As everyone from the popular media to the ship’s operators queue up to condemn the master of the Costa Concordia, how many of his accusers takes a moment to consider for a moment what must have been going through the mind of that man as he felt the rocks bite into the port side of his huge ship?
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It is, of course, too early to be making pronouncements about the grounding of the Costa Concordia, while the courageous divers are still probing the underwater horrors of a huge capsized ship.
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This is the age of “rights”, and a good thing too, except that it can become something of a religion, as people rather go over the top as to their entitlements, and every man and his dog needs an accompanying lawyer.
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One year after the Gulf oil spill, and amid daily reports of piracy and needless accidents at sea, the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA) of which I am chairman will be offering a seminar “Environmental Intelligence in Shipping: Safety at Sea, featuring an emergency preparedness & response regulatory update, as well as a panel on piracy, STCW update, and terminal access for seafarers.
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This week I found myself on the Amalfi coast for the excellent Mare Forum VII entitled Italy and the World - Quo Vadis?
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Attendees at the Global Maritime Environmental Congress (GMEC) held in Hamburg earlier this month were able, during the course of an excellent programme, to discuss many of the maritime issues that demand to be addressed in a constructive way: openly, frankly and publicly.
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Many foreign visitors to the United States have experienced a degree of discomfort, during what are described as "customs formalities", that adds a ringing climax to the customary torment of modern travel.
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How would your company respond if you were to send a stores indent for some explosive harpoons? Or perhaps a few underwater explosive charges that will make no lasting impression upon the stout plates of your ship, but make literal mincemeat (or perhaps a stew) of a frogman attempting to clamp a torpedo containing narcotics to the bilge keels of your ship?
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It was sad to hear of the recent deaths of three leisure fishermen who were lost when their 25ft craft caught fire and sank off Bantry Bay in Ireland. A fourth occupant of the boat survived although injured , and was rescued by helicopter.
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Live and let live is not a bad sort of maxim for the tolerant mariner, although he or she probably would distance themselves from the Norwegians, Japanese and citizens of the Faroe Islands in their enthusiasm for whale hunting.
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