Category: Shipping

Disaster on Christmas Eve

A good 200 years ago, two ships sank in a storm off Denmark. Today, a remarkable museum in Thorsminde commemorates the many dead - and the dangers of the Danish west coast. In mid-December 1811, Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, commander-in-chief of the British fleet in the Baltic Sea, made a fatal decision that he later came to regret. Persuaded by his deputy Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, his flag captain David Oliver Guion and the captain of the ship of the line HMS Defence, he sent the damaged ship of the line HMS St. George with a crew of 765 men and civilian men and women accompanied by HMS Defence with 550 men and women, contrary to his convictions....

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250 marks for training

Numerous training ships were built at the beginning of the 20th century to ensure the qualified training of young seamen in Germany. Even today, the German Training Ship Association is responsible for maintaining one such full-rigged ship. The founding of the German Training Ship Association on 12 January 1900 in the Hotel Continental in Berlin reflects the great economic and political importance that merchant shipping had achieved in the Wilhelmine Empire. The 227 founding members represented the top echelons of the German economy as well as the maritime-orientated aristocracy. Members of the Siemens, Borsig, Underberg, Guilleaume, Boveri, Hoesch and Faber-Castell families were among them, as well as representatives of the imperial Hohenzollern family, the...

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For the people

Seafarer's Social Service Oldenburg is the name of the latest support and counselling service offered by the Humanist Association. A team of volunteers looks after seafarers from all over the world at the inland harbour in Lower Saxony. When people go to sea for work, it usually has little to do with the romance of a cruise or a relaxing holiday under palm trees. No, work at sea is hard, full of privation, often monotonous and even more often shockingly poorly paid. Going to sea means constantly roaring diesel engines, small cabins and a life confined to a few square metres on and in steel hulks for months on end. Social contacts? Hardly any. Among ship crews...

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Seafarers' working conditions concern us all

At the beginning of February, an inspection by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) discovered various shortcomings on a car carrier belonging to the Chinese shipping company Cosco. Among other things, the crew was paid far below the minimum standards set by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the Maritime Labour Convention. Such abuses are not isolated cases. Time and again, seafarers report precarious working conditions that even violate human rights. However, these are not unique to merchant shipping. Such conditions are also known in manufacturing companies such as the textile or IT industry, or are condoned. This is because large companies deliberately have their goods produced in countries - mostly in the Global South - that...

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From school ship to youth hostel

The tall ship AF CHAPMAN is moored in the Swedish capital. After an eventful past, it has been used to accommodate young people for more than 70 years. The AF CHAPMAN in Stockholm is one of the most impressive sights in Swedish maritime and naval history. Launched on 2 March 1888 by the Shipbuilding Company in Whitehaven, England, the iron three-masted full-rigged ship can look back on a long and eventful history. It was built for the Charles E. Martin & Co. shipping company in Dublin and set sail on its maiden voyage to Portland in the United States under the name DUNBOYNE in the year of its completion. Access marineforum digital+ You...

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