BOW WAVE 112

Mixed Bag Issue

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2001 WavyLine.com	Issue No 112 14 Jan 01
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Baltic Exchange Extraordinary Meeting
3. Elysian P&I Review is Out
4. CMI Final Draft on Transport Issues
5. Image Search Engines
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

New Readers this week include:

Claims Handler Irma Colon
Jason Woolfe of the Insurance Times
Lee Adamson of the IMO
G.Jones of WeissJones.com
Michael K Bell

By the way, if any new Reader would rather not be selected to feature in this list, simply say so and it shall be done. We like shy self-effacing Readers just as much.

The unkind sentiments against Britain's Senior Service, aka the Royal Navy have continued in Lloyd's List and indeed in Reader feedback. For Shame.

Reader David Hebden wrote in and suggested the problem in later job prospects between the navy and the merchant marine candidates in civvy street is that to all outward appearances many Navy people appear sober when drunk and many merchant mariners appear intoxicated even when sober.

Your editor's laptop is striding its final lap with this Issue. Its hard drive is jammed solid with two plus years of Bow Wave and hard scribbling. Time to buy a new one. Here's hoping what passes for our routine publishing process carries on next week in a seamless kind of way with a new box of tricks pressed into service.

Enjoy

2. Baltic Exchange Extraordinary Meeting

The Baltic Exchange is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting on Thursday 17 January at 1200. Baltic Exchange shareholders will vote on a resolution proposing a revision of the Baltic Rules.

Members of the press have been invited to attend or be represented.

For further details please contact Bill Lines on 020 7369 1653; e-mail:exchange.com

The ideas of reinventing the Baltic Exchange to exploit modern electronic communications and as an agreeable place for maritime people to meet are all sound, in our view. The only additional desirable thing which we could think of is the idea of founding real places along similar lines in other maritime communities around the world which would be capable of supporting them.

3. Elysian's P&I Review is Out

Your editor can remember a time when an analysis of the results of the P&I Clubs, compiled by a financial person, circulated internally under the strictest requirements of confidentiality.

Nowadays you can go to the website of Elysian, which sells insurance against supplementary calls and which seems to know most of what there is to know about this singular breed of financial organisation, which one wag has called the last living organism of the 19th Century. Now that the age of steam is no more and Marxian economics are dead.

Many thanks to Reader Roger Ingles for forwarding this reference to his firm's work. He says the challenge of the fixed market has been seen off and the old order continueth. But your editor begs to differ. Monkey glands are to no avail; the ideal of mutuality and its purpose in the 21st Century are in urgent need of rejuvenation.

http://www.elysian-insurance.com/2001%20Review.htm

4. CMI Final Draft on Transport Issues

Professor Bill Tetley has published his comments on the Final Draft Instrument on Transport Law published by the CMI.

http://tetley.law.mcgill.ca/cmifinal.htm

He thinks the exercise is trying to compress too many issues into a single instrument and reiterates the Canadian proposal that a two track approach be adopted:

"The Fast Track - Under this track, the Hague/Visby Rules would be slightly modified by:

eliminating error of navigation
adding port-to-port liability
revising the package limitation
adding "actual carrier" and "contracting carrier" adding the jurisdiction and arbitration provisions of Hamburg

More Detailed Track - especially:

Chapter 1 - The new definitions
Chapter 2 - E-commerce
Chapter 7 - Obligations of the shipper
Chapter 8 - Transport Documents, Bills of Lading
Chapter 9 - Freight, Liens
Chapter 10 - Delivery
Chapter 11 - Right of Control
Chapter 12 - Negotiability and in fact all chapters 1-17."

http://tetley.law.mcgill.ca/cmicomment.htm

Our friend Paul Koronka, who has worked on this area in the CMI imagines the work can be done in two or three years, a cracking pace in the field of maritime law and policy.

5. Image Library Picks

Ever been in search of a particular image or photograph to illustrate that report or brochure? Well Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome fame, who is one of the great gurus in the world of e-zines recommends two search engines which have branched off into this area. Just type in what you are looking for and you ought to find what you are looking for. Here is another good example of how the web is changing the way we work.

http://images.google.com/ http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/simage/

See also:

http://www.lockergnome.com/issues/daily/20020111.html

6. And Finally...

Reader Barbara Jennings kindly sent in this collection of tart maintenance records:

Here are some actual logged maintenance complaints and problems, known as "squawks," said to have been submitted by pilots and the solution recorded by maintenance engineers. Before paranoia sets in just remember the carrier concerned the major airline that doesn't have accidents. It helps to imagine these lines being pronounced with an Australian accent.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except autoland very rough.
S: Autoland not installed yet on this aircraft.

P: No. 2 propeller seeping prop fluid.
S: No. 2 propeller seepage normal. Nos. 1, 3 and 4 propellers lack normal seepage.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on backorder.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200-fpm descent. S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. S: That's what they're there for!

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windscreen.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious!

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with words.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 6700 readers in the transport,insurance, shipping and finance industries.

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