maritime

 Three generations of seafaring A seamen’s discharge book is a record of the employment of a seafarer. All seafarers need one and it is issued by the maritime authority of the country the seafarer is a citizen of. [1] I am lucky to have the discharge books of my grandfather, father and myself over a period of 80 years. Collectively they tell a story of ships, employment and voyages from the 1890’s to the 1970’s. This article will describe the changes in discharge book entries over three generations. The hard bound cover of the book has changed little over this period. The colours and wording may have changed on the covers but from the black edition of my grandfather through the red one of my father to my blue one, they all serve the same purpose, to catalogue the voyages of the holder and provide a character reference for each voyage. You might be wondering why there are 4 books for three mariners. The twist and turns of our time at sea through two world wars will reveal ...

  As a seafarer The magnetic compass has been the main directional tool in the seafarer’s toolbox to try and determine true north and then use that information for steering a course or take a bearing to fix position. The problem is that it has errors [1] . Let us take a closer look at a  ships magnetic compass. Today it is likely to be found on the monkey island as a backup to satnav systems but is still a requirement on ships. The compass card is a magnet overlaid with a card holding the points of the compass. The card has a pivot and is mounted in a bowl filled with alcohol and water to dampen the movement of the card. The bowl is then mounted in a   set of gimbals so that the compass remain as horizontal as possible with   the ships motion and the complete magnetic compass is installed in a wooden stand called a binnacle. The binnacle provides housing also for important tools to minimise compass errors. ...

  This seems an obvious statement but without the ability to handle  ropes and use knots it is just not possible to be competent as a basic seafarer. This is particulalry relevant to traditional clinker built boats where there are no hydraulics or electricty to help you. You just have ropes that need to be attached to various parts of the boat. This subject has many opinions on which knot to use in a particular circumstance. We will use Vaaghals as an example where we use 7 basic knots that are used to operate the boat. Bowline (Pålestikk) This is a general purpose knot often used to form a loop or bight in the rope so it can be passed through or over mooring cleats or posts. It is also used to attach a brace (bras) to each end of a yard (rå). It does not slip under load and can be difficult to untie after use if it has had a lot of tension on it. Reef knot (Båtsmannsknop) As the term applies it is used to tie together the two ends of the reefing lines in the sail and al...

  An adventure for the Båtlab gang It all started about two years ago when two of our colleagues, Charlotte and Camilla, announced that they would not be around the Norwegian Maritime Museum for some time, as they were involved in a large project to move all the cultural items stored in Ekeberg to a new storage location near Drøbak. This was very sad for us, as with Charlotte we had learned a lot on traditional clinker-built boats by working with the boat builders on the reconstruction of Norwegian boats. In fact, 4 boats in total. With Camilla, we learnt much on the conservation of cultural artefacts, especially boats, rubber gloves included.   So, they disappeared and then later, we had an invitation from Camilla for an orientation tour on a new warehouse, located in the countryside around Nesodden. This would be exciting as we had spent some time working with Charlotte and Camilla in the caves of Ekeberg and anythi...

One of the critical competencies a seafarer needs is situational awareness, being alert to his or her environment and being able to analyze the situation and make informed decisions. A formal definition: The term situational awareness can be defined as how elements are viewed within their surroundings, relative to time and space, and how to foresee or predict the occurrence of events by understanding trends and patterns. [1] Lack of this competence can lead to navigational errors that can be disastrous. A survey of practising seafarers using a bridge simulator found that over 50% of them failed to recognise a navigational fault even when there were audio and visual cues [2] . A report by the Norwegian Maritime safety authority into a recent collision between a Norwegian warship and a tanker off the Norwegian coast had several safety recommendations. One of these (Marine No 2019/06T) stated: «The navigator in charge did not pick up on the signals of danger or that the navigator’s own si...