February 27, 2019 - The delegation of the German shipping company Al Group, made up of executive director Ulrich Paulsdorf, seamanship manager Rita Vella-Menzel, fleet manager Tonći Zdunjić and operator of seafarer hiring Kolja Funk, is staying in a two-day working visit to Montenegro.
They were accompanied by a representative of the naval agency Normonte from Kotor, through which Montenegrin seamen hired on AL Group ships, visited the Maritime Faculty Bar, the Central Maritime School of Kotor and the Faculty of Maritime in Kotor, where they held a presentation in the crowded amphitheatre, staff and seafarers.
AL Group, through its headquarters in Hamburg, Singapore, runs two fleets of merchant ships under the brands Atlantic Lloyd and Asiatic Lloyd, in which 30 vessels sail 36 vessels to transport containers, bulk cargo and tankers.
"The group is continually increasing and currently employs a significant number of our Navy Officer and Officer Officers at the operational level, as well as cadets. Their interest is to employ our qualified, certified, well-educated and trained and experienced maritime crew, based on mutual trust and partnership. Also, as our seafarers have so far demonstrated, they want to continue with the employment of our cadets, "Captain Janko Milutin told us from the Normonte agency.
"There are currently 71 officers from Montenegro on our ships, and our country is one of the largest sources for our officers on our ships. In addition to the Montenegrin, we also impose officers from Croatia, Romania and Ukraine, while the bottom is made up mostly of Filipinos and sailors from Ukraine. At present, we have ten commanders and seven engineers from Montenegro, and we want to engage even more of your seafarers, especially those of the machine industry, "said AL Group CEO Ulrich Paulsdorf.
He and his associates also presented a program for young seafarers on their ships, taking only completed high school graduates and enabling them to make the first steps in their naval career on their vessels, and later on serving on AL Group fleet acquiring the highest qualities of the ship's commander and machine manager. Since the beginning of the year when cadets from Montenegro began to take up, so far they had 33 of them, of which 17 of them have become officers and others to sail to that German company, and currently there are 11 Nautical, and Machinery cadets embarked on Atlantic Lloyd and Asiatic ships Lloyd. Plate Officers at this company range from 3,350 euros with all additions to the third officer, up to 8,550 euros for the machine manager, or 8,700 euros for the commander of the ship.
"We want you to come as a cadet to our ships and later as officers, to professionally grow and develop within our company and be our support", said the representatives of the German shipping presenting the students of the Maritime Faculty of the Kotor one of the most prominent commanding officers of their ships- the captain Stevo Markolović (39) from Bar.
Markolovic, as a commander of Atlantic Lloyd's container vessel "ALS Ceres" last March in the waters of the Arabian Sea last year, made a real maritime effort, saving 23 sailor-crew members from the flamed ultra-large container ship "Maersk Honam".
The Oriental ship to transport more than 15,000 containers, the renowned Danish-American shipping company Maersk Line, fired as it sailed from Singapore to Suez, about 650 miles west of Kochi Harbor in India. At his call for help, the crew could not overcome the fire that was frenzied in the cargo area at the front of the ship and soon struck the superstructure and the command bridge, the first responding to the container "ALS Ceres", under the command of Captain Markolovic.
He had his 260-meter long ship near the 353-meter-long flamboyant "Maersk Honam" and a flaming ship that unfortunately had already killed five crew members, evacuated and rescued 23 sailors.
One of them, unfortunately, suffered from the injuries, and for this performance, Captain Markolović and AL Group, besides expressing gratitude to Maersk Line, they also received the annual award of the National Commission for Search and Rescue at Sea and the Coast Guard of India for the 2017-18 year.
"A quick response to the call for assistance and efforts made by the ASL Ceres commander and crew at Maersk Honam's rescue is the proof of the best naval practices and is in line with the finest maritime tradition," said the Indian National SAR commission to award Montenegrin captain and his boat.
Text by Sinisa Lukovic, Boka News
