Uncertainty, carefulness and cohesion: Three captains report on the situation on board

Without “everyday heroes”, these times would be a lot more difficult. Right now, these are especially the supermarket employees, drivers, doctors and nurses who are supplying us with the most crucially needed goods and services. But our seafarers belong in this category, too. They are ensuring that the flow of goods continues uninterrupted – and they are often staying on board beyond the time stipulated by their work contract. We spoke with three captains – Norbert Guehne, Tobias Kammann and Stephan Berger – about the situation on board. This much can be said up front: Spirits continue to be high.

All of you are currently sailing in different directions between Europe, Asia and the Middle East. How has your voyage been so far?

Guehne: So far, it’s been a very “non-boring” trip for us because we’ve been incredibly busy. When we cast off in Europe, everything was still calm. We had our first coronavirus-related experience in the Suez Canal, when the pilots came on board wearing protective masks and deliberately avoided shaking hands. In Jeddah, all official visitors came on board with protective masks, disposable overalls and rubber gloves.

We are doing our part to keep our ship “healthy”. We have received detailed guidelines and codes of conduct for doing this from Fleet Management in Hamburg, and they apply to all ships.

Berger: As difficult as it is to be unable to go ashore, it’s just one of the many security measures we’ve taken to safeguard the ship and crew. For us, social distancing mostly means avoiding contact with outsiders as much as possible. This is working surprisingly well in the Mediterranean region. And our collaboration with the pilots is fantastic, too. We keep our distance, and the pilots try not to touch any ship components (radar, radio, etc.).

Nevertheless, after every external contact, we perform a disinfection round and wipe down all components, railings, door handles and elevator buttons. Hand disinfectant has also been set out for the crew at critical locations. Although we might have used it too little before, using it has now increased enormously. This underscores the need to safeguard our crew members.

Kammann: When the initial reports about the coronavirus reached the public in January, we were busy with the Mediterranean ports. Winter storm “Gloria” had caused us some trouble in the middle of the month and mixed up the ports and sailing schedules.

We could see and sense the first onshore measures to halt the spread of coronavirus when we were in Damietta at the beginning of February. Since then, masks have been worn by all crew members who have to be on the open deck in port to oversee loading and unloading operations, take on provisions or equipment, or monitor the bunkering process. Temperature measurement has become a set part of the daily routine on board.

How are spirits on board?

Kammann: Given the circumstances, I think we’re doing fairly well. In fact, our world on board is probably even a bit more normal than their lives back home. Seafarers love set routines, and we are trying to keep them up as much as possible.

Berger: The mood on board is good, everyone is showing understanding for the situation, and we luckily only have a few crew members who were scheduled for a crew change. These have mainly been cancelled due to travel bans and grounded airplanes.

Guehne: The mood on our ship is excellent. I know this from personal conversations, and I can hear it in the guys’ boisterous laughter coming from the recreation room when they are playing foosball there.

Nevertheless, everyone is aware of the uniqueness of this situation. There are a lot of things that everyone is thinking about on board these days. Family is always on top of everyone’s mind, as people naturally like to be able to assist their families. At the same time, we all know that we are in very safe hands here on board. And many of them can support their families through the work they do here.

How are you dealing with the issue of crew changes? And how are your colleagues reacting when they can’t disembark?

Guehne: All of our crew changes have been postponed for the time being. But we regularly receive new assessments of the situation from Hamburg. While the situation seems to be improving in China, a lot of travel restrictions have been imposed in Europe. So we would never even get home from there. We hope that there will be a solution for us seafarers. But until there is, we will simply keep at it.

Berger: Seamen (and, of course, also seawomen) live and work on board for the day they can disembark. It’s hard on them if a crew change is postponed, but then you get a new date that you can work towards. Since that isn’t the case at all right now, it naturally makes things more difficult and causes a lot of uncertainty. What happens if a family member gets ill – and you can’t go to them? Many of us have this fear, the certainty that we won’t be able to be there for our family if worse comes to worst.

Kammann: Of course, the questions that everyone is dealing with now is: How long will these exceptional circumstances last? But, as you know, whether on land or at sea, we’re all dealing with that same issue. We are keeping a close eye on all the graphs and figures here, too, and we hope that the curves will flatten out so that the world will soon return to something resembling normality.

Norbert Guehne, Captain on the “Basle Express”

Guehne embarked in Hamburg in mid-February and currently has a crew of 27 seafarers on board, including three apprentices and a Filipino deck cadet. The “Basle Express” operates in the FE5 service, which connects North Europe with Thailand and Vietnam. The ship had been scheduled to go into dry dock in Qingdao to be outfitted with an exhaust gas cleaning system (i.e. scrubber), but this was postponed due to a lack of manpower in China. When it departs from Qingdao, the “Basle Express” will shift to the MD1 service, which connects the Mediterranean with China and South Korea.

Tobias Kammann, Captain on the “Essen Express”

Kammann has been on board since mid-December. The “Essen Express” is currently operating in the MD1 service of THE Alliance, which connects Asia with the western Mediterranean. At the moment, Kammann and his 26-person crew are sailing west from Singapore to Jeddah on the Indian Ocean. The crew also includes three apprentices, two from Germany and one from the Philippines.

Stephan Berger, Captain on the “Berlin Express”

Captain Berger and some of his European colleagues boarded the “Berlin Express” in Malta in January. The coronavirus was hardly getting any media attention at the time, so it didn’t have any impact on the vessel or its 24-person crew. The “Berlin Express” sails in the IMX service, which connects the Mediterranean with the Middle East and India. The current round voyage in the Mediterranean is a lot different from the last one in January, as no one is permitted to go ashore anymore. Since then, the crew has been confined to a space measuring 320 metres long and 42 metres wide. This also means that the crew is more dependent on suppliers than ever. For example, when no rice was delivered in Valencia, it almost caused an uproar among the crew. Fortunately, some could be delivered later in Barcelona. Since wholesale markets are closed in many countries, it has been impossible to receive supplies of certain products, such as steel and batteries. However, this hasn’t caused any problems to date.