Big Ships can slow down in fog.

Hello Kurrawong_kid
Agree, once the AIS system is fully up and running (reliably) the coastguard will be able to do just that.(although i'm not quite sure about the international laws that may apply or the logistics of it) I worked for a few years on the ETV Far Sky (emergency towing vessels) based in the channel and western approaches off Falmouth....frequently we would get sent by the CG to 'chase' down another vessel who would'nt respont to vhf and was either navigating erratically or represented a danger to shipping..often in fog! This quite often put our vessel at risk. So i agree whole-heartedly with what you suggest.
Simon

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What\'s a Mainland Chinese Master earn?

I'm very reliably informed that China Shipping pay their containership Masters one dollar, per TEU, per month, these days! They have some ships of 7,500 TEU. This is a bit of daft payscale as anyone knows it is harder work on a feeder ship with a tight schedule and difficult ports than on an ocean greyhound on the milk run with hot and cold running North Sea Pilots but there we are.

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Re: MN vs MM

My Grandad's record of continuous service is before me as I write, and it is stamped Merchant Marine Office Dock Street London August 1906. So the term has been in use in England for 98 years at least. ;-)

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Re: MN vs MM

Yes - but in a funny way that is the point. I think I am right in saying that the title "The Merchant Navy" was created by George V, after WW1, because of the realisation, after the U-boat war, that merchant shipping was vital and was in the front line. The widespread adoption of uniforms by British shipping also dates from this period, I believe. Of course, not all shipowners adopted uniforms - some companies prided themselves on not having uniforms and several did away with them or de-formalised them in the 1960's when uniform was not considered very trendy. But from the mid-80's onwards uniform seems to have made a bit of a comeback - for one thing, is far easier for a shore visitor to know who he's talking to by looking at a uniform jacket.

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"worth reading gwynneth dunwoody - chair of HoC transport. her questions to maurice storey, MCA, reveal a less assuring picture. the lack of surveyors, the inability of the mca to provide IMO Paris targeted database information to their surveyors and the tendency to survey vessels which are 'clean' and 'quick' thus fulfilling the quota requirement of number of inspections."

Come on Para. What bureaucrat would ever say he had enough staff or money? Bit like asking Imelda Marcos about shoes.

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I entirely agree with that.

By way of example, I was wittering on the other day about the reluctance of our junior officers to take the gyro error as often as I believed was desirable. The very next week a Hong Kong Port State Control inspector goes aboard one of our ships and criticises - the infrequency with which the gyro error is taken! Thank you!

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