region of East Frisia. After 28 years at sea, the captain decided to cross to the other side of the quay wall to become Director Marine Operations at the Hapag-Lloyd headquarters. There, he and his team coordinate and process around 7,500 port calls in the Region Europe every year.

Rohden began his career in the 1980s. “The job of a sailor was changing as the ships became increasingly modernised, and the traditional division between sailors and engine mechanics was becoming less clear-cut. So I decided to train as a ship’s mechanic. Metalworking and processing and mechanical engineering were all part of it,” remembers the 54-year-old. He earned his licence as a nautical officer on watch in 1990 and immediately applied to Hapag-Lloyd. “It was new that you could become a ship operations officer, qualifying as both a technical and a nautical officer.” Once he had his technical licence, Rohden was employed as a ship operations officer and first officer until 2000, when he became a captain at age 36. At 40, he took over the “Frankfurt Express,”, where he was also responsible for training young seamen and women. “It was a stroke of luck. At 16, I had wanted to drop out of school to start working on the ‘Frankfurt Express,’ the world’s largest container ship at the time. But my mother wouldn’t let me. Now I was on deck as its captain, even if it was 24 years later.”

Rohden first read the job description for the Director Marine Operations in 2010. “I didn’t plan on coming back on shore at all, but I was curious and decided to ask the HR department what the role involved.” It was an interesting conversation, and at the end there was just one question left to answer: “When can you start?” “I brought the ‘Hannover Express’ into the Port of Hamburg in mid-September, and six weeks later I moved into my office on Ballindamm.”

Though settled in his job today, in hindsight he sees the move from sea to land was not without challenges. “It was a completely new world for me. The skills I had as a captain didn’t always fit the new role. A captain is a straight-talker, there’s no discussion. On board, you can’t afford to do things any other way. But on land, you have to involve a wider circle of people and come to agreements, other people have a say.” Was it an easy transition? “No!” laughs Rohden. “But I had the advantage that a lot of people knew me.” The move also meant a change to his private life: “Suddenly you no longer have three months’ holiday, you’re a weekend commuter. But my wife likes it, I think.”