It gives me great pleasure in welcoming Dr Hans Payer to our merry band of bloggers. As many people know he is a former member of
the Executive Board of Germanischer Lloyd, and CEO of GL Maritime Services and has also served as Chairman of IACS. He brings a wealth of knowledge on ship design and stability and I for one look forward to reading his insightful comments.
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To make his fateful appeal for emergency financial support, Greek Prime Minister Papandreou chose - unintentionally - a small island in the Dodecanese that was once the base for a significant Greek trading fleet.
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I recently wrote about the tug in Alaska that ran into Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound, while its master played a video game.
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Whatever anyone might say about containerships – their utilitarian aspect and lack of elegance when compared to their predecessors, nobody can accuse them of not being strong.
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The massive explosion that engulfed and sank the Drill Rig DEEPWATER HORIZON will have an even more massive political impact.
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claytoonjpgIn his previous post Michael praised the shipping industry in the wake of the grounding of all aviation in Northern Europe, but I have also noticed that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, give or take an umlaut here and there, is spewing all manner of harmful particulate matter, NOX and SOX, CO2 emissions and so forth, probably affecting the world climate for some time to come.
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It is sad commentary on our times, the way in which the people caught up in the great Icelandic ash emission (which perhaps may become known as “Reykjavik’s revenge”), fall blubbering to their knees at times of such diversity, demanding that “the government” does something to succour them.
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Our agents in the Greek shipping community have, as our readers know, been warning us that the alleged bail-out package hatched last weekend wouldn't work. Sure enough, by early Thursday, the rout had resumed: the yields on 10-year Greek sovereign bonds had risen to a near record 7.4 per cent.
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HOW on earth did the experienced bridge team aboard the big coal carrier Sheng Neng 1 manage to put the ship ashore on the Douglas Shoal on the Great Barrier Reef? It was a passage that was about twelve miles wide and in a ship that was equipped to every modern standard, there seems to be no reason at all for such a navigational lapse.
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Several weeks ago, a tug towing a barge in Prince William Sound, Alaska ran into Bligh Reef. This is the same reef that collided with the Exxon Valdez twenty years ago. The consequences were famous.
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