The maritime shipping lane from China to Europe is a golden route, with trade volumes between countries along the Belt and Road Initiative keeping vessels busy. However, the day-to-day life of a sailor at sea remains something virtually unknown to many people.
Is it dangerous? Or is working on the oceans a romantic experience? Sailors on a cargo ship Virgo of the China COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., Ltd shared their work and life at sea in a recent interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Navigating at full speed, Virgo is carrying some 20,000 containers from China to Europe. To make sure the goods are shipped on time, sailors work around the clock to check on all the machines and other equipment.
"Our high voltage generator may have problems sometimes. When you deal with those problems, the risk can be high. Because you can't tell where the fault lies, exactly where it is," said Wang Wei, an electrical engineer.
The manufacturing of giant vessels has now become a lot more modern. Many of the vessel's functions are now automated, no longer needing as many crew members to operate the ship manually. But that does not mean the job is easier. Instead, crew members have to be even more knowledgeable and ready to deal with hundreds of emergencies every day.
On land, we have all kinds of technical support, but on the ocean we have to completely rely on ourselves, said Xu Yundong, chief engineer of Virgo.
The working environment on cargo ship is noisy and the temperature is high. Take Virgo as an example, as the ship travels on the Red Sea, it is 40 degrees in the engine cabin. Workers have to wear gloves and thick uniforms so that they won't get burned.
Over the past years, vessels from Asia and Europe are getting larger because the trade volume increases and shipping costs are lower. But for sailors, their jobs are getting tougher. More work on ships needs to be done, but there are fewer people. One of the reasons is that sailors work far from land and many people are not familiar with what they do. Therefore, few college graduates will choose this job.
"This job has no competitiveness when compared with other professions, nor any advantages over them," said Wang.
He hoped there can be more understanding and promotion of his job so young talents can come to join the industry.
Sources:cctvplus
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