By Michael Grey* There is an open season on merchant mariners at present, and not in a nice way, with the warring parties around the Strait of Hormuz accompanying their confusing messages with a willingness to fire into innocent merchant ships in international waters. At least twenty seafarers have been killed in these incidents, which […]
On our Forum: Deplorable open season on merchant mariners… Read More »
By Michael Grey* On the occasion of last month’s “Day of the Seafarer”, I wonder how many of them felt properly appreciated. As members of a largely invisible workforce, in most of their home countries, it would be forgivable if this annual event was greeted with no more than a shrug. Even those trapped behind
On our Forum: The seafarer’s appreciation society Read More »
When things break on board ships, the natural inclination of seafarers is to “work around” the problem, seek alternatives and use their training and initiative to restore the situation. It is, one might think, in the seafaring genes and one only has to consult the maritime history books to find umpteen examples of heroic voyages
On our Forum: Don’t try to fix mechanical failures yourself… Read More »
By Michael Grey* As this is being written, and if nothing more untoward occurs, the little expedition ship Hondius is due to arrive at Rotterdam after her grim encounter with the deadly Hantavirus on her latest cruise in Southern waters. The crew, who have been operating this ship in what appears to have been heroic
On our Forum: Uncomfortable lessons from Hantavirus aboard the Hondius cruise ship Read More »
By Michael Grey* “Hormuz commanded the traffic along the shores of the Indian Ocean, linking what are now Oman and Pakistan, as well as the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz up to Basra in Iraq.” It was “a dust blown port with no natural resources, but with as many as 40,000 inhabitants.” Seeking some
On our Forum: A fascinating human history of the boundless seas Read More »
By Michael Grey* It was in the 1950s, during an earlier Middle East crisis, that the wife of a British Prime Minister complained that the Suez Canal was flowing through her sitting room. Today, of course, we have a different watercourse dominating the news and it is difficult to consider anything else. Nevertheless, we must
By Michael Grey* You would like to hope that all sorts of useful lessons are being learned from the current conflict in the Middle East, and not just about the consequences of offending irrational world leaders, with a short fuse and no sense of history. In staff colleges and war studies institutions, where cerebral military
On our Forum: The strategic value of a good threat Read More »
By Michael Grey* There can be few who were even remotely surprised at the guilty verdict and six-year jail sentence for the master of the container feeder Solong, which plunged like a misguided missile into the side of the anchored Stena Immaculate off the Humber last March. There seemed to have been no rational explanation
By Michael Grey* A nuclear reactor, I can recall my father, who was a naval engineer, explaining, was just “an advanced form of kettle” and nothing to be too excited about. I can remember him shaking his head at the decisions to fit warships with gas turbine propulsion, about the same time as I was
On our Forum: Questions aplenty on a nuclear propulsion option for merchant shipping… Read More »
By Michael Grey* “Is it legal?” This was a question asked by a friend when we learned of the news that President Trump’s agile forces had seized a large tanker off Venezuela and several of us, including a distinguished maritime lawyer, were rather stumped for an answer. But a week later when this is being
On our Forum: When the rules on ship seizures become redundant… Read More »