On board we all get the possibility to absolve internships. That means we can help in different jobs on the ship. There are three kinds of internships, the engineer, the boatswain and the galley steward.
The placements are basically 3 days (the other 3 days we have school lessons) and instead of being on watch, we can learn a lot about the special tasks of these workers and support them in their daily work.
When we are under sail, the engine work is about painting and cleaning the engine room and removing rust everywhere. That could be a little bit boring but is a necessary work because the metallic parts of the engine start to rust very quickly in the salty atmosphere. The trainee also has to check every oil pump before we start the engine.
Another big part of the engineer’s work is to repair all the technical things on our ship and to check the generator. Sometimes, the engineer is our plumber too. That means he has to un-block toilets and fix broken pumps. I think the engine internship is the one where you need your working overall the most. You always know who made the engineer internship because these guys are always very dirty.
The boatswain is responsible for every wooden part of our home and for the rigging, too. I spent most of the time of my internship sanding and varnishing. But there also is a lot of small stuff, like building a shelve for potatoes in the store.
We also assembled repaired blocks. These blocks have got three parts: the wooden case, a steel rod and a plastic plate in the middle. The plate needs to be placed into the wooden case and the steel rod fits into an hole through both parts.
Personally I liked my internship because it was a lot of woodworking. For example, the boatswain Elias and I sanded and revarnished skylight frames. This was very interesting and it is a good feeling at the end of the day when you see what you have done.
Another source for work is the ‚Bessi‘ . This is the safety system on board that ascertains that everything is checked in certain intervals. So we had to check every block and rope in the rigging.
Last but not least the galley steward internship: Basically being a galley steward means preparing the food for the galley and refilling stuff like pepper, salt, sugar etc.
The trainee has also to spend a lot of time on storing food and cleaning all the stores and the freezer room. This is very important because if our food gets infected we all could get ill.
But as a galley steward trainee you are also allowed to create delicious drinks like a self-made ice tea for everybody.