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Recent comments: The back-chat. What it’s all about really
- Jayla Hunsinger on Slice of cake at Maersk that leaves a sour taste
- John Miele on Channel ferry operators feel the pinch yet again
- John Miele on Crying foul when there is a whiff of natural gas
- don mitchel on Installation overload may compromise ballast rules
- John Miele on A rabbit on the highway needs to move fast
- Don Mitchel on Installation overload may compromise ballast rules
- Ryan Skinner on Censorship can’t beat the tweet, so why not join it?
- Ryan Skinner on It is time to give shipping the X Factor treatment
- Dr Ivica Tijardovic on No silver bullet in BAE anti-piracy laser
- don mitchel on Installation overload may compromise ballast rules
Monthly Archives: July 2010
No new tricks for the old dogs
The IMO has on its website the following statement:
“Go to sea!” A campaign to attract entrants to the shipping industry
“The global shortage of seafarers, especially officers, has already reached serious proportions, threatening the very future of the international shipping industry, which is the lifeblood of world trade. Recent reports have identified a current officer supply [...]
We’re lovin’ it – rubbish
There’s something distinctly funny about the politicising the environment. I am not sure what it is, but the irony of all that hot air being vented over the topic by people who in their heart of hearts could not care less, is somewhat ironic.
I’ve just come back from a holiday spent as far from the [...]
Pimp my ship
I hear a rumour that there might be some state aid sloshing around to help me pimp my ship.
What can I get done? Can I get a new paint job – flashy go faster stripes, fire motif blazing down the side of the ship and a chrome funnel? Perhaps boy-racer seating on the bridge for [...]
Sick as an old dog
LIKE many European officers, I am now at an age where gum disease is more of a real and present danger than copping an STD, so I have to confess that the prospect of undergoing pre-trip medical examinations never fail to fill me with dread.
The less said about the bit where the nurse ominously snaps [...]
Fish fingered
As a cantankerous old man with a penchant for having a bite worse than my bark, I may have something against fishing boats.
I like the stuff they catch, and even the stuff they are allowed to land, EU permitting, but have you ever seen them make an effort to get out of your way, even [...]
Shipping needs a vuvuzela
Has shipping got anything at all to do with football? Not really, but since there’s bugger all else going on at the moment let’s tenuously connect a few dots that will never stand up to serious scrutiny.
If prowess on the football field bore any correlation to maritime strength, the World Cup would likely be a [...]
Save the whale. Let it eat oil
Don’t you just feel proud to be a shipowner, especially of jumbo sized tonnage that can have the words “super” and “whale” attached to it.
Like knights riding in on a great white charger, a Taiwanese company has sent a modified combined oil-bulk carrier to the Mexican Gulf, conveniently fitted out to skim BP’s oil off the [...]
Sitting on the dock of the bay
There’s an old joke that goes somthing like this:
Two old dockers are sat on a bollard looking out to sea, smoking cigarettes, having a ’smoko’ as we call it.
One says to the other. “Hey, Fred. Are we on strike today or not?”
The other answers: “Do you see any ships in the harbour?”
“No, Fred, I don’t.”
“Do [...]
The captured shipowner and the carrot