‘They changed the rules during the game’
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Water, sailing, ships: Paul Hagendoorn (57) has been hooked on them since his early childhood. He has been a captain for 23 years and enjoys his work. But the fact that he has to work longer is hard for him.
Last night, he moored in Vlissingen with the cargo ship Atlantic Klipper and its 22-member crew. He has just completed a five-week cargo run. “We sail cargo on a fixed schedule from Vlissingen via Portsmouth in the UK to various islands in the Caribbean and then back to Vlissingen via Colombia and the Dominican Republic. I like this fixed route. I know the pilots, the ports, and that’s nice.” Ships everywhere While the boxes of bananas are being hoisted from the refrigerated hold, Paul offers his thoughts on the shipping industry. “A great profession. That freedom, I love it. Ever since I was a child, my pulse races for anything that floats. In Schiedam, where I was born, I saw it all around me: sea-going ships, shipyards, the Nieuwe Maas river. And everyone there worked in that industry, and I wanted that too. In 1983, I went to the maritime academy in Rotterdam. The shipping company for which I sailed after my training was taken over by Seatrade Groningen BV. I am still working there. We have about forty ships in the fleet.” Bridging arrangement He has been sailing for 36 years and seafaring fits Paul like a glove. But he was not particularly happy when the government decided that seafarers would not be allowed to retire at 57 any longer. “I should have retired by now. But years ago, the bridging pension scheme was scrapped, so we now have to work even longer. The age of 57 was one of the reasons for me to choose this profession, despite being away from home so much. At 57, you are still quite young and fit enough to do fun things. It feels as if they changed the rules during the game.” No steel If Paul had known that at the time, he would not have chosen this job or he would have switched to a job ashore in time. Besides, the age limit was there for a reason. “It’s severely taxing work. You are away from home for a long time and working weeks of seventy hours are no exception. You are always jet-lagged because of the time difference, you don’t sleep much and when the weather is bad, you don’t sleep a wink anyway. There is always noise on the ship and it is physically demanding, with all those stairs on board. Fortunately, from the age of 59, we get six extra days off per year. If I can afford it, I will stop at 62. And then? “Frequent trips to France, where I have a piece of land.” There he finds everything that sailing is not. “No noise, no steel, no phones, no heavy traffic, just greenery.” Secretly, he is already counting down the days. But first, another trip to the Caribbean. Tomorrow night, the Atlantic Klipper will set sail again. ←