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By Michael Grey* At a certain time in one’s life, you begin to appreciate a good obituary. Not necessarily of a life well lived, as there can be much interest in learning about the life of a thorough blackguard, or someone whose stars have never been altogether in the ascendant. The late author John Winton […]

By Michael Grey* As tens of thousands of weary delegates stagger off their righteously offset intercontinental flights, leaving the inhabitants of Belem to clear up the mess from a fortnight of COP30 (November  10-25) in the Brazilian jungle, there are just a few signs of hope. Not in any progress that might have emerged from

By John Gruetzner* Canada needs to act quickly to protect the viability of its commodity export industries. For the cost of one submarine, the Carney government can deliver a public/private sector partnership under what I would like to name Project Bluenose to address two maritime voids in Canada’s economic security. The first is the relatively

By Yoan Marier*   A threat without clear answers The numbers speak for themselves. In the past decade, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has received nearly 400 reports of vessel fires, and 10% of those fires resulted in the total loss of the vessel. While fatalities remain rare, the consequences of shipboard fires can

By Michael Grey* When something goes badly wrong, it is human nature to attempt to deflect the blame and to cite extenuating circumstances to explain away everything from why you took up a life of crime, to the reasons for driving at 50mph in a 20mph zone. It has become quite scientific these days, with

By Michael Grey* It must be summer, when there is the annual alarm in the UK about the potential catastrophe from the detonation of 1400 tonnes of high explosives sitting in the mouldering holds of the Liberty ship Richard Montgomery. They have rested there inoffensively since the ship dragged her anchor and grounded in the

By Michael Grey* As a story in May in the general press, it all seemed a bit of a laugh. The deep-sleeping Norwegian in his pretty cabin on the Trondheim Fjord, oblivious to a “huge” ship running ashore a few feet from his bedroom. He required an urgent call from his neighbour to alert him

By Michael Grey* “She’s not answering the helm!” It was a call to chill the heart of any watchkeeping officer, at least in the days when there was a man on the wheel to react with such alarm. It happened to me just once, but in the middle of the Straits of Gibraltar, with lots

By Louis Martel* The United States has a long history of implementing protectionist trade policies, often realizing in hindsight that such measures ultimately hurt Americans. The latest example is the Trump administration’s proposal to impose exorbitant port fees on Chinese-built vessels that dock at U.S. ports – a shortsighted policy that is poised to have

By Michael Grey* “Unfriendly natives” – it said, recalling a previous visit, but the Old Man, worrying about the reaction of the pilot, demanded that the Third Mate erase this scurrilous observation, even though he subsequently agreed with its accuracy. It is not the first time they have featured as a source of seafarers’ exasperation,