A view from the Bridge

摘要

When did you first go to sea? I am from Aland, Finland, which makes me Finnish, but I speak Swedish. I went to sea when I was 15 years old as a deckhand. I wanted to go when I was 14, but my parents refused to sign the papers until I finished my schooling, on the last day of school, I finished at 1200 and was on board the ship at 1500. Since that day, I have been working at sea. How has your career developed? I started with Viking Line as a deckhand, working on steam cargo vessels taking paper from Finland to England and coal from Poland to Finland. I had to clean the cargo hold so that it could take paper again, and this was back-breaking work. I became an ordinary seaman with Viking and went on to tankers, becoming a boatswain on a ferry between Finland and Sweden. At 21,1 was offered a job as a pilot, so had to go back to school for three months to get my pilot's licence.