maritime

  Technology has been a major game changer in maritime affairs for thousands of years. Maritime historians recognise significant periods when the development of shipping and its global expansion has taken place. [1] From propulsion changes from rowing to sail, from construction methods that enabled larger vessels to be built and improvements in the navigation methods that led historians to label periods such as the age of discovery and the age of navigation. [2] [3] In later periods too technology has enabled major advances in shipping. The Industrial Revolution at the end of the 1800’s was such a period when in a relatively short period of time massive changes in shipping took place. Stopford [4] summarises 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 prop...

  As I wrote my Xmas message for my friends, I found myself troubled by world affairs. It is not just the wars in Gaza and Ukraine but the global battle between democracy and autocracy and how ineffective the UN system has become. I worked for many years both in and with the UN and firmly believed that world order and global support for the less privileged was best done by that global club of nations. Now I am not so sure. Around us there are many examples of power hungry would be and existing presidents who want nothing more than to control their countries. From Hungary to Turkey, USA to Israel, Russia, and many other countries working together to improve global peace and prosperity is not on their highest priority. A recent article in the Economist bemoans the ineffectiveness of the Security Council of the UN with its archaic veto system that allows any of the five most powerful members to veto proposals for peace and worse even when one of those five members holds the chai...

  In the fifth form at Acklam Hall Grammar School, I was faced with a dilemma. GCE examinations were to take place, the result of which were crucial in deciding whether to continue to sixth form for two years and another set of exams. The A levels are precursors to applying for a university place. Therefore, results in both GCSE and A level exams were important. By only creeping past 11 plus exams by interview after failure in the exam itself, coupled with my poor academic performance at grammar school, did not bode well for further study. On the other hand, it would mean two more years of rugby! The results of my GCE examinations would be crucial here. I got five passes out of eight subjects. It seemed OK. However, my brother got 7 out of eight sitting a year earlier as a fourth former! On reflection, the thought of five more years of study at school and university if I were successful in A levels which are much more specialised and harder was not appealing and I decided to ...

 

Acklam Hall grammar school Five years of my teenage life was spent at Acklam Grammar School. And the school intention was that these years would turn me into an intelligent and capable adult, ready to take on a further higher education in university.   It did not turn out like that. My intelligence, as measured by academic achievement and progression, did not improve. And I remained bottom of my class in all five years. However, there was a slight improvement in the 5th year. That year was renamed 5G rather than 5C, supposedly because it included the German language in our class schedule. Capability was a different asset. I seemed to develop a skill that always got me into trouble. A few examples will demonstrate that hidden character in me that blossomed in those years. The target for such behaviour was often a teacher or classmate. Hilton of the woodwork incident was often the victim. Once we locked him in the classroom cupboard and only a question by the teacher about ...