Fueling Connectivity: The life of sailors on vessels carrying cargo from China to Europe

World
Europe

02:39

The maritime sea lane from China to Europe is a golden route, with trade volumes between countries along the belt keeping vessels busy. But the day-to-day life of a sailor at sea is a mystery to many people. Is it dangerous? Or is working on the oceans a romantic experience? CGTN reporter Zhao Yunfei traveled with COSCO SHIPPING's Virgo vessel to find out what a sailor's life is like.

Maneuvering at full speed, this cargo vessel is carrying some 20,000 containers from China to Europe. To make sure the goods are shipped on time, engineers are working around the clock, checking on all of the machines. It's routine maintenance. The main generator is the electric system and the heart of the entire ship.

WANG WEI ELECTRICAL ENGINEER "If anything goes wrong with this generator, we're usually not sure which part is faulty until after a lot of investigation. That's a potential risk. To figure out the mistakes, we have to operate safely."

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 doesn't mean the job is easier. Instead, crew members have to be even more knowledgeable and ready to deal with hundreds of alerts per day.

XU YUNDONG CHIEF ENGINEER "On land, there's all kind of technical support. But on the ocean, we have to completely rely on ourselves."

ZHAO YUNFEI COSCO SHIPPING VIRGO "The working environment is noisy, and the temperature is high. As we are now traveling on the Red Sea, it's 40 degrees down here in the engine cabin. That's why workers have to wear gloves and thick uniforms, so that they won't get burned."

Over the past years, the vessels from Asia and Europe are getting larger. As the trade volume increases, shipping costs lower. But for sailors, their jobs are getting tougher. More work on ships needs to be done, but there are fewer people.

WANG WEI ELECTRICAL ENGINEER "We sailors are seldom understood by society. This job has no advantages compared with other ones. Because we work far from land, many people are not familiar with what we do. Few college graduates choose this industry."

The engineer vows for more social recognition. He says more education should be done to improve the skills necessary to work in such conditions. Zhao Yunfei, CGTN, on the COSCO SHIPPING Virgo.