Lum Chung Fatt, Captain of OOCL Hong Kong

I started my sea-going career in 1983. Since then, I have served onboard various types and sizes of cargo ship.

Joining OOCL in 1990, I have worked through the ranks on the various classes of container ship in the OOCL fleet. In 1996, I took command of my first ship, OOCL ASSURANCE.

Fortunate to be given the opportunity by OOCL, I have taken delivery of several new-buildings, namely, OOCL SHENZHEN (April 29, 2003), OOCL TOKYO (January 8, 2007), OOCL LUXEMBOURG (April 30, 2010), OOCL BEIJING (April 29, 2011), OOCL BRUSSELS (March 26, 2013), OOCL KOREA (April 17, 2014) and recently, OOCL HONG KONG (May 18, 2017).

Delivering these new buildings gave me the opportunity to work onboard the largest container ships in the world. Working on these Ultra Large Container Vessels, the ever present and often changing external factors such as weather and piracy in certain parts of the world challenges the ship’s Captain's effort to ensure the safety of crew, ship, cargo and the environment.

While the job can be very challenging, my sea-going career has also brought me to many places all over the world. My favourite cities are San Francisco, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and of course my home port, Singapore. When the ship is berthed in port, I often go ashore to check out the local food and go browsing in book stores or supermarkets, which I found to be very relaxing after a long voyage at sea.