The maritime world is going into deep shock! The fact that most seafarers are toiling out of sight makes them particularly vulnerable, more so in this time without precedent. Book ended by the brutal Saudi Arabia – Russia oil price war, and the COVID19 pandemic and its economical impacts, professional seafarers are going to find themselves considerably challenged in the near future. In my view, the disastrous response by the…
Charles Leeuwenburg wears many hats, being charitable to visiting sailors is just one more. (Picture by CL) Some people think I make a fortune off my marine engineering website. I don’t get that comment so much these days, but back when I started in 2000, there was this expectation that everybody with a website was a millionaire. No, far from it. It’s actually quite a bit of an expense in…
Quebec City is always such a great place for ship lovers. It’s a bustling port, with lots of action to admire, and neat iron plying about. Today, I had the opportunity to visit some berth mates before I signed off, here are some pictures. River traffic is constant, above is Umiak 1 leaving for its monthly trip to northern Quebec, with supplies for the mines; then coming back loaded with…
Silja Festival – from interwebs Last week, the operators of the Delta Spirit Lodge, through a Vancouver based Law Firm specializing in Commercial Law, put advertisements on the BC Government’s taxpayer funded WorkBC website. The advertisement was looking for all ranks of seafarers, including marine professionals holding a Transport Canada engineering Certificate of Competency of Second and First Class. The Delta Spirit Lodge is actually the 28 year old MV…
MV Palva in Montreal, now owned by Transport Maritime St Laurent I’m back in Quebec, passing through Quebec City, on our way to Oswego, with a load of Aluminum ingots from the smelter in Sept Iles, bound for Mitsubishi. As we pass my “old stomping grounds” in Quebec City I see no signs of Valero’s “new” Panamax tankers. Apparently the whole deal and its details are quite hush, hush, but…
Wartsila 8L46, Arneborg Power plant Apologies for the misleading post title goes out to the ST:TNG crowd… cool title though, eh! We are drawing to a close, ship loading operations up here in Deception Bay, on the northernmost tip of the province of Quebec. Wagenborg’s Arneborg is the second ship to load ore, from the new nickel mine operated by Nunavut Nickel and Canadian Royalties. With 6 lifts of bagged…
Pretty fantastic, sailors have been around for a long time….fascinating.
A fantastic story below from China, of all places, on a topic that affects us all seagoing engineers at one time or another, most of the time we don’t realize until its too late. I thinks its the big dirty secret of the bunker industry, and well worth noting, especially for those dealing with fuel oil on a regular basis, as far as our health is concerned. This reminds me…