From the Bridge The Newsletter of the Company of Master Mariners of Canada

www.mastermariners.ca

August 2015

The Company of Master Mariners of Canada is a professional association for those qualified to command. It was established to encourage and maintain high and honourable standards within the nautical profession, further the efficiency of the Sea Service, and uphold the status, dignity and prestige of Master Mariners.

FROM THE MASTER’S DESK

I hope your summer has been going well and you have been able to catch up on family and friends and relax from the stress of work. On May 28th I made a visit to the Montreal Division at the request of some of the members. Unfortunately, not very many members took the time to come to the lunchtime meeting down at the Mariners House. The Division is in need of some stimulus to get interest in Master Mariners affairs and other issues that are of concern to all Mariners. It was disappointing to learn that this was the first meeting called for in a number of years! Captain Lantz explained the proposed Professional Development plan, which should be of professional interest to all of us. We also discussed a proposal to have a One Day Seminar on a SOREP / Places of Refuge for Canada in October in Montreal. In early June, Captain Paterson, NL Division suggested that CMMC should make a public comment on the USCG's request for comment on 'Position on Seafarers Right of Access to Shore Facilities'. Captain Amanda Slade of Capital Division offered to write up a paper on the subject. The National Council accepted Captain Slade’s position paper (see CMMC Website http://www.mastermariners.ca/) and I forwarded it to the USCG on June 13th. Since the 9/11 attacks in the US, a lot of shore facilities have chosen to take the easy way and block all shore access to seafarers, as it is cheaper that having to provide safe, secure access. This problem also occurs here at home at some terminals. On June 19th the Maritimes Division held their last function for the season with a Reception for members and guests onboard HMCS "SACKVILLE", which is moored during the summer near the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. On June 26th the National Council approved to send a letter to The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Tim Meisner, Director General, Transport Canada, Safety and Security and the Canadian Transportation Agency on "Dynamic Positioning (DP) Operator Positions of Foreign Flag Vessels". The Newfoundland Division raised the concern in reference particularly to the lack of DP operator positions being made available to Canadian certified DP operators on foreign flag vessels working in the East Coast offshore oil fields. The foreign vessels are required to make some positions available to local seafarers when they are operating with a Coasting Licence. The positions are important to help acquire valuable qualifying experience (sea time) in DP operations. The 48th AGM will be held in St. John's, NL October 3rd this year. All members are welcome to attend. Details were in the special AGM edition of From the Bridge issued earlier this month. Respectfully,

Captain Patrick Gates. National President, Company of Master Mariners of Canada.

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Playing rescuer to desperate souls: Adrift in unseaworthy vessels, an increasing number of refugees fleeing war-torn countries are throwing themselves on the mercy of seafarers. How do seafarers cope? How on earth do you cope when your ship, a sophisticated modern cargo vessel with a crew of under twenty, suddenly comes upon a boatload of refugees in a desperate, sinking condition? There might be a sea running and your ship, while capable of making a decent lee, has a high freeboard and is slowly rolling. Added to which, the half-wrecked wooden craft carrying the refugees looks as if it would fall apart if it makes contact with your steel side. But even more shocking is the sheer number of people who appear, crammed on to the frail craft, which should not be far from the coast, let alone in the middle of the Mediterranean. It is impossible to count them as many seem to be below deck, but there could be more than a hundred with babies in arms and old people in the last stages of distress among their number. They will hugely outnumber your crew, and among them could well be people harbouring infectious diseases, even carrying firearms and other weapons. Time is not on your side as night is falling and the sea is rising. This is no fictitious scenario but the sort of dilemma that has faced large numbers of seafarers during 2014, a year that saw more than160,000 refugees plucked from leaky boats in the Mediterranean, many of them by merchant ships, supplementing the work done mainly by the Italian Coastguard who have borne the lion’s share of the recues. How did the merchant seafarers cope? As always, they rose to the occasion, somehow managing to get these hundreds of wretched people aboard their ships, give them what help they were able to give with kindness and charity, and divert to a port for further treatment and processing. There should, however, be no illusions about the magnitude of this task on many of these occasions, with seafarers whose job descriptions and training did not equip them for such a task, having to perform near miracles in getting these people to safety. In these rescues, from the accounts they have given, they saw sights which they never ought to have seen, of death and human suffering, examples of man’s inhumanity to man and the sheer cold-blooded irresponsibility of the human traffickers who have sent these poor people to sea. They have somehow coped magnificently, not least because their ships would never have been designed to handle such invasions of desperate people in such numbers. People operating tankers or chemical ships have somehow had to keep hundreds of people on their tank decks and somehow stop them smoking or otherwise endangering the ship. They have been faced with angry and desperate people, hugely outnumbering them, demanding to be taken to their preferred destination, rather than one convenient for the ship. They have had to provide their “guests” with food, drink and shelter until they can be landed. Masters of ships know that they are obliged by both the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and UN refugee conventions to help in these circumstances, but the sheer numbers of refugees who have been trying to cross the Mediterranean have been a major challenge for both the “official” rescuers and for those operating merchant ships on passage. Numbers are difficult to judge with any accuracy, but it is believed that at least 3,000 people died in unsuitable craft throughout 2014. The scaling back of the Mare Nostrum operation, largely undertaken by the Italian Coastguard, and its replacement with a rather more modest European Union rescue operation has been heavily criticised, as the number of people trying to escape war and poverty shows no sign of abating. The beginning of this year saw even more worrying developments, with two shortsea ships laden with several hundred refugees abandoned underway by the smugglers, leaving the ships, like unguided missiles, with their load of humanity, heading for the Italian coast, where they were fortunately intercepted and brought to port. It is clear that the economics of such an operation, with desperate people able to pay substantial sums for their passage, commend themselves to smugglers able to lay hands on elderly, cheap ships. The consequences of one of these ships, under no form of control, being run down or wrecked would be appalling, but it is expected that the same sort of operation is likely to be repeated for as long as the desperate seek to escape. Can merchant seafarers count on any help if they find themselves involved in such a rescue? There is some useful advice from P&I Clubs, and from the International Chamber of Shipping, which has cooperated with IMO in issuing some practical information. But as always, in such circumstances, there is a sort of expectation that good seamanship and ship handling, along with common sense, humanity and courage, will be exercised by all concerned. It is expected that people will consider the risks, the safety of themselves and their ships as part of their emergency role as lifesavers. Seafarers involved in such incidents may reflect that they did not go to sea to become involved in such matters of life and death, but experience suggests that they cope extraordinarily well. Without a doubt, large numbers of people owe their lives to their skill and humanity. The worry is, of course, that 2015 will prove every bit as challenging.

Michael Grey. “The Sea” March/April 2015 www.missiontoseafarers.org http://www.imo.org/MediaCentre/HotTopics/seamigration/Documents/UNHCR-Rescue_at_Sea-Guide-ENG-screen.pdf

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/02/europe-refugee-crisis-un-africa-processing-centres

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Mission on hand for migrants and ships’ crews. IMO issues a new guide on merchant ships rescuing refugees as search and rescue resources are stretched in the Mediterranean: The Mission to Seafarers’ (MtS) director of justice and public affairs, the Revd. Canon Ken Peters has stressed that it is absolutely clear that under maritime law, crews on merchant ships at sea have an immediate obligation to rescue others whose lives are in danger. Noting the surge in the numbers of migrants attempting to cross from North Africa and the Middle East to Europe he said that last year saw some “absolutely terrible cases, with huge loss of life, particularly off Italy,

Malta, Sicily, Greece and Egypt”. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said that available data pointed to 2014 being a record high for illegal migration at sea, putting lives at risk and placing a huge strain on rescue services and on merchant vessels. It warned, “The age-old principles of rescue on the high seas are being stretched to breaking point”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that at least 348,000 people had risked sea journeys in search of asylum or migration worldwide since January 2014 and that more than 207,000 people crossed the Mediterranean

in 2014. It noted, “This onslaught of migration by sea, often in unsafe vessels, is not a random occurrence. It is being organised and orchestrated by people who trade and traffic the lives of others”. IMO said that this organised, international crime in the Mediterranean needed to be addressed through collective action by all concerned to detain, arrest and prosecute people smugglers. The MtS and partner organisations offer pastoral care and support for migrants in the aftermath of disaster. Mr. Peters said, “Victims often turn to the Church for help and we are equipped as professional chaplaincy teams trained in counselling and post-traumatic stress to give that care. The Mission also looks after merchant ship crews arriving in port suffering from post-traumatic stress after having carried out rescues. One such crew arrived in Cyprus after a rescue in Java, Indonesia. The crew were so distressed that they couldn’t save women and young children that they were in need of help and support themselves. To effect a sea rescue is fraught with danger and the actions of seafarers around the world who help save lives often go unreported”. Ship’s Masters now have new guidance on rescuing refugees. Produced jointly by IMO, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the Office of the UNHCR, the updated and revised Rescue at Sea: a guide to principles and practice as applied to refugees and migrants can be downloaded from the Internet at:

www.imo.org/MediaCentre/HotTopics/seamigration/Pages/default.aspx “The Sea” March/April 2015 www.missiontoseafarers.org

______________________________________________________________________ From the pages of “Sea Breezes” February 1973. http://www.seabreezes.co.im/ This year (1973) many people will go to sea, either in big cruising liners or in smaller 12-passenger ships, although opportunities for travelling in the latter become fewer each year. But whether you sail in large or small ships, ALAN TAYLOR has a few tips on: - Shipboard Etiquette: The smaller the community the greater care has to be taken over personal behaviour – the

oil that keeps the wheels of human contact running smoothly. And that applies more to a tight little cargo vessel carrying 12 people than to a 2,000-passenger ship. If there is a bore in a large liner you can arrange to drink in another bar and sit on another deck, but on a small ship it will be difficult to avoid him. There you will be face to face until the voyage is over, so for the sake of peace try to keep away from controversial matters whenever you have to speak to him. Seamen are seldom boring and most are interesting to talk to. That does not mean that you should treat the Master of the ship with undue familiarity. Always address him as “Captain” and not as “Cap” or by his Christian name unless you have known him personally since schooldays. Even then call him “Captain” when in the company of other passengers and particularly in front of the crew.

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This stricture need not lead to mutual starchiness. In a small cargo ship, most likely he will want to play chess with you when off duty. A Captain’s life is lonely. To maintain discipline he has to keep more or less aloof from his men and will welcome the opportunity of making friends with passengers whom he is never likely to see again. Address the Chief Engineer as “Chief”, and the Mates as Mr. Thomas or, if you don’t know their name, as Mr. Mate – unless they invite you to do otherwise. You are not likely to meet members of the crew in a passenger liner, but you will most certainly in a cargo ship. Call them George, Dick or Harry and their foreman, Bosun, not Mr. Bosun. If a man’s name is difficult to pronounce or remember, such as Zissimo, he will most likely meet you halfway by saying, “Call me Ziss”. In passenger ships your steward’s name will most likely be affixed inside the cabin door. You can use his Christian name. Apart from congenial relaxation that can be afforded to the Master and Officers of a cargo vessel by your presence, you, as a passenger, will be regarded as part of the cargo – troublesome cargo at that, because you take up more space than stowed packages and containers and require more attention. You ask silly questions at awkward times and may grumble for no reason at all. You feel ill, and all but miss the ship when she is due to sail. Try to ease the lot your shipmates as much as you can in these respects. With a passenger liner or cruise ship carrying little or no cargo, things are different. You are catered for specially here with lectures and loud speakers, and with more stewards and pursers to attend to your needs. And, of course, they carry doctors and nurses. A periodical inspection of cabins is, or should be, carried out in all ships by the Captain or one of his Officers. Apart from this, stewards are the only seamen allowed in passenger’s quarters, so don’t ask a deck hand in for a drink however much you like him. The Captain’s permission may be sought in special cases of course, as for instance when the writer was giving English lessons to a Polish seaman in a ship bound for Argentina, and there was no room in the seaman’s cabin.

You will generally be allowed in the crew’s quarters of a cargo ship at their invitation and, if you get friendly enough, will enjoy some grand old singsongs. Go steady with the friendliness though. Don’t forget that you are paying and they are being paid. Remain Mr. McWhirter or Miss Jones (and Miss Jones must never enter s seaman’s cabin without the company of a male passenger). On a long trip names may be reduced to Mr. Angus or Miss Gladys, but never Angus or Gladys. Most unjust it is that ladies can never be as free with a cargo liner’s crew. There is no need to be stiff and distant but you should remember that seamen are away from home for lengthy periods and so subject to greater physiological strains that are landlubbers. It is unfair to put temptation in their way; so keep conversation general and never parade on deck in brief wear where they will see you. Keep in mind that if they lose control and take insulting

advantage and you complain they will be sacked whereas you will only suffer embarrassment. Because a few women err in this respect some cargo ship owners will refuse a booking from a woman travelling on her own. Tables in the dining room of a passenger liner are arranged similar to those in a restaurant. You will be allotted one on boarding the ship. Don’t dash in and sit anywhere. If you dislike the seat the chief steward can always move you later. In a 12-passenger ship there may be individual tables, one for the Captain, one for the Chief Engineer and perhaps the Chief Mate, and three other tables, each occupied by four passengers. Or there may be two larger tables, each taking six passengers with the Captain at the head of one and the Chief Engineer at the head of the other. Another arrangement could be one large table for everybody with the Captain at the head and the Chief Engineer at the foot. The Captain will most likely be served with his food first, not a matter of social discrimination but because he may be called to the bridge before his meal is finished. For a similar reason he could arrive at the table when the meal is half over, and no offence should be taken at that.

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The usable decks of a passenger ship generally extend to the stern and nearly to the bow. You will not be allowed right forward though nor on the bridge unless as a member of a conducted tour. Every part of a cargo vessel is yours when at sea, with the exception of the holds and engine room (conducted tour here). But if you want to visit the wheelhouse, tap first and ask if you may come in, in case an officer is making a fix and will not want interruption because he may not see the sun again for hours. If there is inflammable deck cargo, don’t smoke when taking your morning walk on the main deck. And when having a puff on other decks don’t throw lighted cigarette stubs overboard. The slipstream could carry them into an open porthole and set bedding alight. Because of this danger, modern ships are planned so that no bunk comes immediately under a porthole. Don’t smoke at all on deck when there is a refuelling barge alongside. When approaching port, keep clear of the forward and aft working parts of the deck; they are required by the crew for bringing the ship in. Don’t throw rubbish over the side when your ship is in port or passing through a canal. You will be fouling an enclosed water area and could be fined heavily for it. Although matters of common sense, these small points are often forgotten, and an officer will not like having to remind you. To some passengers, and for some unknown reason, lifeboat drill appears to be a source of amusement. It is not to a seaman who knows first hand the dangers that lurk below the deck on which he is standing. So, if you want to remain popular, don’t joke about it or fool around, or try and be smart by blowing your safety whistle. As the crew have to maintain continuous watches over 24 hours a day, find out what particular part of the deck is over those who come off duty during the day, and keep quiet within these hours. Never peer through portholes. Your motive may be only curiosity as to what is inside, but you might surprise a seaman taking off his underclothes – and neither he nor you will like that! Cabin portholes of passenger ships don’t, as a rule, face forward. In the more confined space of a cargo vessel some of them do. If you are occupying such a cabin, keep the curtains drawn during the hours of darkness, otherwise your lights will be reflected to confuse navigation. Better do this yourself than risk a four-letter word, even if it is behind your back, from the unlucky member of the watch who has to leave the bridge on a windy night to come down and attend to it. If you are thinking of embarking on anything unusual in a passenger ship, ask one of the senior stewards or pursers first. In a cargo vessel, seek permission from the Captain. It is his ship. He is the lord of his small domain and wields more power than any other human being – King, Premier or President. Being a broadminded and tolerant seaman he won’t exercise this power unless an inconsiderate action forces him to. In extreme cases of intractability he can clap an offender in irons. Have you stood in the harbour at Victoria, B.C. and watched the American ferry arrive and depart? It has run between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria two or three times a day, depending on the season, since 1959. m.v. Coho: The story about the name of the MV Coho is a good one. The rumour is the late owner and President

of Black Ball Transport, Inc., Mrs. Lois Acheson, selected the name Coho in order to expedite typing the ship’s name on the various freight Bills of Lading. The “coho” is actually the name of a silver salmon with light pink coloured flesh found in the US Pacific Northwest of Washington State and along the West Coast of British Columbia. It is also stocked in the Great Lakes. Traditionally ferry vessels operating in this part of the United States have had original Native American names, i.e., Willapa, Chinook, Chippewa, Illahe, Kitsap, etc. Captain Alexander Peabody, owner and founder of Puget Sound

Navigation Company, known as the Black Ball Line, operated the largest fleet of passenger and freight vessels in the Pacific Northwest. Captain Peabody was a descendent of the Peabody ship owning family of New York, founders of the famous Black Ball sailing packets operating in trans-Atlantic service during the 1800’s. The company was originally formed in 1816, and the name Black Ball, incidentally, is the longest standing active shipping company name in the United States. In 1951, Captain Peabody sold his fleet of passenger-vehicle ferries to the State of Washington, and the vessels have since been managed and operated under the public ownership of the Washington State Ferry System (WSF). Several vessels of the original Black Ball fleet that were built in San Francisco in 1927, the Quinault, Nisqually, Illahe and Klickitat, continued in active WSF service until 2007. In 1952, Captain Peabody sold his last interest in another US subsidiary, Black Ball Freight Lines, to Mr. Robert Acheson and his wife Lois. They continued to operate a freight service to various Puget Sound ports under the name Black Ball Transport, Inc. with the MV Iroquois, an old passenger steamer converted to a freight only motor vessel. The SS Iroquois was the original name of the vessel when launched on the Great Lakes in 1901. The Iroquois steamed around South America through the Straits of Magellan to Seattle in early 1907, and, after her conversion in 1952, the Iroquois remained in service until August 1969.

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When Robert Acheson decided to expand Black Ball’s freight operations and re-introduce the international passenger and vehicle service between Port Angeles, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia across the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the MV Coho was ordered and built at the Puget Sound Bridge and Drydock Company at a cost of US$3 million. The Coho entered service in December 1959 and to this day has continuously operated year round on the Port Angeles-Victoria route. Philip Spaulding, a highly respected and well-known Pacific Northwest naval architect, designed the Coho. The motor ferry Coho is the prototype of the first vessels of the British Columbia Provincial Government ferry system, BC Ferries, and vessels of the current Alaska Marine Highway System. Robert Acheson died in 1963 and his wife Lois served as President of Black Ball until she passed away in August 2004. Mrs. Acheson willed the company to be held in trust by the Oregon State University Foundation with the funds dedicated to establishing “The Lois Bates Acheson School of Veterinary Medicine”. In January 2012, Black Ball management bought the company and currently it is managed by a team of five owners; Captain John Cox, Chairman and CEO; Ryan Burles, President & COO; David Booth, Senior Vice President Administration and Finance; Ryan Malane, Vice President of Marketing, and Rian Anderson, Vice President Terminals. The MV Coho is dry-docked every year, and has been impeccably maintained over the past 54 years. The vessel continues to provide safe, affordable and reliable service between the US and Canada. Coho also continues to fly on her masthead a version of the original Black Ball Line house flag of the Black Ball sailing packets. 28 March 2015. https://www.cohoferry.com/ http://www.seabreezes.co.im/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1741:mv-coho&catid=34:ships&Itemid=56 The next item is long and with reference to the War. We have not featured such a story here for some time but I thought it was interesting and worthwhile. Captain Alan Knight of the Maritimes Division submitted it. His comments at the end are worthy of consideration. David Whitaker. The voyage of 2/O Frank Le Riche, and 3/O John Campkin, m.t. “Eulima”, 1943: The North Atlantic is notorious for bad weather, but the winter of 1942-43 was the worst for decades. Adding to the danger, the U-boat force was at the greatest strength it would ever achieve. When Convoy ON-166 assembled at Liverpool in early February 1943, the Battle of the Atlantic was at its height, and every man would have been aware of the extreme danger into which they were sailing. Among the ships assembled for ON-166 was the Shell tanker Eulima, a three-year veteran of the longest continuously fought battle in world history.

When, on 11th February, ON-166 departed from Liverpool, bound for New York, Eulima sailed in position 41, (4th column from the Left, front rank of the convoy). The crew of 63, headed by Capt. Frederick Wickera, and C/E David Mitcheson, consisted of 23 Brits, and 40 Chinese. In the North Channel, 18 ships from Milford Haven joined up, and the 46 merchant ships headed into the Atlantic. The U.S.-led Escort Group 3A, consisted of the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Spencer and Campbell, the corvette H.M.S. Dianthus, and the R.C.N. corvettes Trillium, Chilliwack, Rosthern and Dauphin. The 1600-ton Rescue Ship Stockport trailed the convoy, tasked with picking up survivors

of sunken ships. As ON-166 passed Malin Head, the barometer began to fall steeply, and for eight days ON-166 battered its way westwards into the teeth of a Force 10 storm, barely managing 4 knots. Station keeping was difficult under these conditions, and by the time the storm abated, ON-166 was in loose formation, with several “stragglers” well astern. British air cover had had to be suspended because of the terrible weather, and the Full Moon illuminated the night, stripping the convoy of the protective cloak of darkness. ON-166 was now in extreme danger. On 20th February, U-604 sighted the convoy, and was ordered by U-boat HQ to maintain contact, and to “home” the other 18 U-boats of Wolfpack “Sturmbock” for the attack. The U.S.C.G. cutter Campbell began to hear nearby U-boat transmissions. There was now no doubt that the convoy was being shadowed, and that an attack was imminent. On 21st February, the Norwegian Stigstad, which had straggled, was torpedoed by U-332, with the loss of 3 men, and the straggler Empire Trader was torpedoed by U-92, though all 92 crew survived the sinking. The Rescue Ship Stockport was detached from the convoy, and rescued the survivors from the sunken ships, but whilst attempting to catch up with the convoy during the early hours of 23rd February, two torpedoes fired by U-604 hit her. The explosion would have blown the small ship apart. There were no survivors from the crews on Stockport. There were further losses on the 22nd, when the Chattanooga City (U.S.) and the Empire Redshank (Br.) were torpedoed by U-606. Expositor (U.S.) was torpedoed by U-303. The tanker N.T. Nielsen Alonso (Nor.) was torpedoed by U-92, but did not sink; she was later sunk by the escort to prevent her becoming a hazard to navigation.

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On Eulima, after what was doubtless a sleepless night, Chief Officer Sam Parry Jones took over the watch at 0400. At 0456, U-186 fired three torpedoes at the convoy. One hit the Hastings, which sank quickly, taking 9 men with her. At 0458 one torpedo struck Eulima, and she began to lose speed, and drop astern of the convoy. One can imagine the hectic activity as the crew began damage-assessment, and the Engineers endeavoured to keep the job running. At 0830, U-186, now well astern of the convoy, sighted Eulima again, and fired another torpedo, which caused the after end to break off and sink, probably taking the Engine Room crew down with it. U-186 surfaced and approached the two lifeboats that had got away, looking to take the Captain prisoner, but Capt. Wickera was never seen again. The U-boat’s report stated that there were many floating bodies nearby. While U-186 was assessing the situation, one of the two lifeboats capsized, flinging the survivors into the water. U-186’s sparse report does not state whether the remaining lifeboat picked them up. U-186 then shelled the fore part of Eulima until it sank around 1130, before departing the scene. The 15 men in the remaining lifeboat were now in a desperate situation; most of their shipmates were dead; they were in an open lifeboat in the N. Atlantic in February, drenched with spray, doubtless suffering from seasickness, and hundreds of miles from the nearest land. They were now well astern of the convoy, and unbeknownst to them, their main hope of rescue, the Stockport, was now on the bottom of the N. Atlantic. As the light faded on the 23rd, they would have huddled together for warmth. The senior surviving officer, 2/O Frank Le Riche, (who had been torpedoed before) and 3/O John Campkin, would have posted lookouts. It would have been a long, bitterly cold night, and they would have had to bail constantly. With the coming of dawn, they would have stretched their cold-cramped limbs, and breakfasted on lifeboat biscuits, washed down with ice-cold water. In the fading light of the afternoon of the 24th, U-409 was running on the surface, when the lookout reported a lifeboat ahead. U-409 stopped near the lifeboat. Le Riche and Campkin were ordered to come aboard. M.N. officers were high-value assets in this war of attrition, and were sometimes taken prisoner by U-boats. Oberleutnant Massman ordered that tins of water, tinned bread, and a navigational chart be given to the men in the lifeboat, and told them the course to the nearest land. U-409 resumed the pursuit of the convoy. Sadly, the men in the lifeboat were never seen again. John Campkin told me that once in the U-boat, his name was recorded, and his watch and wallet were confiscated. U-409 was assigned to the Wolfpack “Wildfang”, which was ordered to attack the Eastbound convoy SC-122. (SC convoys were assembled at Sydney, N.S., and consisted of slow ships that could not maintain a 7 knot average). On 09th March, U-409 sighted SC-122, and moved into the attack. At 2226, Massman fired a torpedo at the 3827-ton Malantic (U.S.), which was loaded with bombs, ammunition and general cargo, striking it in the starboard side of #1 Hold, and causing a violent detonation. The starboard lifeboats were destroyed, and the survivors escaped in the port boats. Of the crew of 47, 22 survived to be picked up by the Rescue Ship Melrose Abbey. At 2241, Massman fired again, this time hitting the British tanker Rosewood, which was loaded with Fuel Oil. Rosewood exploded and broke in two. There were no survivors from the crew of 41. Retribution followed quickly. John Campkin told me that they heard the “pings” of the escort’s ASDIC s growing stronger, and that he lay on the deck plates in silence, listening to the noise of the thrashing propellers overhead, followed by the splash of depth-charges tumbling into the water. He heard them gurgling as they sank, followed by shattering explosions. The lights went out, and in the darkness he could hear water leaking from strained pipes. He said that the depth charging seemed to last for hours. It must have been terrifying. He told me that when the depth charging ceased, and the propeller beats faded into the distance, the crew cheered and hugged one another, including him and Frank Le Riche. With a wry smile, he told me that he realized that he now had a new set of loyalties, because the British were trying to kill him, while the Germans were trying to keep him alive! He said that the crew of U-409, united by their common peril, accepted him and Frank. U-409 then refuelled from a tanker U-boat, and was sent to report on weather from south of Greenland. On 12th April 1943, U-409 reached the safety of France, ending Le Riche and Campkin’s 47-day time as prisoners in what could very easily have been their coffin. As was customary, senior naval staff were on the quayside, surrounded by Teutonic maidens carrying bouquets of flowers, doubtless to disguise the rancid smell of men who had not washed for 8 weeks! John Campkin’s son, Simon, gave me the attached photos of the arrival, and of John Campkin (wearing the MN cap), and Frank Le Riche, (hatless) surrounded by the crew of U-409. The relief on their faces is evident. He said that they all shook hands, and wished each other well. The two survivors of the Eulima were led up the gangway, and taken to U-boat headquarters for questioning, before being sent to the Transit Camp, and onwards to Germany.

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In Berlin, they were interviewed on the German State Radio station, on a program named “Voices from the Seven Seas”. I have a transcript of the interview. In England, the broadcast was intercepted, and John Campkin’s parents, who had already received the telegram stating that “Their Lordships of Admiralty regret to inform you…” and who believed that their only child was dead, were at the cinema in St. Ives, Cornwall, when a transparency was slid on to the projector, stating “John Campkin alive and well in Germany”! The two men were sent to MILAG, near Westertimke. There were around 5000 merchant seamen of various nationalities at the camp. As civilian non-combatants, according to Section XI, Article 6, of the 1907 Hague Conventions, which were then applicable, Merchant Seamen “…. are not made prisoners of war, on condition that they make a formal promise in writing, not to undertake, while hostilities last, any service connected with operations of the war”. The Germans, however, always treated M.N. seamen as prisoners of war, which is testament to the high value that they placed on merchant seamen. One prisoner who was not a seafarer was the actor Henry Mollison, who had been returning to England in 1940 when a commerce raider sank his ship, and he spent most of the war as a prisoner. During his time at MILAG, he became Entertainments Officer, organizing some 62 plays and shows. After the war, he starred in the movie “Whiskey Galore”. There was a library with 3000 books, and also a MILAG Jockey Club, which built an oval track, and carved wooden horses, on which one would place bets. It was customary for winnings to be donated to the Red Cross, from which the prisoners received food parcels. Some of the prisoners attempted to tunnel to freedom, but digging tunnels through sand is difficult, and the tunnel collapsed. John Campkin told me that they were assembled on the Parade Ground, where the Commandant told that if they attempted to escape again, they would be shot. At this, Henry Mollison said in a loud “stage whisper”, “I think it strange that Jerry built a camp on top of a tunnel in the first bloody place!” In late 1944, as Germany faced defeat, the situation at MILAG worsened. Food rations were reduced, and heating fuel became scarce. On 2nd April 1945, over 100 SS-Feld Gendarmerie entered the camp, and marched 3000 prisoners to the East. During the forced march, British fighter planes mistakenly strafed the column. Several prisoners were killed on the eve of being liberated. I have been unable to ascertain whether Frank and John were in the forced march to the East. On 19th April, the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division positioned tanks and artillery round the camp, and the remaining prisoners began digging trenches for protection from the expected battle. Fortunately, the Panzer Grenadiers had retreated from the area by the time the British 11th Armoured Division liberated the camp on 1st May 1945. The strange 27-month voyage of Frank Le Riche and John Campkin was at an end. After the war, Frank Le Riche immigrated to Canada, and worked ashore in British Columbia. He died in White Rock, B.C., in 1999. The following are Captain Alan Knight’s comments: John Campkin stayed with Shell Tankers, and rose to command. I sailed with him on Vitrina in 1972. Knowing what I know now, I am sure that he suffered from undiagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is my belief that PTSD in merchant seafarers has never been adequately addressed. In 1967, John Campkin was in command of Amastra when it was mined by the Viet Cong at Nha Trang. For the second time in his life, he had to abandon ship. This time, everyone survived. I have a copy of a letter that John Campkin sent to his parents from MILAG, and I will let him have the last word. “You don’t state definitively whether any of the others of our crew have arrived home, although it seems pretty obvious that Frank and myself are the only two survivors. We did have hopes for those who were left in the lifeboat (13 men) but I am afraid that all those hopes have been dashed to the ground, after such a long period of time. There have been several inquiries in the camp for Jimmy Coudie, our apprentice, the first was about 2 months ago but he was with Capt. Wickers (sic), Mr. Parry Jones, Mr. Turner, and the remainder of the crew who were not in our lifeboat. As I said in my first letter, they didn’t stand a chance when she was hit a second time, as the stern broke off after 4 mins, and we have to assume that they were sucked down with it. We sailed through this position when the action had ceased, and the only sign of life were 3 Chinese on an upturned boat, 2 were drowned, the 3rd had taken in water and wouldn’t jump for it in the sea and the swell were too heavy for us to do anything to keep him. I hope you will express my deepest sympathy to all the bereaved”. There are a few websites that tell about the MILAG. e.g. http://www.milag.org/?p=5 & http://www.milag.org/?p=110 Reference to John Campkin appears in: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/archive/index.php?t-52584.html & http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0597075/trivia Maritime industry is easy meat for cyber criminals: Merchant vessels are continuously becoming bigger and getting more electronic systems. Seafarers often depend on technology data more than their own skills, knowledge, and senses. Crews are becoming smaller as computer systems are being used for navigation, as well as for rapid unloading, handling, and tracking of goods at ports. Unfortunately, these systems are also highly vulnerable to cyber threats. Victims often try to keep successful hacks a secret. The reason for this is that the maritime companies value their reputation more than the money they actually lose. Also, cyber criminals are stealthy and in many cases companies are unaware they have been hacked. Ninety percent of the world’s freight goes by sea. Each hack can cost millions of dollars to ship owners, and in some circumstances even wreck the national economy. Breaking into key container terminals, criminals can bring down the

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operation of regional and national supply chains. e.g., the British government has revealed that cyber attacks cost the UK oil and gas industry about 400 million pounds ($672 million) a year. Researchers have discovered security holes in key vessels technologies: GPS, marine Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), used for viewing digital nautical charts. Another problem is that in cases of an onboard device hack, many sailors are not ready to manage it. For instance, a GPS break can send a ship off-course while making her appear to be on-course. This can lead to collision and delay in freight delivery. In 2010, a drilling rig was tilted from its construction site in South Korea towards South America. The vessel’s computers and control systems were riddled with viruses. Identifying the hack and fixing it took 19 days. There were other similar incidents including the one recently reported by Reuters: A floating oilrig had to shut down for a week before the issue was cleared out because there were no cyber security professionals onboard. In August 2011, hackers penetrated the servers of IRISL, Iranian Shipping Line, damaging data with rates, loading, cargo numbers, delivery dates and places. Nobody could specify the location of certain containers. A considerable amount of cargo was delivered to the wrong destinations or even lost. May 22nd 2015. https://blog.kaspersky.co.in/maritime-industry-is-easy-meat-for-cyber-criminals/

The world needs more Newfoundlanders. In my experience they add that indefinable extra dimension to any activity. Coming from a special place they have

much special knowledge and unique customs. Our Resident Newfoundlander, if I may call him such, informs me that their traditional dish of corned beef and cabbage, called “Maggie & Jiggs”, can still be found on Newfoundland café menus. Indeed certain outposts are still consuming Spam sandwiches as a luncheon treat. All this came up when he told us how to make “brewis”, a dish made from cod and pilot bread. Pilot bread, or ship’s biscuit, has long been a staple on long voyages. You can still find the round kind, popular on the coast, but you have to look for it. This naturally led to a discussion of what Marine Pilots used to do and still do. The story is a long one and somewhat confusing. If you read the accounts of old-time voyages, mainly under sail, you find references to Captains, Masters and Pilots. So on a ship one person might be Captain and Master or on others the duties were separated. Fundamentally the Captain was in charge and the Master was in charge of navigation, amongst other things. But who was the Pilot? It took a long time to get it all straightened out. The duties of a Pilot were narrow, mainly the ability to answer the question: where the hell are we? Running a ship was one thing, navigating another. Columbus had all three working on his ships. He was Captain, his Master was Juan de la Cosa, and his Pilot was Peralonso Niňo. Famously, Columbus kept his own log to deceive the crew but research has shown that the Pilot’s log was more accurate. At any rate, they made it to America. Operating ships on the high seas was one thing; coastal sailing was another matter. The English set up a system of lighthouses and navigation aids under the control of an institution called Trinity House, which was also responsible for the training and safety of seamen. They maintain a Deep Sea Pilotage service, mainly in the North Sea. On this coast it is different. The Pilots here do just that, piloting. Looking after lighthouses is for someone else. Ships entering our waters pick up Pilots at several places on the coast. The pilot boat goes out to meet the vessel; the Pilot jumps aboard (highly dangerous) and greets the Captain. The Captain is still in charge but the Pilot is there to give advice on how not to hit the Sandheads Light Ship http://lighthousememories.ca/tag/sand-heads/ and be sure to stay out of Active Pass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Pass. Bringing a cruise ship into Vancouver Harbour is nice work; taking one of those huge car transports up the Fraser River is a task not for the faint-hearted. For that reason there are Pilots especially for the Fraser River. Nowadays with all the high-tech navigation equipment Pilots generally know where they are. Not so in the old days. England’s greatest naval disaster, the wreck off the Scilly Isles in 1707 of several ships under Sir Cloudsley-Shovell, sent over 2,000 men to their deaths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudesley_Shovell.

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They just didn’t know where they were. Nowadays you can buy Sailing Directions. The purpose of Sailing Directions is “to advise the mariner as a live Pilot would do for navigation”. Coupled with satellite navigation, radar and computers, the going from one place to another is indeed less stressful. Or it should be. There are many horror stories about the early days of maritime exploration. Vasco da Gama to India, Magellan’s fleet going around the world, and the aforementioned Sir Cloudsley-Shovell. But then again there are stories of great jobs of navigation. Slocum sailing around the world by himself (23 days on one course) http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/spray.htm, the dhows sailing from Oman to Calicut and back with the monsoon also come to mind. But the greatest have to be the Polynesians, at least by my reckoning. On an outrigger loaded with people, pigs, plants, food and whatever, they could navigate the great expanses of the South Pacific and colonize New Zealand and Hawaii and everything else in between. Cook was astounded by their piloting ability. Masters of ships have many responsibilities. But the responsibility of the Pilot is simple: get the ship in safely in strange waters. He has much knowledge of tides, currents, buoyage, ship behaviour and much more. But it remains a lonely calling. It is to his skill that the ship and crew have entrusted their lives. So the Newfoundlanders, eating their brewis (cod and pilot bread), are paying homage to that skill. They know that on lonely voyages you need the Pilot, and he needs his bread. From the July 2015 edition of “Western Mariner”. www.westernmariner.com Mrs. Amor de Cosmos has been writing "letters from home" for people in the Canadian fishing industry for many years. The name is a nom de plume. http://www.harbourpublishing.com/author/MrsAmordeCosmos

Paper, paper, everywhere: What is the point of issuing the Master of a ship with bits of paper and requiring him to show them to people who turn up onboard and insist on their right to look at them? The correct answer is, “To enrich corrupt port officials”.

I know a ship, which recently put into a Russian port for bunkers; the agent came on board and insisted that he needed to take the folder with the trading certificates ashore with him. Soon afterwards two gentlemen from Port State Control turned up and asked for the certificates, and on being told where they were – ashore with the agent – imposed a fine of $500. There is only one sensible place for a ship’s trading certificates, and that is on the Internet. If governments can keep their motor vehicle tax records on the Internet, surely the same can be done for merchant ships? If the trading certificates are on the Internet, national authorities, port officials, even charterers and

underwriters can look them up when they first have to think about the ship rather than waiting until a ship arrives in port. If the IMO cannot be trusted to keep a website up to date, no doubt IACS can do so, since most of the bits of paper are issued by its members. This leads me to the most useless bit of paper yet devised by the IMO, the Nairobi Convention Wreck Removal Certificate, required as of February 14 this year. Like the other ‘evidence of financial responsibility’ certificates, this is issued by the ship’s flag state, against a fee and a ‘blue card’ (in reality, a PDF) issued by the ship’s P&I Club. So why do we call a PDF, an electronic document, which is not blue, a ‘blue card’? Nobody knows. Some people trace an analogy with the US permanent residence certificate, which was green when it first appeared in 1946, while some people think it was because the paper used by early computer printers was sometimes blue. At all events, this system has been with us since the Civil Liability Convention of 1969, which created a system for paying for oil pollution from tankers which was indeed a wonderful thing in its day, and which created the system. 1969 was 46 years ago. The Vietnam War was at its height, the Beatles were still making records… and the IMO has not come up with a better system, but have just multiplied the old one with Bunker Convention Certificates, Athens Convention Certificates and now Wreck Removal Certificates.

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Talking of certificates, the UK Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, Captain Steve Clinch, says that it would not be a bad idea if anyone who holds a certificate of competency as officer in charge of a navigational watch should be required to undergo a practical exam in a simulator once every five years, to make sure that they are up to speed with the Collision Regulations. Can anyone think of a good reason why this should not be done? For the avoidance of doubt, may I say that the reason given for not requiring oral examinations as a part of STCW, namely that, in many nations, the candidate will slip a wad of notes to the examiner, is not a ‘good reason’. Like many things in merchant shipping, that is a bad reason. Bureaucratic inertia, as demonstrated by the IMO sticking with a 46-year-old idea, which was elegant when mainframe computers had less power than your phone has today, is always a bad reason. Is there intelligent life at the IMO? There is very little evidence for it. MAY 20TH, 2015 This article first appeared in the most recent issue of Maritime CEO magazine. http://splash247.com/paper-paper-everywhere/ B.C. boat-building firm wins contract to build 27 coast guard boats: A Metro Vancouver company has won a $7.6-million federal contract to supply 27 vessels to the Canadian Coast Guard, prompting the national revenue

minister to defend the government's record on West Coast marine safety. Kerry-Lynne Findlay said Zodiac Hurricane Technologies Inc. of Delta will construct 18 station-based and nine ship-based inshore-rescue boats that will be used across Canada. The federal government has been criticized for its 2013 closure of a coast guard station on Vancouver's waterfront, with critics saying that delayed a response to a spill of 2,700 litres of bunker fuel into English Bay in April. "We have invested the most of any Canadian government in history in our coast guard assets," Findlay said Friday. "We take it very seriously, and I know the coast guard personnel are the most professional men and women in the world." She said people "should do their research" before criticizing

the government over the coast guard's preparedness. July 4th 2015 http://www.theprovince.com/business/boatbuilding+firm+wins+contract+build+coast+guard+vessels/11189002/story.html Update on “Shipping 2020”: DNV GL sees hybrid propulsion and connectivity as emerging trends: With 2020 in sight, DNV GL looked at the lessons to be learned from the update to the classification society’s “Shipping 2020” report that was published in 2012. Now, three years later, hybrid propulsion systems and connected ship solutions are emerging technologies that are gaining ground faster than expected, outlined Tor E. Svensen, CEO DNV GL – Maritime, at the opening day of Nor-Shipping in Oslo. “While operational efficiency and emissions reductions are the main motivators behind these developments, the update shows that the future fuel mix will be much more diverse,” Svensen said. LNG as a ship fuel was one of the standouts from the last report, but due to continuing high investment costs and slower development of infrastructure the prediction of up to 1,000 LNG-fuelled vessels by 2020 will most likely not be met. However, as more bunkering options come in place, growth could accelerate. Scrubbers, on the other hand, were seen as a regulatory compliance option that would not be a significant option until after 2020 and the introduction of tighter global restrictions on sulphur. Today, the scrubber market is developing faster than expected, with more than 200 confirmed projects. The rise of hybrid vessels was unanticipated in the original “Shipping 2020” report, Svensen noted. But the substantial drop in battery prices and improved energy storage capacity means that hybrid systems are now becoming a real option for the shipping industry. They are best suited for vessels with large variations in power demand, coastal trades and operations within emission control areas. The technology was also becoming applicable for some deep-sea shipping segments, for example in crane operations, he explained. Pilot projects indicate that hybrid technology is robust and leads to fuel savings of 15 per cent for an offshore vessel. A hybrid engine system allows the ship to operate at its most efficient point,

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regardless of power requirement or load. “Currently, there are already 33 hybrid vessels in operation or on order, and looking ahead it is possible this number will top 100 by 2020,” Svensen said. Global high-speed Internet coverage, increased computing power and Big Data solutions turn the vision of the connected ship into reality. Svensen expects that the spread of these technologies will enable the shipping industry to intensify its focus on enhancing operational efficiency. “By bringing together and analysing both data from on-board monitoring systems and from external sources, a comprehensive insight is gained of voyage, engine and hull performance”, he said. “Voyage management based on shipboard sensors and AIS data, for example, can help to determine the optimal speed in all conditions and thereby reduce fuel bills.” While enhanced safety through sensors and automation on board is another advantage of connected ships, the robustness and reliability of software dependent systems has to be assured. Applying Integrated Software Dependent Systems (ISDS) standards and verifying reliability through Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing is therefore growing in importance. “Originally used for mobile offshore drilling units, we expect that ISDS standards and HIL testing will play a greater role for shipping in the near future – at first in some of the offshore vessel segments as well as for large passenger ships,” Svensen said. Alongside these opportunities new threats are present: “As ships become more connected, they could fall victim to cyber attacks,” he warned. To mitigate risks, Svensen recommended the development of guidelines and standards together with cyber security audits to improve systems protection. The original “Shipping 2020” report had generated a great deal of interest and fostered discussion throughout the industry, Svensen concluded. “The update once again aims to review the ‘big picture’. It points out how market conditions and the regulatory framework have influenced technology uptake, and how we expect this to develop as we move towards 2020,” he said. Source: DNV GL http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/update-on-shipping-2020-dnv-gl-sees-hybrid-propulsion-and-connectivity-as-emerging-trends/ http://www.scana.no/products/integrated-solutions Hapag-Lloyd's New Noses Lower Emissions: By 2016, 24 of the largest ships in Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet will get a new bulbous bow, and some will also be fitted with optimised propellers. This will enable the vessels to consume less fuel and produce fewer emissions. It’s as high as a truck, weighs about 250 tonnes and is a prominent feature at the very tip of the bow of modern container ships. This has little to do with aesthetics and much more to do with fuel efficiency. The bulbous bow – the nose of the ship – displaces water in a manner that minimizes or even completely eliminates a bow wave. The lower the water resistance on the hull, the less fuel a ship needs in order to travel at the same speed. If a ship’s fuel consumption decreases, its emissions also drop. “For this reason, we continuously analyse how to make our ships even more efficient,” explains Richard von Berlepsch, Managing Director Ship Management. As a result, this distinctive part of the vessel is now being retrofitted in four of Hapag-Lloyd’s biggest ship classes. One by one, the 13,200 TEU ships in the Hamburg Express class and the 8,750 TEU vessels in the Colombo Express, Prague Express and Vienna Express classes are heading into the docks of two shipyards in Shanghai. The retrofitting of all the vessels should be completed in the coming year. What might sound simple in theory is actually more complicated in practice. If the design of a bulbous bow is really going to save fuel, and thus reduce emissions, it needs to be optimised for the individual performance profile of a ship. Hapag-Lloyd has calculated this profile precisely for the 24 largest ships in its fleet, while taking numerous factors into consideration. These include, for example, the ship’s area of operation and cruising speed. The cargo volume is also important, as it affects the ship’s draft. Further optimisation potential was even identified for Hapag-Lloyd’s most modern vessels, those in the Hamburg Express class, whose last ship entered service just a year ago. The original plans had called for the 13,200 TEU vessels to be smaller in size. “In addition, they were still optimised for an operating speed of 25 knots with a 15-metre draft,” says von Berlepsch. As a result of the subsequent introduction of “slow steaming”, however, the average cruising speed decreased to between 16 and 18 knots. There will also be changes to the stern of ships in the Hamburg Express class. In addition to the nose at the bow, the propellers at the rear will be replaced. “The new speed profile allows for further optimisation of the propeller in terms of weight and efficiency, thereby increasing the overall effect,” Richard von Berlepsch explains. With a diameter of 9.20 metres, the new propellers are slightly larger than the old ones (9.00 metres) – but also about 11 tonnes lighter. Furthermore, there are now five instead of just four blades attached to the hub. Together, these changes make the ship’s propulsion more efficient. http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/new-noses-for-lower-emissions/ July 2nd 2015.

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One of the new propellers shortly before its installation at a shipyard in Shanghai. The bulbous bow of the Hapag-Lloyd training ship “Chicago Express”.

From: “The River Beat” – the story of “London’s River Police since 1798”.

Author: Geoffrey Budworth.

ISBN 0 948667 41 9 Why Canada's economy would wither without the port of Vancouver: Monday starts early in the Vancouver harbour. It’s 4 a.m. on a rainy March morning when Captain Dwayne Slade arrives at the wharf of Saam Smit Towage, on the south shore of the Burrard Inlet, and goes over his marching orders for the day. Saam Smit Towage, a subsidiary of a Dutch towing company established in 1842, is one of the major tugboat operators on the West Coast. Of its fleet of 23 tugboats, seven are busy 24 hours a day moving ships in and out of Vancouver harbour. Today, Captain Slade’s office is the Smit Orleans, a hulking, broad-shouldered, 6,700-horsepower “tractor tug” currently rated as the strongest towboat on Canada’s West Coast. Slade, who grew up working on the sea in Newfoundland, is known for his unflappable humour and seamanship skills. Both will come in handy for what’s shaping up to be a 20-hour job. Rain scribbles down through the floodlights as he walks to the end of the wharf where the Orleans is tethered. Four other mariners are already on board, checking safety gear and brewing coffee. There’s a lot of redundancy built into their assignment today—a Mate who can also drive the boat, two deckhands, an engineer to fix any mechanical issues, and two other tugs to help the Orleans with a job it could easily handle itself. But law requires the redundancy. Slade and his crew will be escorting an oil tanker from its berth in the inner harbour to the open sea off the south end of Vancouver Island. The tanker, with its cargo of Alberta crude, will be threading tight passages and tricky currents through the sleeping city, with the three tugs creeping alongside to ensure it stays out of harm’s way. Captain Slade is in good spirits as he lights up the twin Caterpillar diesel engines and eases the Orleans away from her berth. But he’s fully aware of the seriousness of his job: “If anyone makes a mistake this morning, it could change the shipping industry in Canada.” The oil tanker is several kilometres from the Smit wharf, anchored offshore from the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby. The terminal, owned by American pipeline giant Kinder Morgan, exports crude oil that arrives via the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands. The Westridge oil terminal was built in 1953, but its operations have become increasingly controversial with the rapid growth of the city and the rise of environmental awareness. As

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Captain Slade approaches the anchorage, the tugboat’s searchlight fingers through the darkness and illuminates the stern of the New Constellation, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker carrying 70,000 tonnes of crude. That’s about 25,000 times more than the estimated 2,700 litres of bunker fuel that would leak from a grain ship and foul the beaches of English Bay in April. There is far more to this story. Using my regular font size it would cover six pages. The full report in The Globe and Mail can be seen at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/why-is-the-port-of-vancouver-so-important-to-canada/article24666333/ Teekay Offshore pledges to hire local crew for tanker contract: The CEO of Teekay Offshore, the company that will shuttle oil from Newfoundland's offshore for at least the next 15 years, is pledging to hire as many local crew as possible. The company will also honour existing union contracts, CEO Kenneth Hvid said in an interview with CBC News. Hvid said, “the company will need about 200 highly skilled Canadian seafarers as the company gradually takes over the service in the next few years, and there's no better place to look than the workers who are currently doing the job”. "They should feel ... very good. It's a different contract so of course we'll go through the usual interview as you always do when you change companies, but of course we're looking for all the skillsets that exactly these people have and there are not too many Canadians that have shuttle tanker experience," Hvid said. A worldwide leader: Teekay's operational headquarters are in Vancouver, and the company is the world leader when it comes to shuttle tanker services. This involves collecting crude from production facilities like Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose and shuttling it to a transhipment terminal like the one in Placentia Bay, or directly to market. It already has a strong foothold in the North Sea and off the coast of Brazil, where similarly challenging deep-water sea conditions exist. Teekay employs about 7,000 people throughout its global operations, and has annual revenues of more than $10 billion. It's also a world leader in the transport of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, and operates a fleet of conventional oil tankers. The company failed in its bid to provide the shuttle service on Canada's east coast a decade ago, and was determined not to lose out a second time, said Hvid. "This is the area we absolutely felt we should have as the global leader of shuttle tankers," he said, adding that the contract is also special because it will "add a meaningful piece of business which is Canadian." Fleet renewal part of contract: The contract was awarded by a consortium of nine oil companies that own a stake in the oil fields. One of the key components is a commitment by Teekay to renew the fleet of vessels providing the service. The company has entered into an agreement to build three, and possibly four, shuttle tankers in Korea, with the first one arriving in 2017. In the interim, the joint venture of Norwegian companies that has transported the crude since production began in the late 1990s will continue to provide the service with three vessels. One of Teekay's existing shuttle tankers, the Navion Hispania, is expected to arrive in September. Hvid said company officials have held meetings with the FFAW, the union that represents the existing workforce. When asked if the company will respect existing labour contracts, he said yes. "That's the plan," he said, adding those workers will be needed. "We'll obviously be hiring from that pool of specialists that have sailing experience with shuttle tankers. That's the only thing that makes sense." By Terry Roberts, CBC News: Jun 04, 2015 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/teekay-offshore-pledging-to-hire-local-crew-for-tanker-contract-1.3100576

The Navion Hispania is expected to begin shuttling crude from Newfoundland's offshore this fall. (Teekay Offshore).

“CLEAR SEAS” CENTRE FOR RESPONSIBLE MARINE SHIPPING: Clear Seas Centre for Responsible Marine Shipping is Canada’s leading source of impartial and evidence-based information on safe and sustainable marine shipping in Canada. Full information can be found at: http://clearseas.org/

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MARITIME INFORMATION BUREAU LAUNCH THE MARTIME INDUSTRY CREATES A SINGLE INFORMATION WINDOW

Quebec City, June 10, 2015 – Key maritime industry players have announced the creation of the Maritime Information Bureau (MIB), a new quick access to experts and

information about the marine sector, its spinoffs and its activities in Quebec. The purpose of this single information window is to help the media, elected officials and the public get relevant, factual marine-industry-related information

quickly and efficiently. “We have opted for the single-window formula, grouping all of the relevant information in one location to better demystify the Québec maritime industry’s role, involvement and impacts. Recent news coverage has shown that the public and some elected officials know little about our industry. It was unthinkable for us to stand idly by while misinformation was being circulated”, said Nicole Trépanier, President of the St. Lawrence Economic Development Council (SODES). Gateway to the maritime industry:The maritime industry reference, the MIB groups together shippers, mining companies, forwarders, environmental organizations, ports, pilot corporations, municipalities and many other partners. With today’s official launch, the MIB has become the reference for those wishing to:

• speak to a marine-sector expert • find the answer to a question about the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay rivers (for example) • get specific information on safety and security, the environment, navigation and any other subject related to the

maritime industry. FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT THE QUEBEC MARITIE INDUSTRY, CALL:581-996-5823 www.st-laurent.org/bimbureaumaritime@st-laurent.org @BIM_qc http://www.st-laurent.org/bim/en/press-release-mib/ Ultra-large Containership Towing Capabilities Tested: Worldwide shipping group the CMA CGM Group and

the German Authority Havariekommando tested Havariekommando´s capability to tow ultra-large container vessels during an exercise held on June 13, 2015. The vessel used for this exercise was the CMA CGM Jules Verne, the CMA CGM’s 16,000 TEU flagship. During the exercise, the Havariekommando ordered the CMA CGM Jules Verne to alter its geographical position, take over the role of a vessel in distress in an emergency towing, and allow and assist representatives of the Havariekommando to board. The task of Havariekommando’s operation forces were to board the ship via helicopter; evaluate the situation with the Master of the CMA CGM Jules Verne; train the communication between the on-scene-coordinator, the boarding team, the emergency towing vessels and the CMA CMG Jules Verne; assemble towing connections and tow the vessel on different courses.

This exercise was intended as a learning experience conducted at Deep Water Road off Heligoland to enhance preparedness for emergency towing operations and succeeded in demonstrating both the Havariekommando and CMA CGM responsible attitude toward safety and environment. On Scene Coordinator (OSC) Wolfgang Knopf said, "The collaboration between the ship’s crew and our operative forces was excellent. The advantages of the Emergency Towing system on board CMA CGM Jules Verne, which is not yet compulsory for large container vessels, nevertheless providing enormous benefits for the towing operation in terms of safety and strength." http://www.marinelink.com/news/containership-ultralarge392995.aspx The Master's Decision to Sail: Speaking at the 2015 World Maritime Rescue Congress, John Dalziel, and Dr. Roberta Weisbrod of the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association cited the seafarer’s dilemma: It is the Master’s decision whether to sail. It is the owner’s decision who is the Master(Charles S Price, Great Storm of 1913). The congress, organized by the International Maritime Rescue Federation, was discussing the world’s tragic ferry disaster statistics including the 166 accidents that occurred over the 14 years between 2000 and 2014. These accidents are estimated to have resulted in over 18,000 deaths in 37 countries. Conservative estimates provided by Abigail Golden of the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association indicate that 58% of accidents and 75% of fatalities are caused by human error. A more liberal estimate is that 80% of accidents and 90% of fatalities are caused by human error. Weather is implicated in more than 50% of ferry accidents, and this has recently drawn comment in the media relevant to the seafarer’s dilemma with the loss of Eastern Star in China. The vessel sank after encountering a mini-cyclone on the Yangtze River with the final death toll reaching 442 people. Immediately questions were asked: Did the Master receive the weather warnings? If so, why did he choose to sail?

“From the Bridge” August 2015 www.mastermariners.ca

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Who is to blame when a disaster occurs? Dalziel and Weisbrod cite the statements made by the Nautilus International Union, on the sentencing of the South Korean master of Sewol on April 28, 2015: “Once again, a Captain has been made the scapegoat as a result of political pressure and media misrepresentation.” “Pinning the blame on an individual in this way helps to obscure the underlying causes of the accident, including

regulatory failure, overloading and design changes.” “It is the law-makers that determine the actions of owners and set the levels of safety. It should not be Masters that suffer for their failure.” However, Dalziel and Weisbrod also say that it is easy to point the finger at management and assume that a culture of cutting corners starts at the top and is motivated by money. They note Trevor Kletz’s view that the same (lack of safety) culture can also originate at the bottom, driven by the desire to get the job done (and perhaps a macho attitude). The task of management is to know this and make sure the job is done safely.

Poor steering, cargo overloading and excessive remodelling of the ferry have been cited as causes for the sinking of Sewol, and many people including the vessel’s crew, owners and officials in the South Korean Coast Guard have been charged over the disaster. A 60-strong Chinese investigation team is now looking into the capsizing of the Eastern Star and has collected a "multitude of first-hand evidence" and interviewed many people including the vessel’s Master. Time will tell whether he will meet the same fate as that of Sewol’s Master who was sentenced to 36 years for gross negligence. By Wendy Laursen 2015-06-14 The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive. http://maritime-executive.com/editorials/the-masters-decision-to-sail

From the Adlard Coles Nautical Puzzle Book.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-adlard-coles-

nautical-puzzle-book-9781472909121/

The next edition of “From the Bridge” will be issued in late November. Please submit articles to me by November 20th. Send them to me at 509 – 15111 Russell Avenue, White Rock, B.C. V4B 2P4

or to whitknit@telus.net. Don’t forget to use the “Proxy” for the October 3rd AGM if you are unable to attend in person. You will find it in the AGM edition of this newsletter, issued on Aug. 3rd.

Sincerely, David Whitaker FNI.