I've been at sea for nearly 40 years but even I was apprehensive when I first saw the Mary Maersk. She is a Triple E class container ship, officially the largest ocean-going vessel class in the world, and is almost a quarter of a mile long. That's 1,312ft or four times the length of the Wembley football pitch. The bridge where I work is very high up so I can see over the top of the containers, which are stacked nine high on the deck below. Because the vessel sits 48ft deep in the water when we are fully laden, there are some ports in the world where we are simply too big to tie up.

我在海上度过了近40年，然而第一次见到玛丽•马士基号(Mary Maersk)时，我心里还是有些忐忑。玛丽•马士基是一艘3E级集装箱船，按照公开数据它是世界上最大的远洋船舶。它的长度接近四分之一英里，为1312英尺，是温布利足球场长度的4倍。我工作时所在的舰桥非常高，这样才能俯瞰甲板上堆了九层高的集装箱。由于我们这艘船满载时吃水深度达48英尺，对世界上的部分港口来说，我们实在是大得无法停靠。

You need a steady nerve to steer her into port. I have men stationed at the bow and stern with walkie-talkies, updating me on exactly what is happening as we inch in. The ship has twin propellers to make it easier to steer in a tight space but we still need three tugs to nudge us in the right direction. It has to be a gentle operation - we have 18,000 containers on board.

要想把这艘船停泊入港，你必须沉得住气。每到这时，我会让人带着对讲机分别守在船头和船尾，在我们一步一步靠近岸边时随时向我汇报情况。这艘船有两个推进器，以便于在狭小空间内操控，不过我们仍需要三艘拖船将我们带往正确方向。整个操作过程必须十分小心——船上装着18000个集装箱呢。

I don't know where I found my sea legs - I grew up in Wishaw, south of Glasgow, nowhere near the coast. My father was a labourer at the steelworks and my only experience of the sea was at Arbroath, when we went on holiday. After I left school, some of my friends joined the Royal Navy and came back with tales of exotic places that I'd only ever seen on the map. That was when I decided I wanted to sail the world, even though I'd never set foot on a boat.

我不知道我为什么不晕船——我在格拉斯哥以南的威肖(Wishaw)长大，那里离海远着呢。我父亲是钢铁工人，而我关于大海的唯一体验是曾经去过阿布罗斯(Arbroath)度假。离开学校后，我有些朋友加入了皇家海军，他们回来时带回了国外许多地方的种种见闻，这些地方的名字我只在地图上见到过。正是那个时候，我下定决心要坐船环游世界——尽管我从未登上过一艘船。

I joined the Merchant Navy as a 17-year-old. Washing decks and splicing ropes might not seem very interesting but within months I'd visited five continents. I was hooked. I became a third officer by the age of 21 and carried on studying, becoming a foreign-going master mariner.

我在17岁年纪加入了商船队。洗甲板和捻接绳子或许不太有趣，不过短短几个月内我就到过了5个大陆。就这样，我对航海着了迷。21岁时我成了三副，后来我继续学习，成为一位有资格赴国外航行的商船船长。

I'm 56 now but my first captaincy came when I was 31, on a ship called the Pearl of Dubai. It almost ended in disaster when we were hit by a typhoon in the Bay of Bengal and lost all power for three days. Then the second officer had appendicitis and I just missed standing on a cobra that had somehow slithered aboard. I think I lasted about six months before I resigned and went elsewhere.

我今年56岁，第一次担任船长是在我31岁的时候，当时我掌管的那条船叫“迪拜明珠号”(Pearl of Dubai)。那段经历差一点就以灾难收场，当时我们在孟加拉湾遇到了台风，有三天时间船完全失去了动力。接着二副又突发阑尾炎，我还险些踩到一条眼镜蛇，那条蛇不知怎地爬上了船。我想我大概干了六个月，后来就辞职去了别处。

Nowadays I work three months on, three months off and I rotate my Christmases with another captain. I live in County Wicklow, Ireland, with my partner Rene and, after eight years together, I think she has got used to my routine. I relax by riding a Harley-Davidson - we'll be going to several rallies later this year.

如今，我每干三个月就休息三个月，圣诞节则与另一位船长轮班。我和我的伴侣勒妮(Rene)住在爱尔兰的威克洛郡。和我共度了8年时光之后，我想她已习惯了我的生活节奏。我的放松方式是骑上哈雷摩托车(Harley-Davidson)飞奔——今年我们还有几场比赛要参加呢。

Although I can sail using celestial navigation, modern vessels such as the Mary Maersk rely on sophisticated GPS systems. I started off my career using a slide rule and logarithm tables but now all I have to do is push a button. I have a crew of 22 and we spend a lot of time poring over meteorological charts to figure out how to avoid the worst of the weather. Any ship feels uncomfortable in big seas and this one is no exception, even though it cost $185m.

尽管我会用天文导航技术航海，玛丽•马士基号这类现代商船却是依靠复杂的全球定位系统(GPS)航行的。在我刚开始航海生涯时，我用的是计算尺和对数表，而如今我需要做的只是按动按钮。我手下有22个船员，我们把大量时间花在研究气象图上，以便躲开恶劣天气。在浩瀚的大海上，任何一艘船坐起来都不会舒服，这一艘也不例外，尽管它造价高达1.85亿美元。

People think that because the ship is so big, she must be fast too. In fact, she is designed to sail at an average of only 16 knots, using a system called super slow steaming. The accountants reckon it will save the company an average of around GBP750,000 on fuel alone on every trip between Rotterdam and Shanghai.

人们以为，既然这艘船这么大，它的航速也一定很快。事实上，这艘船的设计平均航速只有16节，它采用“超低速航行”系统。据会计人员估计，这艘船从鹿特丹到上海每走一趟，平均会为公司节省大约75万英镑燃料费。

I've sailed on dozens of ships but Mary is far and away the most sophisticated. She's incredibly easy to handle during a passage and at every port people want to come aboard and have a look around. They line up at the harbour to watch us come in. There are often a lot of dignitaries to look after but we haven't got time for everyone. Sometimes it's a relief to get back out to sea - we mostly sail between Europe and the Far East.

我在几十条船上航行过，玛丽•马士基号的复杂性远远超过了其它船。不过，这艘船航行时操作起来简便得令人难以置信。每当它抵达一个港口，人们都想登上甲板四处看看。我们入港的时候，他们会在港口列队观望。我们经常需要顾及许多权贵，不过我们没时间照顾每个人的想法。有时候，当船重返海上时，会让人感觉一阵轻松。至于我们的航程，主要是在欧洲和远东之间。

I have a luxurious cabin below the bridge, with a widescreen television, DVD player, WiFi and air conditioning. It feels like a five-star hotel compared with my first ship but my favourite place is still on deck, looking at the stars and watching the waves below.

我在舰桥下拥有一个豪华舱室，里面有宽屏电视机、DVD播放器、WiFi网络和空调。与我的第一艘船相比，这间舱室感觉像五星级酒店的房间。不过我最喜欢的地方仍然是甲板上，我可以在那里看头上的星星和脚下的海浪。