BOW WAVE 198

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(c)2003 WavyLine.com	Issue No 198 08 Sep 03
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Aon 77
3. New Germany Editor for Forwarderlaw
4. Malaysian Maritime Conference
5. Translation Wizard
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Taken from Anne Applebaum's Gulag--A History of the Soviet Camps, 2003, Allen Lane, pp 84-85:-

Walking along the banks of the White Sea Canal today, it is hard to conjure up that near-hysterical atmosphere. I visited the site on a lazy day in August 1999, in the company of several local historians.....along the canal itself, boys were swimming, throwing stones. Cows waded in the murky shallow water, and weeds grew through the cracks of the concrete. Alongside one of the locks, in a small booth with pink curtains and the original Stalinist columns on the outside, the lone woman controlling the rise and fall of water told us that there were perhaps seven passing ships a day at the most, and often only three or four. That was more than Solzhenitsyn saw in 1966, when he spent the whole day beside the canal and saw two barges, both carrying firewood. Most goods by then, as nowadays, travel by rail--and, as a canal worker told him, the waterway is so shallow that 'not even submarines can pass through it under their own power; they have to be loaded on barges.

The shipping route from the Baltic to the White Sea had not, it seemed, proved so urgently necessary after all.

New Readers this week include:

Ben Heckel in Richmond University, Virginia, USA
Kevin Leach-Smith of Aquarius International Consultants in Dubai Peter Dunlop of Seabulk in Auckland, New Zealand
Robert Willmington of LRFairplay
Nicolas Gelsi of Fortis Corporate Insurance in Belgium Steven Mark Jones, Risk Management Executive at North of England Tim Marshall of IRISL in London

News of Readers

Bay area man John Liss has moved as a result of a happy change of domestic circumstances. His new address is:

Jon M. Liss Associates, Inc
PO Box 5005-73
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Phone 858 793 9100
Telefax 858 793 9113
emailell.net

He will continue his marine and industrial repair and replacement machinery business. In addition he remains available for consulting in marine and marine terminal inspection services.

Readers Write:

Thanks to our guest editors David Cheslin and Sharon Cunningham there has been a lively correspondence from Readers. By oversight the source of the original definition was omitted. It was taken from the admirable site run by Michael Quinion whose world wide words e-zine is followed all over the world by people interested in the derivation of words. Our apologies for this omission. You can visit the site at:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/

On the subject of the word Killick:

From Xavier S Hencker:

Further to Mr Cheslin's enquiry in the last of the summer Bow Waves, Killick was also the name given by Patrick O'Brian to the wonderful character of "Preserved Killick", the parsimonious but intensely loyal steward to Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey. Strangely, if "Killick" was also the naval slang for an anchor, none of his shipmates ever remarked on the coincidence.

Any of your readers who have not sampled the 20-volume series of novels about the adventures of Aubrey and his "particular friend", surgeon and intelligence agent, Stephen Maturin during the period of the Napoleonic and American wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century are missing something.

From Captain Paul Willee RFD QC,
Head of the Military Bar (Australian Defence Force):

It may not add much to what you have already said about it, but my copy of 'The Sailor's Word-Book' defines the word 'killock': A small anchor. Flue of an anchor. (See Kellagh). In turn: The Erse term for a wooden anchor with a stone in it, but in later times is applied to any grapnel or small anchor. I have always in my time in the Australian Navy understood the derivation to have come via the anchor badge worn to denote a Leading Seaman and referred to in the Australian Navy as 'leader' or 'kellick'. I suspect that the change from 'Killick' to 'Kellick' in the Australian vernacular came from the inability of my (adopted) countrymen to pronounce the letter 'I' otherwise than as 'eh'. However I am quite unable to throw any light on how the second 'I' in Killick derived from the original 'O' in killock .

From Capt. John A. Curran, ConocoPhillips, Bantry Bay Terminal,

Re Killick

The Irish word for a rock is 'Cloch', pronounced 'Kluck', perhaps there is a link, given that early anchors were just big rocks. Scots gaelic is very similar to Irish although the pronunciation is often slightly different.

From Peter Glover

In my capacity as a former N'O' of both the Seaman branch ('salthorse') and as an Engineer ('Plumber') , I can advise that while Killick was most often used in relationship to Leading Seaman, it could also be used in relation to some other Leading Hands as well - i.e. Yeoman , Electricians, and so forth. It was then often said as " the Killick Yeoman" in conversation .

The glossary in my Admiralty Manual of Seamanship dated 1964 , states - "KILLICK - a small anchor. A slang term used for a Leading Seaman , because the distinguishing badge he wears is an anchor "

This confirms your article . However ,under Ships Anchors , the same book states -

"Killick - Destroyers and frigates....................need a light anchor or killick for general purposes .They are supplied with a 300lb Danforth anchor , ................ . A small wire hawser is used as its cable "

As you see it has recently been more of a general term for a relatively small anchor but 300lb is no lightweight !

I recall the expression as being used for much smaller anchors of no particular design and most warships above minesweeper size tended to have other anchors besides Danforths - and much bigger than this too.

No doubt there will be other old salts who add further to this simple research

A back to work flavour dominates this week's edition.

Enjoy, all the same.

2. Aon 77

Peter Hastie, the editor of the Insurance Insider writes:

London's energy (re)insurance market has witnessed a number of large disputes in recent times and few come bigger than the Aon 77 facility which, as the name suggests, derives from the world's number two broker.

At issue is an estimated $90mn of losses on an Aon facility which provided direct insurance for offshore energy risks until going spectacularly wrong in 1999.

The reinsurers, such as Cotesworth (also an insured) and Tryg Baltica via Lloyd's insurer Euclidian, are refusing to pay and Aon are also in the firing line because, despite estimating that only $7mn of premium income would be placed on the facility, around $45mn of income was written in the 1999 year. In total some $60mn of losses are being disputed.

After an attempt at mediation failed earlier this year, it has been full steam ahead to trial which is currently scheduled for October this year in the High Court. Aon's case, however, was weakened after Simon Matson, its energy broker responsible for the facility, left the broker a few years ago to join rivals Willis. But after a relatively brief sojourn, Matson reappeared at Aon last week--just in time to help out in the impending trial. Surely a coincidence, remarks The Insurance Insider, who have reported on the dispute in some detail over the past year.

To obtain a free pdf version of The Insurance Insider-- and find out more information about Aon 77 - simply send an email, giving your name and address, to:

bowwaves@theinsider.co.uk

The editor, Peter Hastie,has promised all Bow Wave Readers that The Insider will be e-mailed within 24 hours of the request.

3. New Germany Editor for Forwarderlaw

We have heard from Peter Jones that there has been a changing of the guard in Germany. The new national editor, Jacobus Bracker, literally took over the August posting in Forwarderlaw. The forwarding industry in Germany is going through a period of turmoil, although Peter has no doubt that the ingenuity and persistence of its members are up to the challenge. But it will be interesting to see what happens in the legal sphere. Visitors to the site must look to Jacobus to keep them up to date.

Your editor's view about the large Central European forwarding industry is that if you want to insure them and survive to tell the tale, you had better be Germanophone extremely well informed about the industry and comfortably located somewhere south of Frankfurt/Main.

Check out the site at:

http://www.forwarderlaw.com

4. Malaysian Maritime Conference

G.Durairaj in Kuala Lumpur has passed on details of a Maritime Conference which is seeking to focus on the industry's new world order.

The 2nd Asia Maritime & Logistics Conference will be held on 6-7 October, 2003 at Mandarin Oriental KLCC, in Kuala Lumpur and will discuss the global structural changes and development re-shaping the demand for maritime transportation services.

Organised by the Malaysia Shipowners Association (MASA), the Conference will witness presentations by a faculty of 17 speakers from leading maritime organisations and companies from various parts of the world.

See the details at:

http://www.portsworld.com

5. Translation Wizard

Your editor continues to receive a great number of e-mail communications in languages other than English. And whilst the ability to speak a number of languages (mostly badly) may be assumed by Readers there are limits. So when all else fails and the right dictionary is not available we can always turn to the unsatisfactory alternatives offered by technology. This translation wizard will even identify a language you don't know and can handle a wide variety of languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish.

http://www.faganfinder.com/translate

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to Andrew Charlton for this helpful guide:

POSTED AT A LOCAL GOLF CLUB

1. Back straight, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart. 2. Form a loose grip.
3. Keep your head down.
4. Avoid a quick back swing.
5. Stay out of the water.
6. Try not to hit anyone.
7. If you are taking too long, please let others go ahead of you. 8. Don't stand directly in front of others.
9. Quiet please... while others are preparing to go. 10.Don't take extra strokes.

Very good. Now flush the urinal, go outside, and tee off.

PS from rail guru Bryan Stone:

Old Enoch from Wednesbury was persuaded to take a holiday, in Rhyl. Everything went well until two days before he was to come home, when he collapsed and died.

His friends had the body sent home by train, so that it could - as was the custom - be laid out in the parlour for neighbours to pay their respects. Ena und Ada, the two old ladies down the street, came in. Ena, sympathetic, said: ' Ay, look, what a lovely colour 'e's picked up'.

'Ar', said Ada, ' You can see as 'ow 'is 'oliday done 'im good'.

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 8600 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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