Christmas on ships of PVM

"This year's Christmas, about 1.2 thousand sailors from 59 ships of Polish Maritime Shipping (PZB) will spend at sea or in ports" – said Krzysztof Gogol, the press spokesman for Polish Maritime Shipping. Due to the pandemic on Christmas Eve there will be no visitors from outside, and sailors will not be able to take a walk in foreign ports.

This year, the vast majority of PGM ships will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas in the Western Hemisphere, in ports of both Americas and the Atlantic.

Christmas away from their homes will be spent, among others, by the crew of the "Drawsko" masseur who flows from the Great American Lakes to Italy with a load of grain, or the ship "Mazura" flowing to Argentina.

From Norway to Brazil, the crew of m/s "Solidarity". Christmas Eve sailors, however, will spend their time in Las Palmas, the Canary Islands. The exotic scenery of Brazilian ports will also celebrate crews of ships m/s "Podhale" and m/s "Gdynia".

Several PVM ships will be located in Arab countries during Christmas. Christmas Eve in Egypt will be spent by crews of m/s "Jawor" and m/s "Resko".

In the opposite cold run during Christmas there will be sailors from the m/s "Koszalin", expected on the second day of Christmas in Iceland or m/s "Szczecin" which wrapped before Christmas in the port located in the Norwegian fjords of the port of Sunndalsora.

This year, the crew of only one PGM ship will consume Christmas Eve supper in the country. They will be sailors from the ship m/s "Mama" which undergoes repairs in the MSR "Grifia".

"On Christmas Eve, the central point of each ship is, of course, the kitchen, where the cook and the steward make every effort to ensure that the sailors do not miss all that they would eat during Christmas dinner in their family homes," said Polish Maritime Shipping spokesman Krzysztof Gogol

He added that "if the ship is at sea and approaching storm, the steward prepares wet tablecloths, as the bedding does not move on the wet material. Frames are placed on the edges of the tables. Similarly, the frames contain all the boilers and pots on the kitchen, and less soups are made in their interiors. Sometimes the captain changes for dinner, too. course The ship would be less rocking. Despite the storm Christmas Eve must take place".

On the Christmas table – that day common, discovered in one mess – there are 12 traditional dishes including borscht with ears, dumplings and cabbage with mushrooms.

"There can be no fish on the table, although not carp, which we will not find in the shipchandler abroad – unless the ship was in the country before Christmas and a preventative cook made appropriate purchases. There are also traditional Polish cakes, baked in a ship's oven – cheesecake, poppy or yeast cakes" – Gogol mentions.

There is also a Christmas tree in the mess hall, usually artificial, which is on constant equipment for each ship. The sailors also dress up their own cabins.

The captain starts Christmas dinner at 5:00 p.m. local time. Then everyone shares a wafer and wishes each other.

The Christmas Eve lasts even a few hours, just after it the sailors hole up in their cabins and call their loved ones. There is currently satellite Internet on PGM ships, so you can also wish for yourself via a network – from any part of the globe.

In previous years, ships were visited during the holiday by pastoral seamen from the organization Stella Maris (Catholic) or The Mission to Seafarers (Protestan). This year, as last year, due to the pandemic, this will not be possible.

Written by Małgorzata Misszczuk/PAP