Happy Easter, my friends. I’m going to begin with the Orthodox Paschal greeting today because I think the most important thing that I have come to learn these past few years, is how seriously and dangerously cut off from our traditions we are. So – Christ is risen. Now, down to business. I’m currently serving […]
Category: Shipping
Between 1924 and 1932, Henry Landsberger conducted experiments at the Hawthorne Works, which was a telecommunications equipment manufacturing facility in Cicero, Illinois. During his investigations, Landsberger would vary the level of lighting in the factory just outside Chicago and attempt to measure its effect on worker productivity. Regardless of whether lighting was increased, or decreased, […]
It’s dim now, but what I remember most about that night was the physical pain. My mother woke me in the middle of the night in a state of total hysteria. ‘Get up, now! It’s Tony! He’s in the hospital! Get up, NOW!’ My left ear was in agony. It felt like it had been […]
Please, close your eyes right now, and make a wish. Go on. I’ll wait. I think it’s worth doing from time to time. Whatever your heart really desires right now, can probably reveal to you all that is worthy of gratitude in your life, and what you need to be doing less of. My sweet […]
Categories
Real Filth
I don’t feel much like writing this morning. Yesterday, I found out my best friend (the sterile 2nd Engineer Atheist from last week’s ferry trip, who was my best man at my wedding, and my closest friend through high school), has suffered a massive heart attack. At 38 years old, he was unconvinced by the […]
Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bids the mighty ocean deep, It’s own appointed limits keep; O hear us when we cry to Thee For those in peril on the sea. The Navy Hymn, William Whitting, 1860. Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants […]
Sex Re-Education Campaigns, Pride, Harm, Norms and Sailors. It’s hard to know where the time goes. I’ve been home for 1.5 weeks. Five days were spent doing ‘ultra-parenting’, taking the kids away from the wife to compensate her for my absence. This week I’ve been enjoying the greatly enhanced energy that comes with a combination […]
We rushed up to Aberdeen and demobilised the diving and mooring spread in record time. I’m glad we did because we’ve been sat here for eleven days off-hire, with another few days to go before it looks like we’ll sail. The Shetland job is cancelled now, so it looks like we’ll be ‘rock-bagging’ out of […]
I promised at least one reader of this stack a little bit of career advice a while ago. As I’ve spent the past week teaching five aspiring skippers their MCA Boat Master License this week, now seems like an appropriate time. I also had to drive the breadth of Scotland each morning and evening to […]
Categories
Patterns of Pride
Part 1 It’s been two weeks since our last correspondence. What have we missed? I got home over a week ago, and despite exhaustion from a four-week trip at sea, I launched into an urgent attempt to pick up some of the load from my wife. I could feel the strain increasing in her voice […]