The choice of former captain Ben Kollen

It is possible: retiring early

He enjoyed his work, but the lack of sleep and the responsibility exhausted Ben Kollen (65). He decided to retire early and has not regretted it one bit.

Cycling, photography, travelling with his wife in their motor home: Ben has not had time to be bored since he retired. “My days are well filled, definitely”, he laughs. “I was planning to read more, but I haven't got around to doing it yet.” Ben sailed as a captain with P&O Ferries from Rotterdam to Hull, on a cruise ferry with all the trimmings: 550 cabins, restaurants, a casino, cinemas, shops and other entertainment. “We left Rotterdam in the evening with about 150 crew members and 1,000 passengers and arrived in Hull the next morning. The next night we sailed back.” Management board Ben compares his job as a captain with that of a management board chairman of a company. “On board a ship, the heads of the maritime department, the technical department and the hotel department sit on that board. I managed them. And of course it was my responsibility to get the ship safely from A to B.” Ben and the first officer both had pilot's licences and sailed the ship in and out of the port. “In Europort Rotterdam that route is an hour, but Hull is further inland. Then you were busy for two, two-and-a-half hours. So I went to bed late and was up early in the morning.” And he didn't always get much sleep either. “I was on call in the case of emergencies. For example, in the case of a medical problem with a passenger. Sometimes you could solve that with advice over the radio, sometimes a helicopter had to come and take the passenger off board. Another thing that did happen was that passengers became too noisy. They used to party along the way and sometimes it got out of hand.” Even for the sailing itself – basically in the hands of the maritime department – Ben sometimes had to get out of bed at night. “For example, if there was mist or a lot of traffic.”