Evergreen?

[Thesealife]

Hi, was wondering if anyone could give me any information on the company 'Evergreen'. I was recently offered deck cadet sponsorship with SSTG and was given a choice of 2 company's due to how late I was in the application process for January intake, the two company's were evergreen and navalmar so i opted for Evergreen. I realise i will be at sea for quite a while at a time (3-6 months) and also know i will be with a foreign crew and be prepared to a change in diet but was wondering if anyone had any information on the company 'Evergreen' as i have looked around the web and haven't found much so any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks again

[Randomist]

Hi Thesealife!

As a cadet I would have thought that a 6 month continuous sea phase would be unlikely, however you can expect to be away for extended periods yes. I know a few people who sailed with evergreen, they don't seem to be new to having cadets. This is their official site: http://www.evergreen-line.com/ hope you find what you're looking for.

[billwillis]

I'm looking to get on a HNC next September; and I've recently been pondering the different companies, and ship types etc. Looking at their website, and company information, they look like a company that I would certainly consider; at face value anyway. Their goals, or "visions" run in tandem with my views on, well, primarily how stupid humanity in general is with it's attitudes towards the environment, and that efforts need to be made. It's nice to see a company that appears to be singing from the same hymn sheet as me. I'd like to point out, that I'm not one of those 'work a day for world peace' eco warriors, by any stretch of the imagination.

Good luck with them, and if you think on, come back and let us know how it goes with them; as I for one am interested in the company now.

Dan

[EH75]

I'm with Evergreen. They are ok. Standard foreign tonnage tax company really. Most of the officers are ok although there is a bit of a language barrier and as none of them have gone through the UK cadet system then sometimes it is difficult because they don't know how it works. However as long as you are forthcoming and ask them questions they will usually do their best to help you out. Obviously you won't get a job at the end of it because they don't employ British officers. The facilities on board are pretty good, cabins are absolutely massive and there is a gym, dvd library etc. The food is obviously all chinese but it is mostly fine. Gets a bit samey after 4 months but then I suppose that would be the same with everything. You will probably be on the Europe to China service, which is about an 9 week return trip but you will probably do more than one trip continuously. I did two and was away for four and a half month. Was allowed off in every port but that sort of thing is probably dependant on the captain. I think most of them are pretty laid back about that sort of thing though.

[GuinnessMan]

Stay out of the liftshafts....

[AlternativeNavs]

Stay out of the liftshafts....

How very tasteful!

[GuinnessMan]

Did you read the report about it?

Idiotic mistakes, Chief should have known better and lots of porkies being told on board....

[size4riggerboots]

What happened??

[GuinnessMan]

What happened??

It's on the MAIB website, vessel was called "Ever Excel".

Vessel was preparing for an Environmental survey (part of the VGP for the US) and one part of that is checking to see if any oily residues/water was at the bottom of the lift shaft. Shoreside company inspector couldn't get the liftshaft door open so left it to come back later. Chief Engineer assumed that the Chief Officer had locked down the lift and then climbed up the Emergency escape of the lift shaft and then closed it behind him after he went through (emergency exit has a safety lock, when it's open the lift won't move). As the emergency interlock was no longer activated the lift started to move (probably from an old command in it's log) and the Chief Engineer was caught between the lift and the top of the shaft and was asphyxiated.

This was the third time within a year or so that the MAIB had been on board an Evergreen vessel for a fatality and obviously were not too impressed to be back. They had previously slammed their SMS as apparently it had big gaps within it. Whilst they were on board they found documented evidence that the 4th Engineer had filled in saying that he checked the Lift well weekly (I think he said he did as well). When they asked him to use the "key" to open the doors he firstly got the wrong one and then couldn't open the door without assistance, showing that he was lying.

However due to the bad press from that incident and how it moved around the Maritime circles abroad (openly talked about in Dubai) apparently the company have now cleaned up their act and are trying to sort it all out.