Anyone In The Merchant Navy ?

[crookedspire]

When I was younger I did think about joining the Merchant Navy and sailing the seven seas alas I didn't join. Is their anyone on here in the Merchant Navy or has family in it I'm just curious to know how it works in regarding employment and the up and downs of it?

[tzijlstra]

My best friend of old worked his way up to chief engineer on specialised 'super ships' laying telecom and gas cables all over the oceans. He settled down and studied his backside off to become a pilot for the Rotterdam Harbour Authority.

 

He liked it in particular because of the great earnings (he bought a house outright aged 30, no mortgage, no nonsense - when you earn over 50K euros a year and can't spend it on anything whilst away saving becomes very easy), you do get to travel a lot. But, and it is a big but: A sea is a sea is a sea. And most of the time that is all you see. Most other crew tends to be Filipino or Russian and they keep to themselves, so at times it is pretty lonely as well.

 

Travel mainly consists of docking up (or hopping on a helicopter off-shore), go straight to the nearest airport and fly home. Of course he did manage to stay in places he thought were interesting every now and then, but that comes out of your own time, when you spent two months on the sea you are usually pretty keen to see friends and family again - in particular when you have a girl at home!

 

He doesn't miss it now, his current job as a pilot pays the same and is far more regular, he can enjoy his little kid and soon to be wife whilst working 4 days on/3 off.