‘The actions of thugs’ quoted Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haig in the aftermath of the 17 March 2022 forcible removal of P&O Ferries crews. Made to feel like criminals, the seafarers had done nothing wrong. They were confronted by a team of private security guards from a company known as Interforce and given an hour to collect their belongings and leave the ship. 800 seafarers…
The story so far: ships occasionally lose containers at sea – there are explanations although we could make comparisons to a ‘runaway train’ situation, ie., it’s out of control and it happens very quickly. In 2020 the Japanese-flagged ONE Apus lost approximately 1,816 containers in heavy seas north-west of Hawaii. Theories over the loss range from a rogue wave snapping the securing pins to the fact that…
Boswash? BosWHERE! – the name produces a baffling reaction to a place not officially in the atlas. But as the above map illustrates, what were formerly separate cities and entities are getting bigger and bigger. So now it’s a megalopolis: a series of huge independent cities linked by suburban zones to form interconnectivity, geographers describing this fast-growing area of 400 miles long as Boswash – that’s Boston down to Washington DC. It’s…
A futuristic sight to greet seafarer and tourist alike: Merlion Park, at One Fullerton,Singapore – with few suspecting that this was a malarial swamp a century ago. It’s part of the city-state and during independence from the British in 1965, Singapore faced massive unemployment and declining trade. With its back to the wall, nonetheless, the country demonstrated to the world how to modernise and progress. Singapore’s transition from a backwater economy…
Approaching Lagos’ shoreline from twenty-five km, there are fishing boats. Way out at sea, before the shipping channels, buoys and city lights emerge, basic small craft little more than dug-outs with modest outboard engines and outriggers drift around. You wonder why they are so far out and also wonder how they navigate back in darkness, In answer to why the boats fish so distantly is because sheer…
Those of us in Liverpool who subscribe to the National Geographic (global readership estimates: 9.5 mn), may have read the November 2021 edition: How centuries of immigration has changed culture and communities of Liverpool. It sounds like a dissertation title for a humanities degree, but the magazine’s write-up of Liverpool’s claim to be a world city – a city in which culture and communities have influenced hospitality accords well with…
Wise words, but actually joining a ship these days isn’t smooth seas and takes skill just to get through the paperwork. The 1970’s were different: you’d casually sling your bag in the cabin, walk to the bridge and sign on followed by a visit to the crew bar to meet shipmates – no strangers, just friends you’ve never met. Or if there wasn’t a crew bar, instead you’d go to…
Well, I wasn’t in the Royal Navy, but if their conditions were as bad as for Merchant Navy crew, it must have been rough. On my first trip (1972) I must have been lucky in assuming that all the ship’s company including the skipper were working class. After all, only the shipowners – prosperous as far as I could tell in pin-stripe suits with…
Landed in Dover, but some aren’t so lucky.Yep, it was me. I was the one who discovered an illegal migrant hiding on the car deck at five am whilst just 40 minutes from Dover. It’s not such a rare occurrence as expected, but contrary to standing orders which states we should immediately call a security officer – security? – that’s a joke…
Surely NOT again! Would be a first thought for Iranians of a certain age.Those, for example, who lived through the previous civil unrest of forty years ago. For then it was protests against the secular leadership of the Shah Reza Pahlavi which crushed his leadership and brought in the religious theocracy of the Islamic clerics.The Shah eventually fled Iran, but not…
It was a special pleasure to be on land again.The place was the Greyhound bus station in downtown Los Angeles and I was going to Tijuana, Mexico – eventually further to the state of Baja California Sur.I’d just paid off a ship in Long Beach and rather than immediately return to the UK, I asked the ship’s agent to rearrange the flight home.You could…
At 19 years old you knew it all. Or so you thought after a world-wide trip on a container ship. You saw oil sheikh kingdoms sitting on their wealth.On the other hand, you saw the industriousness of Japan and it’s famed work ethic.You learned that California isn’t just Hollywood mansions; there were homeless people and food stamps too.It was all new. But…