modern piracy

three years ago in my old job, realizing that piracy was on the rise off west africa, i had a course commissioned for the crews in our large fleet. it was a course on what to do in the event of a piracy attack. we created a combination of classroom and eLearning. senior officers would attend the classroom portion of the course, which was taught by psychologists and security specialists and then everyone onboard the vessels could do the eLearning. we felt it was important for people placed in such an extreme situation to be equipped to handle it. the stress and adrenalin and fear of such a situation are enormous. originally, the course was aimed at crews on offshore support vessels that take supplies out to offshore oil rigs, but was later expanded to the liner vessels on the west african trades.

even as recently as three years ago, inside and outside the industry, you didn't hear much about the piracy incidents that occurred off nigeria and in and around lagos and port harcourt. mostly because the oil companies kept them quiet so as not to encourage even more pirates from flocking there and increasing the frequency of attacks.  you still don't hear much about piracy in west africa, but we are certainly hearing about east african piracy these days.

pirates these days aren't romantic swashbuckling figures like captain jack sparrow. they're poor, desperate and increasingly organized africans from countries without functional governments--e.g. somalia. they're armed to the teeth both with weapons and desperation, which makes for a frightening combination. when people have nothing to lose, they can become quite daring, as we've seen in recent months...with a saudi supertanker and a ukrainian bulker loaded with guns and ammunition being taken and the attempt in the past week to take the maersk alabama, which was loaded with UN aid bound for mombasa.

but now that an american flagged ship with an american crew onboard has been involved in a piracy attack, a situation that's been escalating for months is suddenly in the spotlight. the situation was worsening prior to this, with attacks getting more and more daring and pirates ranging farther and farther out to sea, but it took americans being involved for anyone to seriously discuss doing something about it. why is that?

here in denmark, noises have been made about doing something about the situation and the danish naval vessel absalon only just returned this week to danish waters after leading an 8-month international mission to combat piracy in the region off east africa. the problem was that when absalon caught pirates in the act, there wasn't any way to prosecute them, so they generally took them ashore and let them go. no doubt they turned around, hopped in another boat and headed out after their prey once again. when ransoms as high as $25 million US are being paid by shipping companies for supertankers laden with 2 million barrels of crude oil, it's worth it to the pirates.

some shipping companies have rerouted their vessels around the cape horn rather than through suez, to reduce risk of attacks. they have assessed that the longer route is worth it in terms of the safety of crews and cargoes. with suez passages costing in the range of $150,000-200,000/per ship, this means decreased revenues for egypt and the possibility of further increasing poverty and desperation in the region. piracy has more knock-on effects than one at first realizes.

but, what can be done? and will something be done now that america's attention is focused on the issue? or will the undoubtedly heroic and brave capt. phillips just make the rounds of the talk shows and then there the issue will die.  it would seem to be a real opportunity for the international community to step up and unite to do something that's in everyone's interest, including the pirates. so far, they haven't actually harmed any crews in their piracy efforts, but it's surely only a matter of time...and all of the course preparation in the world isn't going to have been enough.

short-term thinking has long-term consequences

here we are at number 600 and it seems like just yesterday that i did no. 500! that's a lotta posts written in about two and half months. i'll admit i've felt a bit lately like i haven't really had anything of substance to say. maybe it's because my mind is on x-bows and ice-class tankers and ships that run on LNG and it seems like with all the crafty stuff i usually share here, that's not really the stuff for this forum. but there's some shipping stuff on my heart and on my mind that i just have to write about today in this, my 600th post. because it feels like those round numbers shouldn't be wasted.

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last week, there was some hubbub in the news when one of the tabloids reported that the former minister of commerce, who recently stepped down from his post and from the leadership of the conservative party (of his own accord, by the way), had been on a whole lot of golf outings and hunting trips with the glittering heads of the danish business community. i'll admit that doesn't really surprise me all that much. it's called lobbying. companies do it. politicians partake. and influence is won, influence which actually goes both ways. it's how business is transacted. where's the scandal?

one of his big causes, no doubt as a result of these golf games and hunting trips, was something called "det blå danmark," which led a rather significant campaign to keep denmark among the main seafaring nations in the merchant fleet of the world. a big part of it is/was a drive to get young people to choose seafaring and shipping in general as a career. it wasn't the most effective campaign in the world, as far fewer are seeking admission to the officers' education than are needed. however, i'm not convinced that it was the wrong campaign, but more that going off to sea isn't really as appealing as a career anymore.

there are a variety of reason for this, as i see them:

1. young danish women expect their man to take part in household duties on an equal basis. if there are kids, the men are in there changing diapers. if you're out sailing half the year, it's a bit tough for this to be equal.
2. young danish men, while largely very attractive, are, to put it bluntly, afraid of the young danish women and their expectations. on other words, they're pussy whipped (to put it even more bluntly). this is bad for the officers' education (which although open to girls, is still overwhelmingly populated by boys). (clarification: this renders the boys too scared to choose this career.)
3. people can't imagine being out of touch--they expect internet, SMSing, email. not all ships have this onboard, as satellite broadband solutions are still very expensive. ships generally have email, but it's pushed to the satellite by the captain a couple of times a day. young people (and i would count myself here), can't imagine being without their twitter and facebook and blog and what have you. do we exist if we're not online these days?
4. seafaring is no longer a way to see the world. port stays are short and people are working their fannies off with loading and offloading cargo during the entire stay. there's very little time for shore leave.
5. people these days no longer feel "married" to a particular career. we try a variety of things and have different jobs in different industries. people don't go to work for one company at 20 and retire from the same company at 65. 
6. in denmark, the education to be a finished senior officer, including sailing time, takes 7 years. if people want to take a 7-year education, they become a doctor. those fiddling with this education have misunderstood their audience--people who want a long education aren't interested in being seafarers and people who are interested in being seafarers are not interested in a long education. (i'm generalizing, but it holds up pretty well.)

there needs to be a revolution in the way ships are crewed if this is going to become an appealing career choice. perhaps treating it more like the airlines do. when the ship "lands" in a port, a new crew could take over the offloading and loading, while the sailing crew gets some time off ashore--thereby getting to see a bit of the world. of course, this only works for cargo vessels, the whole offshore support vessel world is another story--and they've already made adjustments--wherein people are on shorter rotations (2 weeks on, 2 weeks off in some cases). 

there are great things about sailing as your job. if you're northern european, you're probably home for half the year and out sailing the other half. not a lot of jobs can boast of 6 months paid vacation. it's less for people from other countries (e.g. the philippines, which provides 25% of the world's seafarers)--they are generally out for 9-10 months and home only 2-3 months a year. it depends on what conditions you're culturally willing to accept and it depends on how good your unions are. northern europeans have had strong unions, so the conditions are pretty good. 

but, back to that commerce minister...i wonder what will happen now that he's gone? the young, smart, up-and-coming young lady who replaced him doesn't appear to be the golf course/hunting schmoozing type. and she' seems a bit fancy for det blå danmark, so she'll no doubt have another pet cause. but it seems to me that it's important for denmark on a geopolitical stage to be a seafaring nation. when you're pretty much entirely dependent on trade because you don't really have that many natural resources (a bit of oil in the danish sector of the north sea), having a role in international merchant shipping seems important. if there's no one in the government with the ear of the shipowners, reflagging ships to flags of convenience (marshall islands, liberia and the like) and getting those sailing personnel elsewhere (read: at lower costs) and moving ship/crewing management to places like singapore just might start to look very appealing to the bottom line. especially in these times where no stone of savings is left unturned. denmark's geopolitical position aside, what will it mean for the several thousand danes who are sailing in the merchant fleet today? and where will the danish shipowners get their experienced seagoing personnel for key positions ashore if no one goes to sea anymore?

i fear a time of short-term thinking and solutions is on the horizon and that they will have long-term consequences. i wish those good old boys would get back out on the golf course and sort this out.

italian for beginners

i've become positively danish in my behavior when i fly. i, practically as a rule, do not speak to the people sitting near me (if they are strangers, of course--if i fly with family or colleagues, of course i speak to them).

yesterday on my flight up to manila from singapore, i was one of the last to board the plane and found myself increasingly dismayed as i realized how far back in the plane i was seated (monkey class on the short-haul flights). plus i was schlepping the big coach shopping bag and my huge iYiYi box, which i had just acquired in the airport, in addition to my purse and computer bag. so, i was a bit flustered when i got to my seat. i finally stowed my stuff away in 3 different overhead bins and disturbed the other two people in my row to get to my window seat.

when my blood pressure had gone down a bit and i could breathe again, i noticed that the man next to me was reading a charter party agreement. the word "drydock" had caught my eye. so, i asked him if he was a ship broker, thinking that no one else in their right mind would be sitting on a plane reading a charter party agreement.

he replied that he was joining a ship in manila and since it was a new charter, he had to read through the agreement. i asked his position on board and he said he was the captain. i'm certain that my eyes lit up at this discovery and i began plying him with questions.

the first comment he made was that he and his kind (seafarers) were "dinosauri." he was italian, you see. a charming, erudite italian captain who had been sailing since 1973. and the stories he had to tell from that sailing time! i got out my little notebook and scribbled notes.

he was joining a bulk carrier that was discharging in manila. he would sail on sunday for borneo, where they'll load it with coal (who knew coal came from borneo?), which they will discharge in india, up near the border with pakistan.

he hadn't sailed a bulker before. of late, his assignments have been onboard livestock carrriers. i asked if they were converted car carriers--which i'd heard of as livestock carriers. but he said no, the Stella Deneb had been specially built for the purpose of carrying livestock. the link is to a story about how the vessel now has a young female captain as master. captain tosques told me about her--she had been his chief officer and he told me that she had just gotten a well-earned promotion to master. i love to see stories of women in seafaring!

i asked about what it was like to sail around with a farm onboard. how many people it took to care for the animals (there can be upwards of 60,000 sheep onboard at one time). there is a crew of about 30-some whose job it is to care for the livestock. feeding and watering them is an automated system, but mucking out the stalls is an important task. he referred to the animals as "passengers," and said it's not unlike a cruise ship--where the main task is keeping the passengers happy (and healthy).

we talked a lot about life onboard--and how the captain sets the tone for the social relations between those onboard. he said he always makes an effort to ensure that people speak together at mealtimes and that they do what they can to have a social life onboard. he said that onboard the livestock carrier, "we make party. we eat some of the passengers." he said that often on a voyage, he gives lessons in making lasagne to the chief stewards, who are usually filipino. he said they are usually very good cooks, but he, being italian, can't help himself and wants to impart the knowledge of authentic lasagne-making.

i found myself utterly charmed by this italian captain. he was so funny, so genuine and so down-to-earth. i wanted to call husband and ask if he minded me bringing home a small italian captain so that we could sit around and listen to his stories. i had one of those moments of pure, unadulterated happiness as i sat and listened to him. what a wonder people are! the stories that they have to share. their outlook on the world. how it can change your own if you are open to it.

i took his name and email so that i can write a story about him for one of the campaigns i'm working on at work. it makes me sad that the first thing he said is that he is of a dying breed. more than 90% off the goods in the world get to where they're going via ship. so, if there are no more seafarers (less and less people are choosing the career), we will all have trouble getting our stuff.

i am often struck when i've had a conversation with a seafarer at just how practical, down-to-earth and authentic they are. they are often completely comfortable in their own skin in a way that the insecure world of the office does not breed. i always feel enriched by the encounter, mostly because their stories are nearly always funny and a good laugh will always make you feel better. but it's also because they are just so real and they remind me to get off my high horse and live in the moment. talking to captain tosques definitely made me forget all about the petty concerns i'd had about being in a window seat in row 55. and that was a simply delightful first italian lesson.