Maritime TV’s ‘Mondays with Maitland’ -Robotics in the Maritime Industry: Outpacing the Human Element?
In this eleventh interview in the series, from his position as Founding Chairman of (NAMEPA), Maitland provides his thoughts on roboticsin the maritime industry and whether a fully-automated ship is even feasible… Continue reading
The Woes of March
Today, March 24, is the 25th anniversary of the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill. March is a bad month for these things: on March 18, 1967, the tanker TORREY CANYON struck Pollard’s Rock on the Seven Stones reef between Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. On March 16, 1978, the VLCC AMOCO CADIZ, carrying 22,000 tons of crude oil from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam, suffered the loss of her hydraulic steering gear off the French Coast. The vessel broke up, and her entire cargo was lost, polluting over 180 miles of the Coast of Brittany. And then came EXXON VALDEZ on March 24, 1989, which struck Bligh Reef, in Prince Williams Sound, off, as it happened, Valdez, Alaska. Continue reading
A Look Back at the National Maritime Strategy Symposium- What Needs to Happen Next
Another interview in a Maritime TV series featuring Clay Maitland, Managing Partner, International Registries, Inc., and Chairman of the Merchant Marine Policy Coalition (MMPC), entitled ‘Mondays with Maitland’. The program tackles issues of the day throughout the international maritime industry. In this sixth interview in the series, from his position as Chairman of MMPC, Maitland provides his thoughts on the recent National Maritime Strategy Symposium and what needs to happen next in this effort to re-vitalize the U.S. flag merchant fleet… Continue reading
SEAFARERS AND ROBOTICS: BIG CHANGES ARE COMING, BUT CAN SAFETY AT SEA SURVIVE THE EXPERIENCE?
Until very recently, the designers of computers were unable to deal with what is called “SLAM”—Simultaneous Localization and Mapping—the process by which human beings can mentally map out a new location, including hazards, as they move through it. By 2011, however SLAM was largely solved by computer scientists using Microsoft’s KINECT gaming hub, which consists of an array of sensors and processors that are now very compact and quite inexpensive. Problems like language recognition and SLAM have until recently prevented robots from working alongside human beings, as well as on tasks that are not precisely defined. A sign of things to come showed up early in December, when Google bought Boston Dynamics, which builds military prototype robots similar to a type that is dubbed BAXTER. This type of robot can, it is claimed, work safely with human beings, and is easy to reprogram. It is also quite reasonably priced, as is the software that goes with it. Continue reading
THE TRUE EMBODIMENT OF EVERYTHING THAT’S EXCELLENT…
Who doesn’t enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan? Sir W.S. Gilbert, in fact, started out as a lawyer, with a number of admiralty cases, which seem to have made an impression. He would have appreciated the recent promotional materials generated by the maritime arbitrators of London. For example, one publication describes these as follows Continue reading
Tradewind’s Adam Corbett interviews Clay Maitland
Tradewind’s Adam Corbett interviews Clay Maitland on ship and mariner safety, and calls for consolidation within class societies
Title XI -it’s time to act
Title XI and the Capital Construction fund program have in the past provided the basis for the decade of shipbuilding, following the passage of the 1970 Shipping Act.
However, neither program enjoyed significant use during the past decade. The Bush Administration opposed authorization and funding for the Title XI program during its entire eight years in office, dismissing it as an unnecessary intrusion in an “adequately funded” private sector vessel financing credit market.
The Jones Act and the Title XI and CCF programs are what remain of a comprehensive legislative framework intended to ensure the maintenance of a U.S. owned commercial fleet, and a U.S. based shipbuilding infrastructure, that would support U.S. domestic and international trade in peacetime, and would be available to serve as a military… Continue reading
Clay at CMA
My thoughts on the Baltimore Harbor school and why it is such an inspiring experience and fits with NAMEPA’s basic goal. Continue reading
My interview with Research Media about Namepa
I am delighted to say that the first part of my interview with Research Media, as part of their International Innovation series can now be found online here. Continue reading