Clay Maitland

On a quest for quality in shipping

Why shipping stays offshore

A small article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal brings back memories. In the article, John Coustas, CEO of container operator Danaos Corporation, reflects on the things that went wrong. Continue reading

Piracy:Will we ever find a solution?

We have inveighed against the tendency in our industry, to keep repeating: “Something must be done about piracy”, without getting specific about what that “something” is. Continue reading

What do oil spills, piracy and the Greek crisis have in common?

There are at least three “received truths”, as one of my college professors sarcastically called them, that, in the world of shipping, may be open to challenge. One is that last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion had nothing to do with the rest of the shipping industry, being only about wells and rigs — and not ships Continue reading

Stronger steps needed to clamp down on rogue ROs

Here is some good news, even if it isn’t very new: we now have the first MARPOL conviction in an American court of a “recognised organisation (RO) inspector” (I use the term loosely) for issuing fraudulent certificates. Continue reading