Quarterdeck 3.3

Part 1
Captain Climate
Achim Stössel brings an ocean of experience to Texas A&M

By Rahilla C.A. Shatto

Facts about Achim Stössel

[173K] Achim Stössel aboard the cargo ship Vagabund during his days as a sailor. (Photo by Marion Stössel)

Not many people enter the world of academic research to find stability and a respite from stress. But imagine that you are Achim Stössel, a new member of the faculty in physical oceanography at Texas A&M University. At age nineteen you began your career at sea as an ordinary seaman manning a passenger vessel which serviced the route between Helsinki, Finland and Leningrad, USSR. Over the objections of your parents you spent the next eleven years at sea for months at a time, earned advanced degrees in nautical engineering, and ultimately obtained a commercial captain's license. The prospect of establishing a career on a university campus might sound comfortable indeed compared to carrying full responsibility for the lives of a crew and cargo worth millions of dollars through the world's oceans, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Mexico, and elsewhere.

Although it is easy to imagine Stössel steadfastly minding the helm of even the largest ship, he never commanded his own vessel. He left the commercial shipping industry instead-not because it was too tempestuous for Stössel's amiable and courteous nature, but rather he felt he had exhausted the challenges seamanship could offer. He had followed commercial shipping since age eleven and by the time he reached the pinnacle of the profession it had become less engaging. Stössel felt himself sliding into complacency.

Continued . . .

URL=http://oceanography.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD3.3/Shatto/shatto-a.html
Updated January 8, 1996