NAUTICAL LOG

  So here we are on New year's Eve and for many of you it is already 2014.  This is quite a momentous year for Europeans being the 100th. Anniversary of the start of World War 1 which was from 1914 to 1918.   Known as " the war to end all wars " it sadly was not the end but rather the beginning of many. It was the War that changed the face of Europe for ever destroying monarchies and wiping out a generation of families and leadership.  It led to the formation of the Soviet Union and NAUTICAL LOG believes actually set things back socially to a point from which we have not yet recovered and never actually shall recover.  It led to the National Socialist movement in Germany, German speaking countries and other regions of Europe which in turn led to World War 2 from 1939 to 1945 one of the greatest horrors of which was Shoah. So as we celebrate the New Year 2014 let us not forget that good and evil are always intertwined.   PS:  This is a photograph of the

  SS Irish Elm ISL Dublin, Ireland   Today is the 60th. anniversary of the start of the sea career of NAUTICAL LOG on December 29, 1953 following  my  17th. birthday on December 23, 1953.  Joining the SS Irish Elm O.N. 400098 of Irish Shipping Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, CAPT. E.C.G. Horne, Master.  The first six months was as Cadet then on until October 12, 1957 as a Deck Apprentice before being promoted to 3rd. Mate of the MS Irish Rose O.N. 400141, CAPT. I. Tyrell, Master and finally completing the Apprenticeship Indentures on January 03, 1958.  It was the experience of this Apprenticeship and both observations and discussions with other Officers with different training backgrounds that set the background to the Post MANAGING TECHNOLOGY. The training in ISL was to say the least haphazard, for a start there was no ISL training programme that the Apprentices followed.  Since we were part of the Irish Mercantile Marine and not the British Merchant Navy the British Merchant Na

 AGS Ocean Protector    Well back to nautical things from NAUTICAL LOG .  While most of us have been busy preparing and shopping for Christmas the Japanese Whaling Fleet (JWF) has left Japan for the Southern Ocean and yet another whaling season in 2014.  Early in December the MS Nisshin Maru left for the Southern Ocean and now two catcher vessels with a surveillance ship left Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture to join her. Of course the other side better known as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) fleet consisting of the MS Bob Barker , MS Steve Irwin , and MS Sam Simon have also departed from their government approved pirate base at Melbourne,Victoria, Australia.  This according to Dr. Bob Brown who is the current head of SSCS in Australia. There are questions as to why the Australian Government is not sending its purpose built ice-strengthened vessel MS Ocean Protector to patrol the Southern Ocean but instead are using that vessel to patrol the tropic

  As the story goes it all began some 2000 years ago in what we call today the Middle East in the region of Palestine.  A people had arrived long before having left Egypt where they were in bondage as workers of the Pharaohs who had reigned in Egypt for millennium as god-kings.  After years of wandering in the Southern Middle East they were supposedly given a region to settle in by their God which they called Israel - they were the Jews who worshipped just one God.  This was in sharp contrast to other peoples of the world who usually had many gods.  The Jews consisted of seven tribes and had little tolerance for other tribes living in Palestine since they believed their God had given them this land it was theirs and theirs alone.  Naturally this led to conflicts which are still going on today some 2013 years later in the Common Era (CE). In 73 BCE the Roman Empire expanded under its Eastern Emperor into the Middle East and over the next decades gradually took control of the Roman

Actual modern navigation Bridge    During the investigation of ASIANA AIRLINES flight 214 crash at San Francisco Airport, CA., and the subsequent hearings into the causes some interesting points have been raised.  First the aircraft itself was in excellent condition with no malfunctions found by investigators.  What was found were differences of culture and training involving the technology fitted in the Boeing 777, in fact in describing the equipment the Captain confused some details of the Boeing 777 automation system with that of the Airbus A320 which detracted from the Korean flight deck Pilots ability to operate the aircraft safely. The body conducting the investigation and hearings is the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) along with the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).  The NTSB is the same body that investigates seafarers along with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) The points raised in the hearings in reference to the flight deck Pilots attitude a

USS Arizona BB 39 It started on December 07, 1941 with the sinking of the USS Arizona BB 39 at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii on Sunday morning.  USS Missouri BB 63 It ended on September 02, 1945 with the Japanese surrender on board the USS Missouri BB 63 in Tokyo Bay, Japan.   Good Watch.

   So at last Nelson Mandela has been allowed to die peacefully at home with his family - what an extraordinary man - his body finally rejecting the anti-biotic medications being administered.  Mandela was a Xhosa who speak a distinctive tonal language which has three types of click sound for consonants and is often known as the " clicking language ". The family of NAUTICAL LOG has long connections with South Africa from its British Empire years on my Irish side of the family.  Several of my Mother's ( she had a Zulu name in addition to her Irish name ) uncles served in the British Colonial Administration, after fighting in the Boer War of 1899-1902 one of my great-uncles William O'Grady served as an Administrator in Swaziland.  When he returned to England in retirement he kept in touch with friends and children of those friends in South Africa.  As a result of this one evening a limousine with outrider escort arrived at our Dublin, Ireland suburban

Seafarers unfortunately suffer crime just as folks who live ashore do.  Quite often they occur while the seafarer is ashore and are the same as persons living ashore suffer from.  The other type of crime is somewhat unique to seagoing for example currently and in the last couple of decades there has been an upsurge in piracy. This increase NAUTICAL LOG believes is largely due to two attitude causes the Marine Insurance Industry and Law Firms.  The current trend amongst Shipowners and their Management Companies is to follow the advice of these persons and just pay the ransom demanded by the pirates hoping to have the ship released - there is little or no concern for the crews in many cases.  Economic and social conditions in the countries involved in piracy offer little incentive to change from their life style of crime - which piracy is and actually a hanging offence - when rarely is punishment enforced and the ransom demanded is paid.  In addition seafarers are not allowed to defen

As we mentioned in our Post AWKWARD APPROACH we are looking more to publishing websites and Posts on subjects that reflect useful information and educate in Nautical Science.   There is NAUTICAL LOG believes a serious lack of seamanship amongst seagoing crews today in the cruise industry many of the Officers cannot steer their ship in an emergency.  We have therefore added a link to Pocket Mariner which should be a useful planning and operational navigational tool.  We shall continue looking for useful data and are interested in our readers opinions particularly those whom are navigators so we look forward to comments. There are two versions an U.K. App. and an U.S. App. so be careful reading the SeaNav advertising package for which one needed.  As you should know there are considerable difference between the U.K./E.U. system and U.S. systems.  In the International Association of Lighthouse Associations (IALA) buoyage systems the U.S. uses IALA-B ( thankfully ) and the U.K./E.U