Whenever I worked with them, I made a point of counting my fingers after I had shaken hands.

Although I have little exposure to Ukrainians on the commercial stage the first Eastern Blocker that we (Denholm) recruited as an individual was Ukranian (we had had Polish crews for some time and later Bulgarian).

Procedures required me to interview him and we applied for a visa to visit the Isle of Man. It is at this point we learn that we have our own immigration authority without running whose writ HM's men in the Ukraine cannot issue said visa.

Days turned to weeks with the placee in the place for which our candidate was intended getting progressively itchy. Our authorities refused to say if they had been contacted by any of HM's Men in Odessa let alone the progress of any application (we had the cartoon visualisation of a wide brime hat moving from bank to bank knocking to ask if they had a Mr. Ostapenko booked to deposit much laundered moolah in the near future.

In the end we asked HMsMiO if he could go the London "Wait I'll just get the file......... That's OK old man just tell him to come in tomorrow" and that is where I had to go to hold the interview.

He was obviously far better educated in marine electricity than I was and looked increasingly insulted at the easy nature of the questions asked. After the interview he told me he had been 'one the beach' for a year employed by the Ukranian authorities to vet their certificates of competence and also that he would not work for a Western crewing agent as their local representatives were all on the take.

I was very pleased to use him for trouble shooting that otherwise I might have to have done and although he would not willingly come back to deepsea conditions after offshore (and why should he).

I tried to get the technical interview procedure scrapped for any candidate with an Eastern Block (and particularly Ukranian) CoC but to no avail so spend several 'phone calls chatting to better qualified men than myself and looking forward to being able to do even less work.

It was not long after that that I came across a Ukranian candidate with a licence not a CoC. It seems the market had forced a lowering of standards and one could pick one of these up from the nearest Port Captain providing one had a neon screwdriver showing form one's top pocket.

That does not mean that the youngsters had it all their own way. On the few occasions my assistance was requested experience often did hold sway.

Andrej did get one answer wrong. (What happens to the load on a centrifugal pump when you shut in the discharge valve?).The only other candidate that did as well was another of those rare exotic creatures, an electrical superintendent (returning to sea for the money) stranger still he was a Brit.

Stopped in the Bitter Lakes. I'm presuming they're giving her a good going over. :smoking:

1345z March 30th.

Every company I have worked for, in my entire career, from 8 months in Wilton-Fijenoord's Scheidam yard back in 1965 have decided to send me to the Netherlands to inspect or buy something.
Have always found the Dutch to be honest and reliable, and being more like 'us' than any other European nation.

I would be on-side with the Dutch too. I have to say, though, that salvage people may be from their unwashed (however good at salvage they are). When Aya got chopped in half in the Scheldt the crew's personal possessions were included in the salvors' loot.

(Be careful that you do not hire and install a deck generator, with cables, for a ship that gets chopped in half. The paperwork goes on forever).

Worked for many years with 'Cloggies'. Did you know a Scotsman and a Dutchman could meet in a bar, and they could both die of thirst before someone would buy the first round ?
:jester:

.......and if either dropped a penny, they created copper wire!

I see the ship is still swinging around the hook in the Bitter Lakes. Not sure if there's a problem with the ship, or the 'blame game' phase has been entered. Whatever time loss was caused by the blockage, might be nothing once the lawyers and politicians get going. :brain:

Brown envelopes galore.

And each one containing a P 45.

Have just seen an item where Egypt is after $1billion in compensation for canal closure, as I said, brown envelope time.

Owners have declared 'General Average' - spread the cost to the unfortunate cargo owners who will have to pay a premium for getting a late delivery.
Official reason for the ship being held is to 'undergo technical examinations', yeah right...

So Egypt is trying to get a trillion dollars in damages? I wonder to the pockets of which sheikh or politicians are going to end up. In addition, the general average declaration was something that could be expected given the magnitude of the claim, which would be absorbed by the different insurers involved.


Regards


Tomi.

I will never forget one time we were to offload wheat from a vessel coming from the USA. The weather was bad and the pilotage at Hook of Holland suspended but you could enter the port if you wish. Having been there many times I opted to go in rather than wait outside tossing about. We t right in and went to the berth allocated without a pilot. When the agent came on board he would not accept my NOR as the holds had not been inspected. They were clean and dry as per CP and the inspector said they were not ready. Two further inspections were required before I blew a gasket and called another inspector. The reason was the ship with the cargo was delayed and we would go on demurrage. Anyway, when the ship did arrive several days later I had my mates take photographs of the cargo which had water damage. Also took samples of this before we were chased off. When we finished loading the agent came on board all smiles and full of bonhomie with the B/Ls to be signed. Now the fun part is I would not sign clean B/Ls as I had proof the cargo was damaged. No way I told him as you tried to screw me with the NOR so now what do you do.
Three days we sat in port before the company told me to sail for the destination without the signed B/L. On arrival at the destination, I had the hatches inspected and found no water had entered and asked the receiver for the B/ls and of course he could not produce them but gave him samples and the photographs and we were allowed to discharge free of all blame. I never trusted the men from the Netherlands again.

I wouldn't either Bill.

Hold Inspection malarkey is still going on today in every port, not confined to the Dutch. The ease of taking photographs and video are a godsend to the professional shipmanager and any nonsense about hatches can be sorted by the Sound Doctor.

Ever Given held in Great Bitter Lakes until compensation paid by the owners said the SCA. The backlog is now cleared.

According to AIS Ever Given is still in the Suez Canal (bitter lakes)

It is not going anywhere at the moment.
It has been 'seized' by the Egyptian Government.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCon...-Given-sh.aspx

Only those who never had a ship mugged by the Egyptian port authorities' believed Ever Given would not be Manna from Heaven. Just watch this space.
A smudge will be found on page 33 of IAMSAR III but not to worry because the Officials brother has a bookshop in Port Said, He very Cheap. And this is just the start.

$900 m. (£652M) Will be required to release her.

I recently read that she only cost 130 million to build (as part of a multi ship construction program) so if I were the owner I should suggest that the Egyptian authorities kept her. That should save the owners a fortune. Let the owners of the cargo sue Egypt for the return of their property. After all, the cargo owners had no responsibility for the accident. Or am I missing some major legal difficulty here? Deep down I have a feeling that this issue will rumble on for years until either sanity sets in or the lawyers get very rich.

Time to play hard ball with the SCA and Egyptian Authorities? If they will not wait until the results of an official investigation based upon VDR and other data to make a claim based upon objective facts and actual costs, then if they can get the crew off, just abandon the ship. The ship has a value of around $100 million. Don't give in to blackmail or bribery.
Maersk, MSC, CMA, Hapag Lloyd, HMM, COSCO and EverGreen are big enough to take on the Egyptians? Its in all their interest to do so, as a similar event could easily occur to one of their ships...but have they got the balls to do so? Avoiding use of the canal for a few months would probably be an effective coercement.

Comments made last week by the head of the SCA Mr Rabbie totally exonerated the pilots, even before they had any VDR information. I spent over 2 years working in Egypt, never ever once did I ever hear someone apologise for any mistakes, they are incapable of accepting any blame for a mistake. It will always be somone else.


Do not be suprised of claims of ventroliquism when the voice recording surfaces, it wont be the pilots :) voices, if they said anything incriminating.



It will be interesting to see what other investigations show. Do not hold your breath for Panamas investigation.

I expect the insurers will be investigating this themselves, now, with top notch people.


I managed last year to get hold of the official Panama flag investigation into the Danny F II, a livestock carrier that sank off Lebanon in 2009, with a large loss of Human life as well as animals, including the British Master(a company I worked for in the 80's) it was kindergarden standard. Panama had with-held it for many years.

Ever given
 

She is still anchored in Bitter Lakes.