“… a ship isn’t meant to be in port. She’s supposed to be at sea.” (Eight Bells and Top Masts – Diaries from a tramp steamer Christopher Lee 2001)
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It's foggy, so I'll employ the time usefully.
The M/V (Motor Vessel) Amber is owned by CMA CGM. Compagnie Générale Maritime and Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement merged in 1996 and have become the world's third largest container shipping firm. 396 ships are in the fleet, although CMA CGM 'only' owns 91.
Here are two shots of Amber, one given by the chief mate and the other by CMA CGM, as it's difficult for a traveller to take a photo. Port security and finding a convenient location for pictures of a very big object mean I'm grateful for these.
Built in a South Korean shipyard, Amber is three years old, a lumbering workhorse of the sea, a cookie cutter container ship. She's representative of her kind - vital, unremarkable vessels conveying the world's essentials and not-so-essential 'stuff'. The throwaway figure is that 90% of international trade moves by water; that includes not just containers, but tankers with oil, bulkers with ore and grains, specialized ships for cars, livestock and so on.
Amber's home port, as you can see above, is London. I am on a ship registered for tax advantages in the UK, belonging to a French firm, but owned through a holding company based in Ireland, and crewed by Croatians, one Montenegrin and Filipinos. There's not a Brit aboard this 'British' ship, unless you count me and I'm also Canadian. Globalization, indeed.
Since it's misty, I'll use shots from our first two days. The bridge is quiet at sea with only an officer and watchman.
This is taken from the port bridge wing. What's in all those containers? More in another posting.
The crew is busy with routine maintenance.
Denis took this shot of me on the mooring deck (over the 'M' in 'CGM' in the picture of the ship's stern). In potentially dangerous areas, we wear hardhats.
The stern, above the blue-green froth, reverberates with the engine's power.
It’s a metal sea cave, the waves' clamour and thump of the screw rebounding in the steel chamber. Sense of speed and roll are accentuated and, in rough weather with a shifting horizon, the view from here is one of the most dramatic on the ship.
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“Have a good time on the tramp steamer,” said an acquaintance before I left. She was probably thinking of vessels with no fixed itinerary save that dictated by irregular cargo; perhaps she also had some hazy vision of a picturesque cargo ship puffing its way from port to exotic port.
Amber and other utilitarian, CMA CGM 'box boats' on this route use the same, standardized terminals and attempt to stick to precise schedules. We should be arriving in Morocco about noon on September 10.
