Michael Grey* One of the advantages (or perhaps disadvantages) of age is an ability to look back and see how custom and practice, behaviour and attitudes, have evolved over the years, mainly, it has to be said, to suit economic criteria. Risk taking has been part and parcel of seafaring since the dawn of time […]
On our forum: The evolution of ‘acceptable’ risk in shipping Read More »
By Michael Grey* He intended to pass. Probably, he won’t make that mistake again We all hope for the best, but it is slightly concerning to consider, in the event of the Houthi attacks on shipping continuing into the southern winter, all these containerships diverting around the Cape of Storms, with their huge, high, deck
On our forum: The growing risks of high deck loads Read More »
by Michael Grey* We are terribly worried about our supply chains these days, now that we realise they stretch rather further than the delivery van. It is a concern that was illuminated in the past year, with the spectacular interruption to the westbound voyage of the Ever Given, followed by the revelation that the excitingly expanded
On our forum: Seafarers deserve special new year wishes amid ship attacks… Read More »
By Michael Grey* There probably will not be that many people around who can recall the summer of 1984, when there was an important conference in Geneva to consider the problems of flags of convenience (FOC), or open registers, as we are now enjoined to call them. The meeting, held in the lofty halls of
On our forum: On the dark side of Flags of Convenience Read More »
By Michael Grey* Strategies that contribute to the saving of the planet ought to be cheered to the rafters, but I confess that when I read about the pedestrian pace on passage of some modern ships, it was with rather mixed emotions. According to those knowledgeable folk in BIMCO, the speed of containerships and bulk
On our forum: Disappearing speeds on the high seas! Read More »
By Michael Grey* There were some exciting times in the Far North in September. For a start, the passengers aboard the small expedition cruise ship Ocean Explorer, getting up close and personal to glaciers on the coast of north-east Greenland, found that they were unable to go anywhere after their ship ran aground in the spectacular
On our forum: Persistent navigation adventures in the poorly-charted Arctic Read More »
By Michael Grey* It represents one of the “least sustainable ways of going on holiday”, whimpered some “expert” of an unidentified discipline (probably either a climate scientist or a freelance consultant specialising in the promotion of mandatory misery). In case you haven’t guessed, it is, of course, cruising and the peak of the season in
On our Forum: The mounting ‘co-habitation’ challenges of cruise ship visits Read More »
By Michael Grey* You might think that insurers would have been more vocal about the risks they are taking on with bigger car carriers carrying apparently ever more “problematic” (here is my chance to employ a fashionable word) cargoes which cause a lot of grief. It took five days to extinguish the inferno which recently
On our Forum: The risks of transporting vehicles en masse… Read More »
By Michael Grey* I had just finished re-reading an old biography of Edward Wilson; doctor, scientist, naturalist, artist and Antarctic explorer, who died with Captain Scott and fellow members of the south polar party, in March 1912. Even across all these years, it is impossible to remain unmoved, reading his final letter to his wife,
On our Forum: Something ghoulish about tours of Titanic wreckage Read More »
Québec City – Ocean Group, a well-established player in the Quebec and Canadian marine industry, officially launches its RESPIRE fundraising campaign. Funds raised will be donated directly to the Fondation du CHU de Québec to renew the stock of neonatal critical care ventilators at the Centre mère-enfant Soleil of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval, which
Launch of the RESPIRE fundraising campaign by Ocean Read More »