Captain, photographer and proud father: Captain Uwe Fiedler

In addition to being a captain, Uwe Fiedler is also an amateur photographer with his own website. If you click through his photos, you might get the feeling that the man has been travelling all over the world and has a good eye for unusual scenes. An encounter at the St. Pauli Piers in Hamburg.

Like many of his colleagues, Fiedler got the seafaring bug early on. “My father was a captain, and he took me on board when I was only four. He owned the ‘Göteborg’, a coaster built in 1948, and he mainly sailed on the North and Baltic seas.” The 63-year-old fondly recalls the countless summer vacations spent at sea. “At our house, there’s still a photo on the wall showing me as a young boy wrapped in blankets sitting between my big sisters on the hatch cover.”

Right after graduating from high school, the 18-year-old enlisted in the German Navy, where he spent eight years as a navigator learning seafaring in a much more disciplined environment. “There was a strict hierarchy, and sometimes things were said in a harsh voice.” With this experience and his subsequent studies to obtain his nautical license, Fiedler was able to join the merchant marine and see the whole world. “I’ve witnessed first-hand how shipping has completely transformed in recent decades, and I remember the time when people navigated using a sextant and visual radio direction finder. Today, a GPS device tells you your position in a matter of seconds.”

Those early years had lasting influence on this 2-metre-tall man with steel-grey eyes. “I’d describe myself as a rather strict captain,” he says. “As the head of the crew, you bear an incredible amount of responsibility. A loaded ship can be worth up to a billion dollars, and if the crew isn’t functioning well, you have a real problem on your hands.” Nevertheless, he adds, it’s important to always think about yourself, too. “After all, you’re alone as the boss. You have to be careful not to overestimate yourself.”

The dozen years he has worked for Hapag-Lloyd have been his best at sea, the captain says. In fact, there are only a few things about his seafaring job that he doesn’t like. This definitely includes the countless official regulations around the world. “For example, there is garbage separation on board, which of course we take seriously. But, in China, they searched us until they eventually found a small plastic lid in the trash can in the engine room, which resulted in a reprimand, even though the guys in the port were throwing all the separated garbage back together again.” Or take a very recent example in South Africa. “The authorities kept poking around until they found a few beer bottles on the crew. Each of them received a $150 fine, which is just insane!” Fiedler thinks that 9/11 is one of the reasons behind this trend, saying that “everything has gotten a lot more restrictive since then.”

On his countless voyages, the captain has always sought to strike a good balance between adventure and relaxation – whether he paddles down the Yukon River alone in a canoe (after being inspired by Jack London’s novel “Burning Daylight”), kayaks 1,500 kilometres along the coast of Greenland or travels through Scandinavia with his wife, a shipbroker by trade. “We are particularly big fans of Norway and Sweden. It’s no coincidence that our daughter’s name is Svea.” And even if he doesn’t want to shout it from the rooftops, the 32-year-old is also sailing for Hapag-Lloyd these days – as a chief officer.

“We also sailed together once on the ‘Kuala Lumpur’ during her training period. During the day, I was a strict captain and, in the evening, she scarfed down all my chips on the sofa,” Fiedler says with a laugh. The fact that the two of them arrange to spend an hour together over coffee in Hong Kong when their ships are in the same port fits in with the family’s philosophy of life. Or, as Fielder puts it: “If you’ve grown up like us, you can never become a tax inspector.”