mikethumbThe excellent Dennis Bryant, whose blog is all-encompassing on marine affairs, passes on an important recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board after investigating embarrassing events where US Coast Guard patrol craft were involved in collisions.
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Many years ago, we were securely alongside in Melbourne, having our lunch, as it happened, when another vessel got slightly out of control when berthing and put a nasty dent in our side.
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What can you employ a containership for, if charterers are reluctant to take your ocean greyhound to transport boxes around the world.
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I know it is summer time, and all the best stories have gone to the seaside, but why is there this fixation about containers? People are hunting them like Snarks, allegedly complaining that their goods are stacking up in warehouses, because there are no boxes into which they can be stuffed.
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On Friday night, to mark its 250th anniversary, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, whichjustifiably calls itself "the world's first classification society", threw a gala evening fiesta at Athens' Astir Palace hotel, and invited the great and the good of the Greek shipocracy, led by the indispensible Capt. Tsakos, as well as government. officials still willing to appear at such events within the eurozone, to join the shoreside celebration.
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Nobody can really be surprised that the sudden enthusiasm for steaming slowly and spending extensive periods at anchor has tended to reduce the number of casualties.
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Dr. Quenton R. Dokken, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, which now celebrates its twentieth anniversary, demonstrates what the petroleum industry can do when it heeds the "better angels of its nature".
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I have been in Washington, DC for the past few days, watching the legal and political reaction to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I would say that the clearest lesson to be drawn from the reaction of the U. S. government is that techniques for the extraction of oil at great oceanic depth are more advanced than those for the prevention of leaks or blowouts, as well as response and remediation afterward.
Closely associated with this lesson is a growing awareness that risk exists. It must be managed; and most important, it must be planned for, and be adequately funded. The Gulf of Mexico blowout demonstrates how costly failure can be.
For the…
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We don’t sink bulk carriers quite as often as we once did, in the bad old 80s and 90s, when it was not unusual to lose 20 bulk carriers a year along with their crews. Last year there were 9 ships lost along with 39 lives of seafarers, but that was an exceptionally bad year. Over a ten year average, there has been real progress.
We were reminded of these grim days at the launch of the 2nd Edition of The Nautical Institute’s Bulk Carrier Practice, written with a lot of skill and persistence by Captain Jack Isbester, who used to drive these ships for a living and has gone that extra mile to ensure that it is really up to date and relevant in 2010. It is arguably needed as…
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You will have seen my recent brief announcement on www.claymaitland.com welcoming Dr. Hans Payer as a distinguished member of our blog team. He joins Michael Grey, Neville Smith, and Mark Warner who produces our website. They are extremely capable and I am very proud of them.
Hans Payer is also a consultant and adviser to myself, and I believe his appointment is a hugely topical and timely one for reasons that I will explain below.
Because of this, I would like to add a few more details about his career:
Hans is Austrian-born, and holds a Master of Science degree in naval architecture from the University of Vienna, and both Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in naval architecture and civil engineering…
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