BOW WAVE 368

Bow Wave Issue 368--Truncated Edition

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(c)2006 WavyLine.com	Issue No 368 11 Dec 06
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Container Scanning Initiative
3. Kite Ship
4. Lloyd's Maritime Academy Ship Arrest Seminar
5. Darwin Awards 2006
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Poem of the Week

Prayer

If we don't believe in heaven, who reads the letters we mail there every evening?
Children send most of them, kneeling by the bedpost imagining the universe under the care of a father who rumbles behind the newspaper
smelling of cigarettes and Old Spice.
To grow up is to lose one's God at sea --
better to lose one than be one.
If you believe the world is perfect,
think of Keats dying young.
I never would have seen it if I hadn't believed it, the saying goes. Somebody has to awaken us
to the time of day it is when the earth is empty
of any intention, or any human presence.

And yet it is noon, and here you are -- your blue headlands and swords, your wave-moistened silences.
As if at the heart of things
there were a heart.

James Armstrong, from Blue Lash

New Readers this week include:-

Barton Phillips of Associated Marine in Brisbane
Tom Masters, Staff Surveyor at British Marine
Margarita Dávila of Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana
Captain Jeffrey Perlstein of Safeship Services in Florida Howard Toynton of Colemont
Wafaa Kassem, Insuance Manager of MOS in Eygpt
Advocate Fatma Kurt of Karamans in Istanbul
Marine Claims Advisor Sofie Cappaert of Marsh in Antwerp

News of Readers

Mario.Ciancarelli has joined Glacier Re

contact him at:-

Mario.Ciancarelli@glacierre.com

Wilhelmina Fernandes has joined GCAN in Canada

contact her at:-

wfernandes@gcan.ca

Readers Write

From David Asprey

Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. . but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?" At least for British readers, at current exchange rates there is no extra penny!

David.Asprey@british-shipping.org

Note from the Editor

This week's edition comes to Readers courtesy of the Wan Bao Hotel's broadband connection in Shanghai where your jetlagged editor has just arrived.

It is a busier time of year than usual as we work towards the launch of ITS, the new intermodal and professional negligence products of British Marine Limited. More on this soon.

May we also make the customary call on Readers to send in their seasonal contributions? As the holiday period approaches we like to take refuge in levity.

Enjoy!

2. Container Scanning Initiative

After queuing (with pilots and crew) for a good hour and a half in the halls of Terminal 2 at Heathrow--still not back to normal on the security front and where thousands of hours are still being invested in the confiscation of sun block and skin lotions we duly noted the welcome issued by the World Shipping Council of the Homeland Security's International Container Scanning Network.

Read all about it:-

http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm

http://www.worldshipping.org/wsc_statement_of_support.pdf

3. Kite Ship

KiteShip has taken new office and shop space, on the waterfront in Alameda, CA. Previously leased by North Sails for their San Francisco operations, KiteShip's new "digs" provide additional space for engineering personnel and for prototype construction. Readers in the area are invited to drop by 2900 Main, Alameda. Call 925-550-6738 for directions.

To learn more about KiteShip, contact the CEO Dave Culp

dave@kiteship.com.

http://www.kiteship.com

4. Lloyd's Maritime Academy Ship Arrest Seminar

Our Correspondent Douglas Lindsay writes:-

The Lloyd's Maritime Academy Ship Arrest seminar, now in its twelfth year, has become somewhat of an old pals' club. Chaired by Bob Deering of Ince & Co, now in charge of Ince's office in Dubai but still keeping a close interest in ship arrest, and with a largely lawyer audience, this seminar has a particular flavour making for lively exchanges.
There were some interesting developments to report: first the general one that after very little activity in ship arrest for some time - hardly surprising in today's markets - recently it has sprung into life again with reports of significant levels of action in various jurisdictions. Whether this is the first outrider of the storm to come, or just a passing blip is hard to tell but you can't help wondering.

Michael Frevola of Holland & Knight in New York brought a succinct rundown of current American practise but also one interesting piece of news: that the courts in New York are turning against Rule B attachments of funds passing through the banks there as they are cleared internationally. Ever since the Winterstorm decision, Rule B attachments have been a happy hunting ground for obtaining security. Now, it looks like their days are numbered. Just three weeks ago it was questioned whether the Winterstorm case was decided on proper grounds. These questions are being addressed now, and it looks likely that the decision will be that it was not. It follows that Rule B attachments will then be declared unavailable for marine claims. Indications are that existing Rule B attachments will be allowed to run their course, but that new ones will very shortly not be admitted.

Beyond that, papers on ship arrest in the Netherlands by Haco van der Houven van Oordt, in Poland by Michal Lachert, in France by Lars Lewis, in the USA by Bob Toney, Greece by by Vassilis Vernicos, in UK by
Charlotte Winter, in Ireland by Hugh Kennedy, in
South Africa by Jenny Macintosh, and in China by Chris Kidd, gave a good wide sense of both the
similarities and the differences between the civil law countries, always an 'in personam' action,
and the common law countries with their capacity for in rem action as well.

There were a few suprises, although it was perhaps less surprising that each country's representative should suggest that it was quick, cheap and easy in their jurisdiction. But Vassilis Vernicos was adamant that there was nothing to it in Greece,
which came as news to most at the seminar, and of course ship arrest is a national sport in France. Quick to effect, much slower to lift.

As an antidote to all those lawyers, Rob Crees of the UK Club pointed out that that common tool, the Letter of Undertaking, was not an obligation on
the clubs, but something they did as a favour for members who were up to date with their calls and gave counter-security to the club. P&I's role in securing release of vessels under arrest was a
theme throughout the two days of the seminar, and this writer was left with the feeling that if we hadn't invented those exceptionally well suited
concepts in Victorian times, modern shipping would not have been possible. Not that the lawyers would have agreed to that.

5. Darwin Awards 2006

These memorials to folly--a suitable subject for insurance people everywhere--were kindly forwarded by Fraser Hunt. They are described as the annual honour given to the person who improved the "gene pool" the most by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. As always, competition this year has been keen. And the candidates this year are.............

* IN Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

* Buxton, NC: A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beach-goers said Daniel Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach on the outer banks, used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200 people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.

* Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, CA, as he fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was robbing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth (to keep his hands free) remained there as he hit the floor.

* Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in Selbyville, Del, as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

HONORABLE MENTION:
* Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover township, NJ, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, when a quarter-stick of dynamite blew up in their car. While driving around 2 AM, the bored couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what would happen, but apparently failed to notice the window was closed.

RUNNER UP:
* TACOMA, WA Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. One end of the cable was secured around Bingham's leg and the other end was tied to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and removed his foot. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy river water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. "All I can say" said Bingham, "is that God was watching out for me on that night. There's just no other explanation for it." Bingham's foot was never located.

AND THE WINNER:

* Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop! Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr.Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him" said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. "With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves that
"S**t happens!"

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to David Frugtniet for these imponderables...

The following are actual letters that Auntie Rhoda (well-known Psychiatrist writing for Parade Magazine in Zimbabwe) herself admitted she was at a loss to answer:-

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

I suspected that my husband had been fooling around, and when I confronted him with the evidence he denied everything and said it would never happen again.

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

I was married to Murwere for three months, and I didn't know he drank until one night he came home sober.

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

I have a man I never could trust. He cheats so much I'm not even sure this baby I'm carrying is his

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a middle-aged gym teacher, and the other is a social worker in her mid-twenties. These two women go everywhere together, and I've never seen a man go into their apartment or come out. Do you think they could be Lebanese?

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

What can I do about all the sex, nudity, language and violence on my VCR?

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

I am a twenty-three-year-old liberated woman who has been on the pill for two years. It's getting expensive, and I think my boyfriend should share half the cost, but I don't know him well enough to discuss money with him.

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

Our son writes that he is taking Judo. Why would a boy who was raised a good Christian home turn against his own?

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

I joined the Navy to see the world. I've seen it. Now, how do I get out?

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

My forty-year-old son has been paying a psychiatrist a visit an hour every week for two-and-a-half years. He must be crazy.

******************************************************** Dear Auntie Rhoda,

Do you think it would be all right if I gave my doctor a little gift? I tried for years to get pregnant and couldn't, and he did it.

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

My mother is mean and short-tempered. I think she is going through her mental pause.

********************************************************

Dear Auntie Rhoda,

You told some woman whose husband had lost all interest in sex to send him to a doctor. Well, my husband lost all interest in sex years ago and he is a doctor.

********************************************************

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