ShipCrunch

Shipping fiction for Christmas

It's the end of the year, so here's something both lighter and perhaps darker than the usual fare

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Someone surely has a list on Amazon of shipping-related novels. I haven't seen it. But that shipping inspires writing is a certainty.

This blog goes away for Christmas holidays now, and the postings will come thinly, if at all, over the next two and a half weeks. So, in a break from the usual fare of media and PR analysis and technological rumination, I include something lighter, and lengthier.

It's a modern story of a man at sea, and not a cheery Christmas story, if truth be told. And that's all I'll say.

From January, the meatier stuff is back. Until then, have nice holidays and give a comment if you find the story interesting.

Tomorrow's shipping technology

Norwegian Research Council gives over USD 25 million to 24 maritime R&D projects. Which ones?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

As earlier reported in "Where tomorrow's projects are", the way forward for many technology companies in the shipping sector right now is R&D. I argued that the decisions taken by the Norwegian Research Council's MAROFF board would provide as good a crystal ball as any, of the future of shipping technology.

MAROFF announced one week ago which projects would receive funding. Here are some of the bigger hits:

"Arctic DP" - The Norwegian University of Science and Technology

"Integrated Marine Operations" - The University College of Ålesund

"Advanced environmental design optimalisation and control" - Wartsila Norway (FellowSHIP perhaps?)

"FlexShuttle - Direct shuttle and loading" - Teekay Shipping Norway

"Low carbon shipping" - DNV

For the full list, see MAROFF's news page. (Hint: Just open the .pdf file called "Resultat" in the right-hand column)

A chat with Brett Keil - shipping's LinkedIn superuser

The LinkedIn group he set up far outstrips major rivals like Lloyd's List, TradeWinds. Is there a secret to the success?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Some people know Brett Keil as the tall and gregarious sales director for Maritime Executive magazine. Perhaps many others know him as the owner of the Maritime Executive group in LinkedIn - with 5,695 members and growing, one of the strongest and most lively in the shipping industry.

What got him started and what made it work? What does he spend maintaining the group and what results has he seen? I talked with Brett Keil a short while ago, and here were some of his   observations:

How did you get started in LinkedIn?
"I got started in LinkedIn early in 2007 when a cousin of mine who was not otherwise very big on social media, but was working for a political candidate, invited me to join. As soon as I joined, I saw clients, then I started to reach out to them and the thing just mushroomed. It was like a game, and pretty soon I had contact with over 500 people."  

When and why did you set up the Maritime Executive group in LinkedIn?
 "I set up the Maritime Executive group in April 2007, just before OTC, because I felt like it was a great way to keep in touch with a group of people who are always on the move. It was easier than a phone call; in fact, it was like a hybrid between a phone call and an email. And, of course, this led to even more contacts."

Two AIS stories tell of glory and disgrace

Depending on who you ask, AIS is a godsend or "the uniformly crappiest of all equipment"

By Ryan Skinner (email)  

Two stories published yesterday give starkly contrasting views of AIS. One is an excellent exercise in PR by a Dutch company, which is eager to make the case for AIS as a voyage planning tool. The other is a diatribe against poor bridge planning and AIS as a clunky addition to a confusing picture for navigators.

BBC News carried news from Dutch firm Royal Dirkzwager, which has begun using AIS signals to help ports, cargo handling companies and maintenance companies streamline the port visits of incoming ships. By tracking a ship via satellite and mapping that against berth availability, both ship and port can optimize their schedules - speed up, slow down, seek alternatives, etc.

The Bills of Lading blog brings another experience of AIS - this one from the bridge. Here a blogger named Velu, presumably on the bridge team of a large tanker somewhere, rails against the inutility of the AIS in general, and the bridge planners who wired the AIS into the ECDIS instead of the radar. "A few years back, one of the nightmares of the ship's master was that the duty officer wouldn't even look outside because of the radar. Now because of AIS feeds into the ECDIS, the chap isn't even going to look at the radar!"

I've also heard complaints that AIS signals make it easy for pirates to find merchant ships. Still other officers have told me directly that they find AIS very useful, as a means of mouse-over queries of targets on the map.

What's your opinion of AIS?

Shore juice?

Some think shore power is the answer to air pollution at major ports. Here's an overview of legislation.

In a client's customer magazine, we explored how legislation towards shore-side power for ships in port is progressing, and what's holding it back, or speeding it up...

Check out the whole magazine! You'll find the link at the bottom of this page. 

Swallowing shipping's climate story

Some of shipping's climate arguments are wobbly; and some of its champions, wobblier 

By Ryan Skinner (email)  

Michael Grey recently wrote a column in Lloyd's List to counter those who "marched about with placards, stormed the fences surrounding coal-fired power stations and punched the odd policeman", who "chained [themselves] to the rudder of a coal carrier or painted all over the side of an old ship that may have been going for scrap."

He argues that these people have done very little to save the world; instead, it is the marine engineers and naval architects who are the real heroes for devising "the sheer amazing leap in productivity provided by marine transport over the last 40 years."

The loneliness of the mariner, and writing

Long stretches at sea, homesickness compel mariners to become able writers

By Ryan Skinner (email)

It was at a dinner recently where I met Raj Chakravorty, author of the limpid "Electronic Charts" blog, that I stumbled across a minor epiphany. It suddenly struck me, thanks to Raj's poetic delivery, that the reason so many shipping people wrote so well was the loneliness they'd experienced as officers at sea.

Raj told me in melancholy terms of his long stints at sea and how much he missed his family. In his homesickness, he would gaze out of the porthole and seize his pen more out of necessity than desire. And suddenly he became a writer.

Now I know why there are so many capable writers among ex-mariners. You don't find this in other industries. Not in aviation. How many pilots can write well? Not in finance. Those guys are typically crap writers. Shipping creates moving penmen.

The loneliness of life at sea, and feeling of missing one's family, inspired many a nascent writing career. Take Joseph Conrad....

Extreme maritime marketing

Follow the money. That's why Royal Caribbean markets itself in Chinese taxis...

By Ryan Skinner (email)

For some reason, the last place you expected to find shipping marketing and news was on the back seat of a Shanghai taxi, but there it is. An advertisement for Oasis of the Seas, sure enough.

 

 

What is Asia's take on big shipping issues? A poll

Find out what 50+ shipping professionals from Asia answer to four basic questions

By Ryan Skinner (email)

In a client's customer magazine, we recently asked 50+ Asian shipping professionals four questions about the role and future of shipping. Here's the results:

 Check out the whole magazine! You'll find the link at the bottom of this page. 

Six ways to start LinkedIn shipping discussions that succeed!

Analysis of discussions in LinkedIn's shipping groups give six successful approaches

By Ryan Skinner (email)  

After digging through months worth of shipping discussions, I've distilled six kinds of discussions that succeed; that is, discussions that generate constructive commentary. Use these insights to start discussions that generate more give and take.