Does anyone have any experience on booking transport on freighters and other non-cruise ships?
I kindof want to just drift around the Pacific for a bit. I also have a strange desire to be on the bow of a ship in high seas but I doubt that's something you can really plan as a trip.
>>1097433
Have you tried Google? This question comes up from time to time here, usually posed by somebody who thinks it will be a cheap way to travel. (It is not it generally costs more than air travel for a given route.) But many cargo ships have a stateroom or two for passengers that can be "rented," and last time this came up there were a couple of sites for booking them that came up on Google.
I ran across this article yesterday.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1755608-crossing-pacific-slow-hyundai-china.html
>>1097433
I don't know why someone would want to do this other than to sound cool.
It's more expensive than a cruise ship, takes a lot longer than just flying, it's generally pretty boring at sea for that long with no duties to perform.
If you want to go out into the sea on a ship and have an interesting experience, I'd look into research vessels and seeing if you can volunteer or pay to be part of their crew for a voyage.
>>1097433
This thread popa up occasionally. As a merchant mariner, I'll say it's a super try-hard RealTaveler thing to do.
>>1097433
Yes you actually can.
But its fucking expensive as shit believe it or not, and it takes a long amount of time to get anywhere.
There was one guy that posted on how he snuck on board cargo ships back in the day, but apparently nowadays its a very serious crime and you can get in loads of trouble if caught. He also said dont go on Chinese cargo boats without permission because they will literally just throw you overboard if they find you.
>>1097554
>If you want to go out into the sea on a ship and have an interesting experience, I'd look into research vessels
I spent a summer on the research vessel Oregon II in the Gulf of Mexico, tagging shrimp and stuff like that. Was part of a program for college students interested in Marine Biology, to get some field time and try out the life a bit.
Marvelous experience, not sure how I'd go about finding something similar if I was not a student in the field, but it might be worth a try.
>>1098000
Chinese and Taiwanese mariners literally kill people at sea. They give no fucks and they're never punished for it because there's no evidence of their crime and they do it in international waters.
>>1098013
How do we know this? If they kill people, it seems obvious that they're not confessing it. Similarly obvious, the dead aren't either.
I'm not trying to pick a fight, hopefully there's some good stories here. But it just seems like a wive's tale because those darn chinese are just so barbaric and they take our jobs. Please show me how wrong I am so I can revel in morbidity.
>>1098135
A guy from a Taiwanese ship accidentally left his cell phone in a cab and the cab driver found all these videos of them shooting at people on sinking ships in the middle of the ocean. The video is online: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a2a_1408340522
Other than this, it's mostly just stories. It's out in the middle of the ocean so if someone disappears and nobody confesses to anything, it's pretty hard to say they weren't just the victims of some rough surf and be done with it.
>>1097433
I actually have the idea on working in a ship (sent CV to some cruise ship companies, but got not one answer in return) as crew member, and travellig for some time. Since I ca't find a job, I tought this would be easy, but apparently even cutting potatoes is a difficult job to get nowadays
>>1098135
Also a Chinese ship tried ramming into the Argentinian coast guard ship after they tried to get them to stop fishing in territorial waters.
>>1098189
What's your nationality?
>>1098189
Why hire you, when the entire crew is Filipino, willing to work for 1/10 your salary and can speak English and Tagalog?
>>1098295
I wanted this event to start wwIII.
Sadly, it didn't.
>>1099127
I have an acquaintaince that worked for 2 years on a ship. Don't know how she got the job though.
