What caught my eye...


Mike Schwarz


casts his eye over last month’s marine news


IMO set to move on container losses at sea


It is difficult to have precise figures on the number of containers lost, particularly as container visibility from the bridge may be limited by the containers themselves, and only the upper tiers and the nearest bays can be seen, we are told. When a relatively distant stack of containers collapses, it is difficult to determine immediately and precisely how many containers are involved and when they fell. These events generally occur in adverse weather conditions that prevent immediate on-site investigation.


Discussion is underway to agree to initiate new measures to detect and report containers lost at sea, which may enhance the positioning, tracking and recovery of such containers. The aim is to establish a compulsory system requiring the loss of containers to be declared and the setting up on board of measures to easily identify the exact number of losses. Along with installing such a system, ships would be obliged to report the loss of containers through a standardized procedure.


Given the comments made in the first paragraph, which seem to be at odds with the second paragraph, it strikes me as improbable that the number of containers can be accurately reported, one would think. I applaud the sentiment behind this move by IMO, but is it workable?


Your new bike might still be stuck on the Ever Given


Remember that ship that had its 15 minutes of fame recently when it blocked the Suez Canal, inspiring a week of incredible memes, bringing shipping into the mainstream news and seriously threatening to upend the entire global economy? As it turns out the news cycle has moved on for many and the 18,000 containers that were on the Ever Given have been seized by Egyptian authorities and are being detained, along with the ship itself and the crew members, pending demands of eyewatering sums of money.


Canyon has a shipment of bikes stuck on the Ever Given, a spokesperson said in March, and Bird Cycleworks posted last week that there’s a shipment of new handrails aboard too.


So, when might you get your new bike? How on earth will this standoff be resolved and brought to a conclusion to everyone’s’ satisfaction? Impossible!


Famous face gets a lesson on surveying


and UTG from an IIMS stalwart John Heath, a highly experienced and respected marine surveyor with over 40 years’ experience is the IIMS Technical Director and a board member. Recently, he got a huge surprise when he was conducting a pre-purchase survey on an ex-passenger vessel on the River Thames. As he was taking measurements with his thickness gauge a famous face approached him from within the boatyard. It was none other than Sir Tony Robinson, a British ‘national treasure and icon’, who is a prolific creator of factual and historical documentaries about the UK, (but is perhaps most famous for playing Blackadder’s sidekick – Baldrick)!


Sir Tony was filming a series for Channel 5 called “The Thames: Britain’s Greatest River” and he and his team were in in the same boatyard where John and his team were working. Sir Tony approached John on the slipway and, much to everyone’s amusement, he broke off from filming to be given a lesson on marine surveying and ultrasonic thickness gauging.


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