Vegan on a Freight Ship

There might be several reasons, why one wants to take a freight ship instead of a plane or a cruise.

For me it is the environmental aspect. A freighter anyways sails off, as the goods of globalisation need to be shipped everywhere. Whereas a passenger plane or a cruise only takes off when there are people demanding it. I discovered the flighttracker site some years ago and was shocked, when I saw the amount of planes in the air. It is a wonder, we still have sunlight on this planet, when you add the amount of space waste.

Another reason is my enormous interest in how does something work. And instead of watching a documentary about it, to see it first hand is an impressive experience that no one can pay.

Another aspect is, that I dislike jet lags and long flights. I’m not afraid but bored. But being afraid of flying might be a reason for someone else to choose this option.

Experience the distance between two continents and slow down ones life is another reason why I want to do this. And I will have a lot of time to finish my writing.

A cruise newer was an option for me, I get easily bored of such luxury.

Option 2: The Sailing freighter

This was an option for a long time. Until I found out, that I am maybe not made for it. But as somebody else might be interested in it, I decided to mention it.

There is this wonderful possibility to cross the ocean from Holland to Colombia or the other way round in a sailing freighter. It takes about 60 days one way and you get the training to become a seaman. Big pro: Cero emission.

I finally found it senseless to take a plane from Argentina to Colombia and then go by ship. And I really really really want to arrive in Hamburg.

And when you do a bit more research you’ll find out, that the future of freight ships will be in sails.

Update of the 20. July 2018

Yesterday I finally sent my questions to the swiss freight ship mediator which were as follows:

Since some months I am vegan. How is the food on board? Are there any plant-based options?

Today I got the answer from the mediator. They told me, freely translated from German:

Vegan you can forget. Normally vegetarian is no problem, as one can choose from the side dishes, but more special wishes are not wanted, it’s not a cruise ship.

Instead of really thinking and answering the question they wanted to sell me a cruise.

On the other hand I didn’t know that they only have rice pudding and egg-pasta on an Italian ship, as side dishes.

Normally eating vegan with a buffet (which seems to be the case on freight ships, but with one menu only) is no problem. I really don’t understand, why they reacted like that. Maybe the person behind the e-mail is a deeply passionate meateater.

Furthermore the offer was much more expensive than those of other mediators, even though it’s exactly the same ship.

So I searched two other mediators from Germany. I will write them soon and let you know about the answers soon.

Update of the 22. July 2018

After this miserable answer of last time I decided to search for some other mediator companies. As I want to go to Hamburg I decided to search for German ones, as I thought they might offer travels for their own compatriots in their own country. And also because it is my mother tongue ?

On another blog (German) I found a handy list of mediators (I’m still not sure if it’s the right term). I looked them through and picked out two which offer the same travel with exactly the same ship. I decided to write them as well but one after the other, so that I have the chance to learn out of my mistakes.

Another thing I did, is asking Wendy from the Nomadic Vegan for help/advice. Thankfully she always is a quick answerer. She gave me the link to this wonderful post (meals onboard a cargo ship). Which gave me a good insight, as it is the same ship I want to take.

breakfast seems to be more or less vegan:

A self service buffet of focaccia, bread rolls and jam and as much coffee and tea as we could drink.

Whereas lunch and dinner seem to be more tricky:

4 courses. The first course was usually a pasta or rice soup, sometimes a medley of ham and pickles. This was followed by a meat dish – a thin slice of steak sometimes served with a vegetable with all nutrients boiled away. Then there’s the comedy course. This could be anything and the menu often didn’t offer any clues. […] Lunch and dinner always ended with the best- a piece of fruit. If we’d just visited a port, it was banana or pear otherwise oranges or apples.

Further they say:

we think a vegetarian would have a harder time than we did. If you’re a vegan, fly.

But reading this, one should not forget, that they are not vegan and not even vegetarian. So little do they know, what a vegan can eat. Because meateaters tend to think of what a vegan can’t eat. In fact I must say I am thankful for this post, not because of the final advice, but because of a pretty detailed description of what kind of food there is.

Later on I found another post on the mowgli-adventures, which has a section about food on the ship (meal times and dietary requirements).

The diet is made up mostly of white carbs: pasta, bread, rice & sometimes potatoes. This is often accompanied by meat, cheese or fish. Sometimes meat, cheese and fish. Vegetables are scarce or boiled beyond any nutritional value but fresh fruit is served at lunch and dinner.

So I still see a lot of vegan food in these words. Is something wrong with my eyes or is it doable as a vegan.

Today I decided to write the words „vegan cargo ship“ into my search engine. I found some other blogs and vlogs of course and other funny and sad stories.

Here some quotes of my research.

Year of no flying says about food on a cargo ship that travels the pacific ocean:

Three meals were served every day, all „hearty sailor fare“ — large, and meat-heavy. We ended up getting small portions, eating a lighter, more vegetarian subset of the full meal.

Furthermore they give example menus:

A sample daily menu:

breakfast: stramer max bread, cereal, cheese, juice, coffee, tea, milk, fruit
lunch: fried fish, fried potato, French beans, greens with pea soup
dinner: sweet and sour pork, steamed rice, cucumber salad, cold cuts, cheese, salad

As they don’t mention their diet, I assume their neither vegetarian nor vegan.

Art of manliness has a post about crossing by freighter from California to Singapore. Section four is about food.

4. Special diets are not accommodated. The hardest part about freighter traveling (for me) was the food. […] They ate a meat-intensive diet and I am a vegetarian. On land, it is never a problem for me to find acceptable cuisine anywhere, but in the galley you can’t simply choose somewhere else to eat. For me, that meant many weeks of eating cheese sandwiches. Thank goodness I brought a tub of peanut butter.

The traveling Clatt have a video about their food time (including interview of the chef) on one of the Grimaldi ships. Which is again interesting for me, as it is my ship. By the way, one of them is vegetarian.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye2eUHq6mjo?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent]

And again on the before mentioned German page (Meine Frachtschiff-Reisen) there is also a section about food, which is pretty general, as this person has done more than one voyage.

Sonderwünsche wie Diabetiker- oder vegetarische Kost können nicht erfüllt werden.

Which simply means:

Special wishes such as diabetic or vegetarian diets can’t be implemented.

Furthermore I found this page, where they discuss the „difficulties“ of being vegan on a cruise ship, which I found rather amusing. For those who are planning to do a cruise: Don’t worry, there will be an abundance of vegan options, compared to a container ship.

And I found this sad article about thousands of bull calves being transported alive from Brazil to Turkey. This reminds me of the slave ships between Africa and America, not that long time ago. Coincidentally the ship is called NADA, as if the word NOTHING would make the situation better.

My decision:

My decision is YES! Yes, I want to travel back home with a cargo ship. Yes, I will try to stay vegan during that time. Yes, I want to know it and try it, so that future vegan travelers have recommendations of a VEGAN!

Why do I think it is possible:

There does not seem to be restrictions on how many food you take into your cabin. I come to this conclusion as Mowgli-Adventures did not have problems taking several bottles of wine and several packages of chips onboard. So what about spicing up the diet with some tins of legumes, packages of nuts and dried fruits? And other durable food. Actually there even seems to be a small fridge in the cabin…

What I might do (exceptions):

Maybe some vegans will kill me for that, but I consider of maybe eating cheese. As the only exception. Because if it’s cooked it sticks to the other food and would mean to also avoid the rest of the meal. Which might be the only vegetarian part of the whole menu. Or maybe my brain is just working to much and there are other possibilities. Who knows.

But what I definitely won’t do is eating eggs (other dairy, meat and fish). I’m still disgusted about them and I guess this will not change for the rest of my life. Maybe you should know, that the reason I went vegan was because of taste changing.

Update of the 27. July 2018

Last week I sent the second mail to a mediator and got a respond after some days. This time I only asked for vegetarian food to not offend the person again and got an amazingly good answer, which also serves a vegan.

Here is my question:

Zudem habe ich noch eine Frage:
Wie sehen die Mahlzeiten an Bord aus? Gibt es evt. vegetarische Kost?

Furthermore I have a question: How do the meals on bord look like? Is there possibly some vegetarian diet?

This is the respond:

Vegetarische Küche in der Form gibt es nicht, Sie müssten das, was Sie nicht essen möchten weg lassen.

Vegetarian meals in that sense do not exist, You would have to leave out what you don’t want to eat.

This response is by far better and more welcome to the last one. I wonder if it’s really this psychological twist between the words vegan and vegetarian…

Update of the 07. November 2018

Some day in October i wrote back to the company, but did not get an answer. I also wrote them, that the attachment is missing. So I could not even apply for the waiting list.

At the same time I wrote to the third company (my joker) and got an answer immediately. But never on my vegan questions… (As it’s anyways the same ship it doesn’t matter) However they put me to the waiting list right away and this week I got the offer.

Traveling for 29 days next July from Montevideo to Hamburg in a double cabin with windows is ~~~~€.

I asked if there isn’t a inner cabin left and what’s the price for that: ~~~~€. (about thousand cheaper).

I am really happy to have had my joker, because the other company does not answer anymore. Also to have a fix date for traveling to Hamburg is a relaxing feeling.

Next step is to book the whole thing. Time is ticking… And I’m suddenly not sure anymore if I really want to do this?!? (There are other life plans turning up, which is building my own motorhome [my dreamhouse] and that will cost me a lot (for my stance)).

(I finally decided to censor the price, because I’m not sure if I’m allowed to publish this. If you want to know write me via contact form.)

Update of the 22. November 2018

I booked. But I had to sign a paper to do no journalistic work on the ship. However I should interpret this.

Update of the 30. March 2019

Some times you make plans and form the truth around them, so that everything fits and your mind is unconcerned. And then one morning you wake up and everything has changed. You are not the same person any more and don’t recognize your former self.

I think every vegan can see a part of their biography in these few sentences. Therefore I hope everybody, who reads this can understand the fact, that I just changed my mind. I thought about it for 3 weeks, to make sure, that it’s not an overhasty made decision.

There are several reasons for me to take a flight now, the most important is this speech:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw-zX71XMBc?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent]

As I was about to pay 3’000 Dollars to a cargo ship company, I would have helped them to keep their costs low and therefore helped directly to an industry I don’t agree with. And saving our oceans seems more important than our air – according to the speech.

Of course flying also helps an industry, I don’t like. But I will not take a long flight for the next ten years (or more), as I am about to build my own motor home and will live and travel with it the rest of my life (hopefully). As I am based in Europe, a continent which is connected with two others (Asia, Africa), I can do almost all my future trips on the ground.

Furthermore a cargo ship might transport live stock (translation: living innocent beings in a torturous small cage). Can I support this? Can I see it for 29 days without getting crazy?

The food on the cargo ship is not made for vegans but for the crew of the cargo ship, which is not vegan at all. So being picky for 29 days and having a second meal in the cabin for not starving… Do I have to torture myself? I formerly wrote, that I might eat cheese again during this time, but I cannot imagine now. I get sick, when I only think of it.

Some personal reasons also influence the decision. I will finish my trip earlier than I thought and would have to wait about a month for taking the ship. I am on the road for a very long time already and I am soon fed up with South America. I’m not homesick, that’s a word I don’t know, but I would like to find a place where I can stay longer and feel save and this place is in Europe and not in South America.

And in the end. You can always whitewash what you want to do or not to do. So all these arguments are not worth a penny (except for reason one; see speech of Howard Dryden) because I just simply follow my heart.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

On this website we use first or third-party tools that store small files (cookie) on your device. Cookies are normally used to allow the site to run properly (technical cookies), to generate navigation usage reports (statistics cookies) and to suitable advertise our services/products (profiling cookies). We can directly use technical cookies, but you have the right to choose whether or not to enable statistical and profiling cookies. Enabling these cookies, you help us to offer you a better experience.