history is a matter of perspective

the angle taken by a museum is very often through the lens of where it's located. we went to the maritime museum in barcelona yesterday. since i'm currently writing about the long voyage from amsterdam to the cape in 1723, i'm very keen on learning i can about what ships and life on ships were like back then. i didn't exactly learn that at the maritime museum in barcelona.

it was a beautiful building, almost danish in its skillful combination of old and new architecture. the main feature was a 60-meter long replica of a galley, an oared warship, made to fight the ottomans in the mediterannean in the 1500s. those oarsmen were slaves and did not have a good life. the captain, however, did, with fine inlaid wood floors and art up in the quarters on the stern, from which he dictated the battle. it was elaborately decorated with both painting and carved reliefs. there was a medusa's head on the back, to strike terror in all who approached from the back. the figurehead was a beautiful carved neptune, riding a fish and covered in gold leaf, showing undoubted dominion over the sea.

it was a confusing exhibition, and hard to find the way through to see all of the exhibits. we finally did, but not in the right order of things and it did get a bit hazy as they leaped from those mediterranean incursions to trade with the americas. because they were focused on ships built in barcelona and the catalonian sailor in general, they skimmed over that whole thing with the spaniard columbus and his role in accidentally discovering the new world when he tried to find a new passage to india, undoubtedly because the spaniards couldn't keep up with the portugese and dutch on their well-established routes around the cape to the far east. (phew, that was a long sentence.)

there were displays about the trade with the new world and the goods that went back and forth - sugar, cotton, tobacco and yes, they even mentioned the slave trade. i think they handled it well. you stepped into a little room, where the walls were covered with official documents regarding the slave trade, and a whispered voice said that it was an ugly bit of history that no one really wished to talk about, but it needed to be done, and it was a dark time for humanity. those plantations in the american south could do with a bit of inspiration there.

and it all had me thinking, once again, about how history and how the story is told, is a matter of who is telling the story. maybe i need to head to amsterdam to hear their perspective, they must have a maritime museum there.

ship shape

tho' i'd love to have stayed at the shipyard forever, it is nice to be home. standing outside, filming the painting of the ship for several days did not improve my cough. but seriously, a shipyard is a fantastic place. there are not really any weekends or even nights - there are people working flat out on the ship around the clock - working to meet the deadline for when the ship has to go back into service. it's not really that different than shipping in general - ships run around the clock, not really cognizant of weekends  or holidays - arriving in ports, moving cargo, taking people and cars back and forth like clockwork, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. it's really the industry making the world go around and yet it's rather invisible to us as we make our way through shops, buying new clothes, picking up bananas or avocados or wine, never thinking about how all of those things got to us. well, usually, some link in how they got here is via a ship.

i had been out to the big shipyards in busan, south korea before, but i hadn't really been at a repair yard and not to a dry docking. there's something amazing about the way they line up the supports before backing the ship into the dock and then drain it slowly of water, gently setting the ship down precisely on the heavy steel and wood supports. it's amazing that a 40,000+ ton ship is balancing so precisely on so little. and yet it does. and there are hundreds of people moving in and around the ship all day long and it doesn't budge. it's quite awe-inspiring. and all the while, the ship is functioning as a hotel as well, with nearly 100 staff, and another 100 or so contractors staying and eating onboard on a daily basis. what an operation! what a privilege to get to be a part of it! i'll be sharing what we were doing there in the coming days as we release the content. i'm pretty excited about the work we did. 

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the danish concept of hygge will get you through winter with your sanity intact.

at least that's what wired thinks.

i'm inclined to light a few candles and agree.

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interesting photos (tho' they're in that crappy HDR that i loathe) of the inside of the costa concordia.

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finally, some substantial critique of the mindfulness movement.

fun stuff for ship geeks

i've spent quite a bit of time looking for cool ship geek related stuff on the web. for work purposes, of course. there are a lot of fun things about my job, despite the dinosaurs. one of the fun things i found (some of you know this, because i sent you the link already) was a website where you can design your own fish. it's called, intuitively enough, www.designafish.com. you go in, it loads a genome and you set the various parameters of your fish, from his head to fins, tail and torso and then you can fiddle with how much color and mottle he has. then, the program gives you feedback as to his capacity, hydrodynamics and level of innovation and gives him an overall rating.  i hereby present my efforts...

but there is a serious purpose behind all this fun, it's the innovative way that wärtsilä has of illustrating how difficult and complex ship design can be. clever cookies, i say.

and then, there's an iPhone app, where to kill time, you can load cargos onto various ship types, testing your knowledge of when to use tankers, bulkers and container vessels while you're on a plane or train. it's called ShipIt! and here's a you tube demo, but be sure to go get it on iTunes if you want to play. i'm not sure what it costs in the US, but i paid a mere 6 danish kroner (about $1), it's harder than you think to load those cargoes and send the ship off so another can come into place before the next cargo comes along. if i were to give a mini review, i'd say that the pace is nerve-wracking enough to be interesting, but i could do without the quasi-porn film music. worth the 6DKK:

and then, of course, don't forget that awesome marine traffic site, where you can see what ships are hanging out off your shores.  it might be that the somali pirates who accidentally tried to board a frigate belonging to the french navy (wonder if they didn't see that big letter F and numbers on the side?) a couple of days ago could use that site. actually, tho', they couldn't, as the gulf of aden isn't covered there. maybe they just need glasses.

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one last thing that's not a ship geek thing, tho' a ship geek showed it to me...it's called contact juggling and it's totally amazing...

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.

ships aren't just for boys

i can't stop with the mirror self-portraits. i think it's really about photographing the camera. and maybe a little about my obama won ring. it just looks so cool with the lens. also could be a little bit the long-hair mirrors. because i don't really have long hair, but i kinda always wished i did.

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i am loving my new job. it's a company that doesn't just say that they're interested in being environmentally conscious. they put their money where their mouth is, as you can see from these electric cars out front. it says, in norwegian, "i'm working for the environment." how totally cool is that? and i LOVE that paint job! 

i spent my day looking into what the first issue of "my" magazine will contain. and there's so much innovation and environmentally cool stuff going on, even in and perhaps even because of economic downturn, that my mind is totally swirling with the possibilities. it seems that treating the environment well is economically sound business. even more exciting that some of the innovations are about LNG (liquid natural gas). you wouldn't necessarily know it to look at me, but i totally have a thing for LNG.  probably because i did my familiarization sailing trip here:

and because the inside of the cryogenic membrane tanks for storing the LNG while you sail around with it looks like this:

like a magical, mysterious cathedral. i sneaked this picture at the shipyard in korea. we stepped into the tank from a big hole in the hull. i wouldn't want to go down once it's all sealed up and in use, but it's amazing while they're still working on it. probably because it's all sparkly and i do love the sparkly things. and you thought ships were just for boys.

a new world dawns

just a quick post while my new work laptop does its installation thang in the background. it's a dell latitude E4200 and while i'm normally morally opposed to dell (them being evil thanks to michael dell being a huge contributor to bush-cheney campaigns), this computer is so tiny and so light that it almost (but not quite) makes up for it not being a mac. and i do so love the technology and gadgets. it's so tiny it's practically gadget sized. but enough about that.

you can look forward to a lot of new terminology here on MPC in the foreseeable future. there will probably be a lot more talk about longitudinal bulkheads and hatch coamings, ballast tanks and water ingress detectors, maximum sailing draughts, propulsion, starboard, port and aft. so many fun new words.

but now i'm off to the graphics department to see the new designs of my magazine (that's so exciting!), so i'll catch ya this evening.

on the road again

some of my readers (it feels so good to say that phrase, i must admit) have been asking why i'm traveling all of the time. it's not just wanderlust.

part of my travels are because i live in denmark but work in norway. that means an almost weekly trip to oslo. this month, i didn't spend as much time in oslo because i attended a conference in singapore. i used the opportunity to go to manila at the same time and touch base with all of my business contacts from my previous job.

i work in the shipping industry. until the end of last year, i worked for the world's largest container shipping company, with responsiblity for ensuring that the officers and crew sailing all those giant ships had the right training according to international and company requirements. you should have seen my travel calendar then! last year i was in the philippines 5 times, singapore twice, cape town once, romania, london (frequently), newcastle, odessa, turku, i could go on...this in addition to holiday travels with my family, where we visited ten european countries by taking the train down through europe to the balkans, finally ending up in istanbul.

i'm still in the shipping industry, but instead of being responsible for training of seafarers in only one company, i am working on it from an industry perspective--being able to have a much wider effect. that, i love. but, it does mean that i'm traveling. because shipping is a global industry.

these days, i'm listening to the stories of those who chose a career at sea and i'm writing articles with the goal of raising the profile of the profession. there is a critical shortage of seafarers in the world and a whole lot of ships being built at yards around the world. people aren't choosing sailing as a career anymore, but yet 90% of all goods in circulation are at one point or another shipped via sea. so if there's no one to sail those ships, how are we going to get our stuff (including those precious petroleum products to which we are so addicted)? these are the dilemmas i'm working on. there isn't an easy answer, but i do really love asking the questions and exploring the topic through conversations and through writing. and i simply adore hearing the officers' stories. they simply have to be some of the best storytellers on the planet--their stories and timing honed to perfection from many retellings. it's work that makes me very happy.

so, that's in a nutshell, why i'm always writing blog postings from an airport lounge somewhere.

the disconnect between chemicals and products

i've been writing today about the fact that the tankers built in the past five years or so are more flexible than tankers were in the past. in the past, if you sailed a chemical tanker, you sailed with chemicals and that was it. today, a chemical tanker is more versatile--it can likely take a wide variety of products as well--everything from palm oil (often just the first cargo) to naptha to jet fuel. this presents challenges for the crews onboard, since the deck officers, according to international regulations, must possess certain certificates for certain ship types and cargoes. if you were an old chemical guy from way back, you might have your chemical certificates in order, but when the vetting inspector comes onboard, he looks at the ships' certificates and finds that while it's certified for carrying products as well, the crew is not. and then you've got yourself a non-conformance, even if all you're carrying is chemicals. the mere possibility that the ship could carry products is enough.

this may seem a bit of a departure from my usual blog posts, which, of late, have been decidedly of the navel-gazing variety. but, this is what i do. and it is actually more interesting than it might at first appear.

shipping is a fascinating industry. it's old fashioned, it's run from austere buildings by men in suits. and it's in a period of enormous, dynamic change. it's changing so fast, it can't actually keep up with itself--probably because you can't run very fast in a suit. hence the problems like the one i mention above. the guys who are designing and building ships got together with the commercial guys and decided that the ships should be more flexible with regard to the cargo they could take--more business opportunities, right?

however, somewhere along the way, in the haste to seize this business opportunity, someone--or perhaps, more accurately--everyone forgot about the people who would have to sail the ship. that there are a lot of international and national and flag-state regulations surrounding the certificates, training and experience people need to have in order to sail a particular ship type. even the customers who own the cargoes have further demands regarding time in rank and time with the company.

so those commercial guys are now pretty surprised at the non-conformances their new more flexible ships are creating. it takes time to build a ship. they could have prepared the manning side--people could have been trained and had their certificates upgraded. but, they didn't bother to communicate that that would be needed. so now there's a worldwide scramble to equip these officers with the competencies to sail the multi-million dollar pieces of equipment with which they are entrusted.

at the same time, there is a worldwide shortage of officers and crew. there must have been another communication shortfall along the way between the shipbuilding side of the business and the manning side. as i said, it takes time to build ships. the facts were there. and what's fascinating to me in my job, which now consists of writing about these issues, is that apparently no one saw it coming! either that or no one believed it. or a combination of the two. well, they're starting to believe it now, but only after it begins to affect business.

these are interesting times in which we live and navigate the world.