Messages

1

Shipping News and information / Re: Tug Flying Phantom capzised

« on: December 26, 2007, 06:26:43 PM »

Fortunately one of the users of Shipplotter on AISLiverpool has been able to give the MAIB a copy of the AIS log.  It seems that nowhere else was logging AIS.  Hopefully this will help work out what happened.

2

Shipping News and information / Re: Norr

« on: November 14, 2007, 12:45:40 PM »

Popeye01 wrote:
There is an article in the norwegian newspaper VG with pictures from the car-deck after the ordeal (the text is in norwegian only).

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=184316

Apparantly a substential number of the cars onboard has suffered various kind of damages. This is contradictory to the press releases coming from the owner of the ferry, Smyril Line

I certainly would not want my car to be amongst these (from the BBC link above).

3

Shipping News and information / Re: Norr

« on: November 14, 2007, 01:17:33 AM »

There is a picture of the mess on the car deck on the BBC website

4

Shipping News and information / Re: Teesport Ghost Ship Plans, Revised!

« on: October 01, 2007, 06:34:47 PM »

There was some talk of breaking them up at Nigg.

5

Shipping News and information / Re: Royal Navy Cuts Planned (and Denied)

« on: September 30, 2007, 03:58:02 PM »

The trouble nowadays is that all sides spin like mad.  

The government might have leaked the report so that it takes some of the shock out an announcement or they can announce cuts that are not quite that bad and everyone is so relieved that they overlook that the Royal Navy has still be cut to "only" 60% of its present size.

Similarly the MOD could have leaked to put pressure on the politicians who were planning cuts.

As soon as the Minister or PM denies it then we will know that it is true!

6

Shipping News and information / British Waterways auction

« on: September 22, 2007, 11:36:33 AM »

There are pictures of some interesting small boats used on the British Waterways network on this auction site.  I presume they are just clearing old stock as many look in poor condition.

7

Shipping News and information / Re: Queen Elizabeth 2 40 th Birthday Cruise

« on: September 22, 2007, 12:06:46 AM »

I was wondering myself what is going on, there is no sign of any tug activity on AIS.

8

Shipping News and information / Re: The Shipping News Forum

« on: September 12, 2007, 12:20:01 PM »

There was a programme on the radio here about a year or so ago, can't remember the main subject but I am sure they said that there was such a huge number of containers coming from China that that many/most were scrapped.  I think someone was using them somewhere to build something because he could get them for virtually no cost but can't remember what it was he used them for now.

MB

9

Shipping News and information / Re: Dangers of cruise ships

« on: September 06, 2007, 04:00:25 PM »

georgeone wrote:
I'm from the Philippines where most of the crew on cruise ships are sourced, I can confirm that exploitation does occur, the basic salary of a waiter written on most contracts is USD 50 per month(equal to 1hour pay on developed countries) which can be considered slave labor as they have to work 12hrs or more per day, they would be happy if they receive tips as this can add to their income,

The programme was saying that it was quite common for crew to work over 6 months with no days off.

MB

10

Shipping News and information / Re: Dangers of cruise ships

« on: September 03, 2007, 12:17:41 AM »

A few years ago there were reports in several news sources from the US about the high number of passengers who go missing during cruises.  These were written off at the time as suicides, drunk passengers etc but listening to that programme made me wonder.

The worrying thing is that the cruise companies tend to cover up any incidents and I found their spokesman on the programme to be completely unconvincing.

I think there was a case of a female crew member who was raped on board by another more senior member of the crew.  All the evidence was destroyed.  This was confirmed by an ex Metropolitan Police detective who spent some time working as security on a cruise ship but he resigned because of the tendency to cover up crimes.  He was involved in a rape on board but before he could take forensic samples all the bedding etc from the cabin was thrown overboard.  He understood this was routine.  There was also a 12 year old girl who was raped by a crew member, again evidence was destroyed.  The parents took the company to court and only settled because they told her that they would interview every member of the girl's class at school in an attempt to get something to use against her.  She settled out of court for an undisclosed sum but unlike most cases she refused to sign a "gagging order".

MB

11

Shipping News and information / Dangers of cruise ships

« on: August 28, 2007, 11:19:20 PM »

Perhaps slightly off-topic but might be of interest to people here.  There was an programme on BBC Radio 4 on Monday evening about the poor labour conditions and high crime rate on cruise ships - available online.

The answers from the cruise companies were very unconvincing.

Just glad that I am not planning on going on a cruise!

DOCUMENTARY: The Price of Fun
On: BBC Radio Four    
Date: Monday 27th August 2007 (12 minutes left)
Time: 20:00 to 20:30 (30 minutes long)

First of two programmes in which Jolyon Jenkins investigates the seamy side of the cruise business, a rapidly expanding industry bound by few national laws. He examines allegations of the exploitation of crews and sexual crimes against passengers that go unpunished or are even covered up. Are cruise ships in effect floating cities with no police force?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=7346

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

12

Shipping News and information / Re: ships database

« on: August 27, 2007, 09:10:24 AM »

jasa44 wrote:
Hi,shipspotting amateurs.
If somebody nows about ships database looks like WORLD SHIPPING REGISTER(www.e-ships.net)but free,please advice me.
regards to all
Jacek
ps:about equasis J now.

You can look up basic information free but have to subscribe for full information.

MB

13

Shipping News and information / Re: Danica White hijacked

« on: August 22, 2007, 06:40:42 PM »

I am surprised that the US ship did not say it was in "hot pursuit" and enter Somali waters.

MB

14

Shipping News and information / Re: Google Earth Voting Button

« on: August 18, 2007, 04:35:19 PM »

I have no problem with the result being visible, with most other sites you only see the result after you have voted.

MB

15

Shipping News and information / Re: Google Earth Voting Button

« on: August 18, 2007, 06:04:31 AM »

Is there no way to put a message on a page associated with a category?  It is quite possible that there are regular users of the Google Earth category who are completely unaware of the poll or plan to remove it.  Perhaps someone should send out private messages to all the ones using that category.

MB