maritime

  Last port of call Half full of jute from Chalna we were now approaching Trincomalee on the east coast of Ceylon to fill up with tea. This could be exciting. Outward bound we had been in Colombo for a few weeks, both at anchor waiting a berth and then in port. It had been one of the most enjoyable port visits on the voyage, not least because of the opportunity to meet people ashore especially good-looking girls in the swimming club. [1]                                                                                   ...

  An event in the Indian Ocean We were heading SE from Aden to the southern tip of Ceylon, right in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There was a gentle NE’ly swell from the NE monsoon, and we rolled easily in a blue Indian ocean with hardly a cloud in the sky, the sort of day a seafarer dreams of. The flying fish were jumping and there was no traffic and a clear ocean horizon. I was now a third officer proudly displaying my single gold bar on my epaulets having successfully passed my Second Officers certificate. So I was the watchkeeping officer on the 8-12 morning watch on the bridge. I had risen at 07:30, had a quick shower and a breakfast of fish kedgeree with that aromatic flavour of curry with hard boiled eggs and rice. Then, up to the bridge for 07:55 to relieve the chief officer of the watch. Handover was easy, no traffic and the C/O had fixed our position with the stars at dawn, so everything was in order. Started checking bridge instruments and chart position be...

In the old days when you were unwell or sick you rang the doctor, and he came to your home. He was called the family doctor and everyone in the family used the same doctor. There was close bond between the family and this single doctor. He might prescribe medication or recommend specialist examination or a trip to the hospital. Medication required a prescription that he wrote out on the spot in handwriting. A trip to the chemist was required to get the medicine or pills. Today that has all changed. If you feel unwell you must make a journey to the doctor’s surgery unless it is an emergency and then an ambulance will come and take charge. A doctor’s surgery today is more like a small treatment centre with nurses, laboratories, and a host of specialist doctors. You have your own personal doctor that you choose and who remains your doctor over time. To see the doctor you must first book online through the national health service. This requires passwords and security checks before yo...

 We dropped the pilot at Suez and set off down the Gulf of Suez before entering the Red Sea. On each side the coast was of sandy coloured hills and mountains and a blue, blue sky over an azure sea. We finally had left Europe and were now entering the Middle East with the Arabian Peninsula to port and Africa to starboard and India sort of round the corner.   Colin called us into our messroom. Boyo’s, he said, we are now in the tropics and EVERTHING changes. With day and night-time temperatures around 30 degrees centigrade you need to take care of yourselves. First you need to take one of these as he held up a large white pill, salt tablets to replace the salt you lose through sweating. Do not forget to take them. Then he held up a glass of an evil looking liquid. Lime juice to be taken every day to prevent scurvy! Why all these precautions? It is only with hindsight that the precautions Colin was describing were put into context. We were embarking on a 1300 nautical l...

The focus on the carriage of passengers really took off with the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 1800’s. Stopford [1] summaries the development such: “Between 1833 and 1914 every aspect of ship design changed. The hull grew from 176ft. to 901ft and gross tonnage from 137 tons to 45,647 tons. Hull construction switched from wood to iron in the 1850s, from iron to steel in the 1880s, paddle propulsion was replaced in the 1980’s by screws driven by steam engines. Triple expansion steam engines arrived in the 1880s and turbines from 1900. Speed increased from 7 knots per hour in 1833 to 25 knots per hour in 1907, and fuel consumption from around 20 tons a day to 1,000 tons a day.” So technology supplied the opportunity to build bigger and faster ships but without a demand for their services ocean liners would never have developed as they did. Two main drivers of demand were instrumental in promoting the rise of the ocean liner. First emigration, particularly from Europe continued ...