Skip to main content

FINALLY AT PEACE





 

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 home with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Johannesburg, who was a son of a South African friend, to visit - caused quite a stir on our street as you can imagine.

During my sea career NAUTICAL LOG called at South African Ports many times so got to see firsthand something of the country that had been a regular topic of conversation with my Mom.

While NAUTICAL LOG is not one for having "heroes" there are persons one admires so it is perhaps not surprising that two are from South Africa.  Mahatma Gandhi who born in India was a lawyer in South Africa before returning to India and Nelson Mandela also a lawyer who was born, raised and died in South Africa.

Good Watch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CYCLONES AND SENTINELS

USCG Sentinel-class which are based on the Netherlands Damen Stan-class USCGC opened hull view USCG Sentinel-class interior layout USN Cyclone-class In the NAUTICAL LOG Press Release folder comes news of Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, LA. The United States Coast Guard has awarded a $166.1 million option to start production of four ' Sentinel-class' Fast Response Cutters (FRCs). This latest award brings a total of eight FRCs under production at Bollinger with a value of $410.7 million. The current FRC contract contains options for up to 34 cutters and is worth $1.5 billion if they are all exercised. Recently the United States Navy limited operation of its 'Cyclone-class' coastal patrol boats stationed in Bahrain and Norfolk, VA. Any vessel operation would depend on sea state and speed restrictions. This was due to structural damage as the vessels reach the 15 year mark which is considered close to the operational limit. This is apparently not a design fault but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

PAINT LOCKER FIRES

The photographs above are revealing in several ways, lets have a look. Clearly the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) vessel JS "Kurama" impacted the Korean container ship MS "Carina Star" just aft of the turn of the fo'cs'le on the Starboard side. Please note that's the Starboard side, thus it appears JS "Kurama" would have shown "Carina Star" the red port sidelight and "Carina Star" would have shown JS "Kurama" the green starboard sidelight. This impact point would tend to suggest that JS "Kurama" was the 'stand-on' vessel and the MS "Carina Star" is the 'giving-way' vessel. Until there is a complete plot of the tracks made good of both these vessels and the position in the Kanmon Strait of the point of collision no determination can actually be made. As a result of this impact there was severe bow damage to JS "Kurama" and in addition a massive f...
Post a Comment
Read more

LISTING SHIPS

MS Herald of Free Enterprise WSF Chetzemoka A FINAL WORD: Sunday, November 21, 2010. Between this Blog and comments in other maritime blogs we have pretty much discussed this vessel's issues fully. In fact we have beaten them to death!! The sad truth is that this is a politically operated ferry system to serve the public in the State of Washington. Being politicians they were able to convince another highly political federal agency, namely our USCG, to bend to their will. Nothing will be changed in this vessel and any further building will be done in the same way with the same results. The only possible change could be through the ballot box to replace those politicians and proceeding from there. So potential passengers may we suggest that prior to embarking you carefully check the current weather report. NAUTICAL LOG has been informed that the crossing is only 30 minutes and so doors are not an issue. We disagree and would refer you to the MS Herald of Free Enterprise ferry a...
Post a Comment
Read more