The vital role of Amver
amver-flagIt has been said that seafaring knows no nationality. Certainly, in the face of trouble, all sailors are united. Such is the case with AMVER, which stands for Atlantic Merchant Vessel Emergency Reporting (System). Continue reading
Shocked and ashamed by training ‘deficiencies’
Experience has taught us that most casualties are cause by a human agency. It is possible that we need to train seafarers to handle different tasks in a different way. The use of lifesaving equipment is one example. Continue reading
Keep the comments coming
Whilst this blogging game is pretty new to me, I have been delighted to see the growing number of comments that have come from serving Masters and seafarers and welcome further response in addition to the comments we have already received.
One of our objectives is to encourage discussion of maritime safety and training of seafarers, and the best way to do this is to communicate with all of you on a daily basis. To enhance training advocacy, we need your input. Keep it coming! Continue reading
What price experience?
After several thousand years of training seafarers, one would think that mankind had some sort of a system in mind. Surprisingly, there is no formal training-at-sea system. Continue reading
Never forget the crew
In his message to the world’s seafarers, dedicating the year 2010 as the “Year of the Seafarer,” Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of the IMO, points out that it is the crew of each ship that makes world trade possible, and that 1.5m seafarers serve the daily needs of more than 6.5 billion human beings. Continue reading
‘Bear’ necessities hit Ship Finance
Shakespeare, in The Winter’s Tale, includes the stage direction: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” The bear that is pursuing us is a bad market.
Many of us fear the impact on the lending institutions that specialize in ship mortgage finance. The more philosophical say: “The banks always start lending again.” The pessimists say that parts of the ship banking market resemble Monty Python’s dead parrot. You may think that it is just resting, but some departments really are deceased. Worryingly, the combination of specialized knowledge and prudence that makes a good banker is born of experience.
With extensive (if unannounced) layoffs now occurring in the shipping departments of leading British and German banks, many an experienced… Continue reading
Hello World…
This blog has been created to start a dialogue and debate in the shipping industry worldwide to stimulate support for my quality objectives.
These are to build support for action to create safer ships, cleaner seas and greater protection for the environment. The achievement of these goals is vital during the current recession, to prevent slippage in quality due to financial pressures.
I will be blogging entirely as an independent person, expressing my own views and not those of International Registries, Inc (IRI) of which I am a Managing Partner, nor those of the Marshall Islands ship registry which it administers. They also are not the views of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association [NAMEPA], of which I… Continue reading
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