BOW WAVE 624

Bow Wave Issue 624--Imagining the Worst Edition

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2012 WavyLine.com	Issue No 624 22 Jan 12
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Captain Schettino
3. Focus Shifts from Ship's Captain to Company
4. Worst Imaginings
5. Charterers Stop Covering Cost of Moving Ships for Loading
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Poem of the Week

Rest.

It's so late I could cut my lights
and drive the next fifty miles
of empty interstate
by starlight,
flying along in a dream,
countryside alive with shapes and shadows,
but exit ramps lined
with eighteen wheelers
and truckers sleeping in their cabs
make me consider pulling into a rest stop
and closing my eyes. I've done it before,
parking next to a family sleeping in a Chevy,
mom and dad up front, three kids in the back,
the windows slightly misted by the sleepers' breath. But instead of resting, I'd smoke a cigarette,
play the radio low, and keep watch over
the wayfarers in the car next to me,
a strange paternal concern
and compassion for their well being
rising up inside me.
This was before
I had children of my own,
and had felt the sharp edge of love
and anxiety whenever I tiptoed
into darkened rooms of sleep
to study the small, peaceful faces
of my beloved darlings. Now,
the fatherly feelings are so strong
the snoring truckers are lucky
I'm not standing on the running board,
tapping on the window,
asking, Is everything okay?
But it is. Everything's fine.
The trucks are all together, sleeping
on the gravel shoulders of exit ramps,
and the crowded rest stop I'm driving by
is a perfect oasis in the moonlight.
The way I see it, I've got a second wind
and on the radio an all-night country station.
Nothing for me to do on this road
but drive and give thanks:
I'll be home by dawn.

Richard Jones (2010)

News of Readers

Leading specialist Lloyd’s insurer Marketform has announced that Simon Turner has stepped down as a Director and CEO of Marketform Managing Agency Ltd and Director of Marketform Limited with effect from 13th January, 2012.

John O'Neill, former Chief Operating Officer, who has now taken over as interim CEO, commented:

"In order to focus on the continuing recovery of Simon’s wife, Holly Bellingham, and due to the ongoing needs of Marketform, Simon took the decision after some leave of absence to resign these positions in the best interests of the company, and thus enable him to now give his full attention to matters at home."

Note from the Editor

From Conrad's Lord Jim

"Nothing more awful than to watch a man who has been found out, not in a crime but in a more than criminal weakness. The commonest sort of fortitude prevents us from becoming criminals in the legal sense; it is from weakness unknown, but perhaps suspected, as in some parts of the world you suspect a deadly snake in every bush--from weakness that may lie hidden, watched or unwatched, prayed against or manfully scorned, repressed or maybe ignored more than half a lifetime, not one of us is safe."

Enjoy!

2. Captain Schettino

I am surely not the only person this day who has observed the vilification and scorn poured upon the unfortunate Captain of the Costa Concordia with grave misgivings. In the face of very large public casualties, the hunt for a lone, individual scapegoat begins immediately and does not cease until one is named.

My years in the peculiar world of marine insurance tell me to gaze most sceptically upon organisations who cast their people adrift at the highest moments of alarm and consternation. My experience of organisations tells me that highly paid CEOs who are invisible during mighty tribulations involving their companies and people are more common than they ought to be. On a human level, there is always something grubby about organisations led by Teflon Men.

In the circumstances, it is bracing to see gCaptain's John Konrad put the case for Captain Schettino. Click on the link:-

http://tinyurl.com/6nz852m

What advice could one conceivably give to Captain Schettino, assailled on all sides, under arrest and cast adrift? He might with profit pick up a phone and consult Capt Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood via the lawyer Mike Chalos' firm in New York for some helpful pointers on how to endure.

3. Focus Shifts from Ship's Captain to Company

This item from the Financial Times indicates a certain turn in the public discourse:-

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f2e9e1e0-4385-11e1-adda-00144feab49a.html#axzz1kF7bGuZ0

4. Worst Imaginings

Most people who work in the risk side of life have spent many hours imagining what the worst possible outcome there may be in the ordinary run of life. Mostly the worst does not happen, or more accurately, it happens so rarely that mostly the worst remains within the realms of imagination.

But the some of the worst happens, sooner or more often later. The keeling over of one of the new vast, densely populated cruise ships was certainly imaginable and now the world can observe the worst as a reality.

How far away is the unsalvagable vast container ship, 10,000 teu on board, back broken and far away from the inadequate resources known to be available to deal with the wreck? Only a matter or time we imagine.

5. Charterers Stop Covering Cost of Moving Ships for Loading

Seen in this day's edition of Shipping News Clippings, the daily zine run from the Hook of Holland by the tireless Piet Sinke:-

Shipowners are paying as much as US$50,000 a day for fuel to get vessels that haul dry-bulk commodities to cargo-loading ports as customers stop covering those costs amid a glut of carriers, shipbrokers said, which could lead to ships being anchored rather than being kept in service. Charterers usually negotiate hire terms that include the expense of positioning a ship where it's needed to take on a cargo, Georgi Slavov, head of dry-freight and basic-resources research at ICAP Shipping International Ltd, said by phone on Wednesday.

Now mining companies and other vessel users are leaving shipowners to pay those expenses, he said. Contracts excluding fuel costs last prevailed when vessel returns plunged in 2008's final quarter, according to Mr Slavov. 'It's becoming really painful for owners, and indicative of how bad market conditions are,' said Mr Slavov. 'If conditions are the same, especially in February - if nothing improves after the Chinese New Year - people will start to consider lay ups.' Laying up is an i ndustry term for idling a vessel and cutting back its crew to reduce costs. The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of costs to ship raw materials such as iron ore and coal, has tumbled 47 per cent this year to the lowest level since January 2009 as the fleet of commodity ships expands more quickly than cargo demand. The overall index fell 48 points, or 4.93 per cent, to 926 points, falling below the crucial 1,000 point level for a second day, and at its lowest since Jan 21, 2009. China's week-long Chinese New Year holidays start on Jan 23. The index slid 76 per cent in the last three months of 2008. Earnings for capesize vessels have plunged as much as 82 per cent this year on some routes assessed by the Baltic Exchange in London, sliding below levels needed to cover operating costs.

Capesizes need to earn about US$18,000 a day to break even, according to Pareto Securities AS, an Oslo investment bank. The Baltic's capesize index fell 2.94 per cent on Wednesday, with average daily earnings sliding to US$7,103. The ships are the largest dry-bulk carriers and make up about 40 per cent of the fleet's capacity. Capesizes are paying more than US$50,000 a day in fuel costs to reach loading ports and smaller vessels are paying more than US$20,000, said Tom Roberts, a partner at Teaneck, New Jersey-based shipbroker Compass Maritime Services LLC. Once a ship arrives at a port, the charterer pays a daily hire rate and also takes over fuel expenses, he said.The price of ship fuel, or bunkers, in Singapore climbed 36 per cent to US$734 a tonne over the past year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Costs were at the highest level since July 2008 as of Jan 11.

Source : Bloomberg, Reuters

You can receive this publication by registering at:-

http://www.maasmondmaritime.com

6. And Finally...

Frazer Hunt, the maritime lawyer from Sydney has taken to sending in Brain Tests. E.g.

It took me a few seconds, but then I got the hang of it...I've seen this with the letters out of order, but this is the first time I've seen it with numbers.

Give it a TRY

Good example of a Brain Study: If you can read this you have a strong mind:-

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5!

1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3

Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7

17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15.

L3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N R34D 7H15.

P.S. This one comes from the superior JumboJoke.Com site run by Randy Cassingham from the state of Colorado:-

Grounds for Divorce

A judge was interviewing a lady regarding her pending divorce , and asked, "What are the grounds for your divorce?"

She replied, "About four acres and a nice little home in the middle of the property with a stream running by."

"No," he said, "I mean what is the foundation of this case?"

"It is made of concrete, brick and mortar," she responded.

"I mean," he continued, "What are your relations like?"

"I have an aunt and uncle living here in town, and so do my husband's parents."

He said, "Do you have a real grudge?"

"No," she replied, "We have a two-car carport and have never really needed one."

"Please," he tried again, "is there any infidelity in your marriage?"

"Yes, both my son and daughter have stereo sets. We don't necessarily like the music, but the answer to your question is 'yes'."

"Ma'am, does your husband ever beat you up?"

"Yes," she responded, "about twice a week he gets up earlier than I do."

Finally, in frustration, the judge asked, "Lady, why do you want a divorce?"

"Oh, I don't want a divorce," she replied. "I've never wanted a divorce. My husband does. He said he can't communicate with me, but I have no idea what he's talking about."

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