Tramp Steamers

[Tiki Tom]

On the occasion of “day of the seafarer”, three experienced merchant marine veterans talk about the state of the industry:

https://www.agcs.allianz.com/news-a...-articles/marine-risk-consulting-changes.html

 

[Tiki Tom]

Every once in a while, I trip over a story that is so impractical and so romantic and so absurd that my faith in humanity is rekindled. I want to sign-on to this crazy endeavor. What? Transport small shipments of “bio” wine to New York from France on a “green” sailing schooner!? Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
I love it.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/supply-chain-problems-try-a-cargo-schooner

 

[Tiki Tom]

How modern pirates use GPS to evade the law.
Not really new, but an interesting read, nonetheless.
Remember a few years back, when the evil empire (that cannot be named on FL) was using electronic techniques to give foreign naval vessels (aka, not their own) the wrong GPS coordinates? This article is not as scary as that, but still shines a light on modern maritime criminality.

https://dnyuz.com/2022/09/03/high-seas-deception-how-shady-ships-use-gps-to-evade-international-law/

 

[Tiki Tom]

Holy preventable disasters, Batman!
As we speak, an ancient super tanker is slowly falling apart… and it’s filled with more crude oil than the Exxon Valdez. Not good.

BTW, hat tip to the Netherlands on this one.

https://gcaptain.com/brink-of-catas...additional-funds-for-fso-safer-rescue-effort/

https://www.un.org/StopRedSeaSpill

And (if earlier stories in this thread are correct) this may not be an isolated case.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Gun running freighter up to no good as it docks in South Africa?

This could be straight out of a spy novel or adventure movie.
The Russian owned (but Dagestan registered) “Lady R” slipped into South Africa under cover of darkness with its transponder turned off. The Lady R is already under American sanctions for gun smuggling. Speculation is that South Africa is selling a load of armaments to Russia for use in Ukraine. Like a ghost, the Lady R unloaded, reloaded, and then disappeared again.

https://news.yahoo.com/south-african-mps-worried-government-165600910.html

Will the Lady R be intercepted at sea? Stay tuned.

Not saying they are guilty, but arms sales are big business in South Africa.

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/sa-exported-r3-3-billion-worth-of-military-hardware-in-2021/

The whole affair is Reminiscent of a Tom Clancy novel.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Anyone interested in a good, salty, ghost ship story?

https://www.iflscience.com/are-ghos...-oceans-with-no-one-aboard-to-crew-them-67071

 

[Tiki Tom]

I’ve heard of ghost ships…. But a real life ghost aircraft carrier? A bizarre story.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/americas/brazil-ghost-aircraft-carrier-sinking-intl-hnk-ml/index.html

 

[galopede]

My favourite steamer stories are the various tales of Para Handy, written as newspaper columns in the 1920's by Glasgow man Neil Munro about the captain and crew of the Vital Spark. Humorous tales of the Clyde Puffers that plied their trade along the Clyde and to the island such as Arran etc. At the time, they were the only way some islands got supplies. The boats were flat bottomed and often ran onto the beach to unload, floating off on the next tide.

There are several collections of stories. They can be quite hard going though, as they were written in dialect!

 

[Haversack]

My favourite steamer stories are the various tales of Para Handy, written as newspaper columns in the 1920's by Glasgow man Neil Munro about the captain and crew of the Vital Spark. Humorous tales of the Clyde Puffers that plied their trade along the Clyde and to the island such as Arran etc. At the time, they were the only way some islands got supplies. The boats were flat bottomed and often ran onto the beach to unload, floating off on the next tide.

There are several collections of stories. They can be quite hard going though, as they were written in dialect!

You have seen The Maggie? A 1954 Ealing Studio comedy based on the Para Handy stories. Alex Mackenzie plays Captain MacTaggart. Filmed on the Clyde and the Islands. A bonus is a Dragon Rapide.

 

[galopede]

You have seen The Maggie? A 1954 Ealing Studio comedy based on the Para Handy stories. Alex Mackenzie plays Captain MacTaggart. Filmed on the Clyde and the Islands. A bonus is a Dragon Rapide.

I have seen The Maggie. Some years ago now and can't remember much of it. Last TV version was from 1994 with Gregor Fisher as Para Handy. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0155450/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0