Working on a cargo ship to get to Europe? How do you start trying?

I am trying to get from NYC to Europe. I don't want to pay $1000 for a plane, and I'm not in a rush anyway. ';Giovanni Sandfish'; (?) said she had a friend who works on a ship...How do you get involved?Working on a cargo ship to get to Europe? How do you start trying?
You would need to find the name of the shipping company and find out if they are hiring deck hands. Most carriers are foreign owners now and they hire crews in their home base country. (Hanjin and Hyundai are Korean owned, they hire crews that are based and live in Korea. CNA, K-line, COSCO, Yang Min, Maersk are similar - hire home country based crews, not U.S. citizens)





Keep in mind there is a training process, in the home country, to show someone how everything on board works. The vessels are very expensive, the crews are only 7 - 8 people on board so they are very small crews. The one way voyage takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 weeks depending on how many ports they have to stop and load and unload at and where the home base is.





Ship crews may be labor union based so you would have to join the labor union of the country for the shipping line you are trying to get hired on with.