Random Writings of Others

  Justifying the unjustifiable By Michael Grey Nobody should be surprised that there has been something of a fight back by ship operators after the World Maritime University’s research earlier in the year showed up widespread “adjustment” in the recording of seafarers’ hours of work and rest (see A Culture of Adjustment). It was a shocking report, although it merely gave chapter and verse to what is reality aboard so many hard-pressed ships, with exhausted crews. But as reported in the Nautilus Telegraph, rather than looking constructively at the WMU’s recommendations to make seafaring more humane and 21st century, the shipowners’ representative at the Maritime Labour Convention Special Tripartite Committee sought to denigrate the report as unfounded. ( https://www.nautilusint.org/en/news-insight/telegraph/fatigue-another-inconvenient-truth ) Adopting the time-honoured strategy of suggesting the research was suspect because of its sponsors and dubious methodology, the owners’ repre...

  It’s not a war Just suppose the master of the containership  Ever Given , as his ship came up the top of the Red Sea and approached the Suez Canal, had scrutinised the weather reports for the next 24 hours and concluded that the high winds forecast suggested that he should stay at anchor until it calmed down a bit. Or if he had weighed up the situation and said that a passage was safe only with the addition of a powerful tug to help with the steering. The big COSCO ship ahead of him in the convoy had opted for such assistance and indeed a large LNGC bound for the north had postponed its passage because of the weather. Hypotheses are always dangerous and doubly so with the benefit of hindsight, but one wonders what the reaction of the ship’s operators might have been had  Ever Given ‘s master opted for either of these strategies on the grounds of prudence. Prudence itself is a word that is sadly derided in the full-on, go-on, stop-on world of modern shipping, where cauti...

  What’s past is prologue By  Mark Schreiber By Eiichiro Tokumoto Translated by Mark Schreiber An excerpt from an article originally published  in the 12, 19 November, 2020 issues of the weekly news magazine,  Shukan Shincho . Sir William Keswick  “M y great grandfather did organise the  Meiji Restoration. But I’m a merchant and am much more interested in what  business can be done today”. On 3 July, 2019 at a house in a quiet residential  area in the City of Westminster, close to the Houses of Parliament, the elderly man looked back nostal­gically on the past. As bright sunlight streamed into the window, in a quiet, carpeted room, time seemed to stand still. Seated on a sofa, with his back toward the window and holding a cane to his side, he began  speaking in a modulated tone. He resembled the classic image of a good old man. “When Chinese burned the opium, we asked  the British government to send gunboats to destroy  and punish t...

  An Italian job By Michael Grey Whatever your particular mode of transport might be, you are well advised not to have any sort of accident within the jurisdiction of the state of Italy. An advanced European country, you might think, with a well-developed system of justice? That may be the impression everyone who loves that country likes to think, but just don’t make any sort of a mistake in Italian waters, if you don’t want to end up serving a custodial sentence. This view has been recently reinforced by the treatment accorded to five members of the crew of the cruise ship MSC Opera, which, it might be recalled, had a spectacular “hard landing” in 2019, trying to get alongside in the port of Venice. Terrifying videos were instantly available from several angles, showing people running for their lives on the quay as the ship, apparently out of control, bounced off the wharf and slammed into a harbour cruise craft. Five people were injured in the general mayhem. The initial explanat...

Aleka Read the interview here