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Your Digital Dozen

Hello, to all. I trust you’re all back into the full swing of things after your Christmas and New Year break? Thank you for your great comments and questions on Substack. I’ve been having a great time so far in 2023. I’m working out of Westerschelde, dodging weather and traffic. When your ship is working […]

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culture politics Religion

Pure Resolve

Charlie Munger has two great quotes that I’ve been mulling over for several weeks: ‘It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy’. And ‘What good is envy? It’s the one sin you can’t have any fun at’. So, are we living in a world driven by humourless desire? Perhaps on Wall Street that is […]

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culture Religion Shipping

Christmas Canoe

My hire car came early on Monday afternoon, and my flight to Edinburgh from Stansted on Tuesday was looking dicey due to the winter travel disruption around London. Only one thing for it. I finished my jobs in the shipyard and signed myself off the ship early. A quick eight-hour drive through the freezing fog […]

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culture Shipping

On Manners & Management

I was told a few days before coming to this vessel that my main client had no work for me this month, as previously promised. The client doesn’t have enough business to keep their ‘on-the-books’ staff busy, let alone contractors. I’m self-employed, so this was to be expected at some point. Logical enough, as the […]

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culture History

Remember All of Them

Remembrance Sunday is a tough one for me. I’m no fan of the modern concept of the Nation-State. As one who enjoys the freedom of the seas, I know how artificial national boundaries can be. The historic three-nautical mile limit offshore was conceived as belonging to the state, on the logic that the range of […]

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culture discipline freedom History

Deutschland Immer Wieder

I drafted this article after I’d been in a metaphorical decompression chamber for about a week, since leaving that last ship. A little 25 Gross Ton workboat. I’d been on her for only a few days before that visit, so I didn’t know the guts of her well. This time I spent 21 days on […]

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culture discipline freedom

Damage Control

It has been over a month since I posted. Apologies to loyal readers expecting their weekly tot. It has simply been too difficult to write recently. Has much happened this past month? FTX fraud and collapse? Uprisings in Iran and Communist China? The Dutch attempting to leave the WEF? Sunak and Hunt taking the supposedly […]

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culture freedom History politics Religion Shipping

Jacob’s Pilot Ladder

Apologies for the slight delay in this (last) week’s edition of the blog. I’ll owe y’all one. I have been repositioning a little workboat from the Netherlands to Germany, and we had a few issues with watertight integrity, steering, power, and so on. Turns out engines and electrics don’t like being ankle-deep in seawater. It […]

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culture freedom politics Shipping

Good Morning

Good morning, all. I hope you are well. I certainly am. The kids were off school this week for their October break. For non-Scots, this is a ten-day holiday subtracted from the summer holidays, to allow the children to help with the potato-picking season. And indeed, we did get a very full bucket of potatoes […]

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freedom politics

Truss-T Up?

Apologies for the delayed article. I’m afraid I’ll be a little brief this week due to contracting a lovely little pathogen from my children and spending 13 hours in bed with a fever dream today. I’m feeling better this evening, but it now seems it’s my wife’s turn to suffer. Suffering, of course, being the […]