Splashback

Your thoughts

Splash always welcomes reader comments. Below are some of the juiciest we’ve published in recent weeks

Ed Enos ridicules shipping’s move towards unmanned operations at sea “At the end of this effort, there will still be humans monitoring robot ships, inputing data to send them off on their voyages. These ships will then be greeted by human technicians who will be scrambling to use what little time they have in port to perform maintenance and repairs. Thus no humans will actually be removed after all. What money is saved? Are these ships actually safer? If not safer and construction and operation are as expensive or more, what’s the point of it all?”

Peter Gartsjö on the cut-throat shipmanagement business “There are too many kings, too much silo thinking and tunnel vision for them to be able to have a common voice”

Ed Ion on maritime media “The less than virtuous cycle of advertorial, phoney paid for awards /events and PR companies masquerading as independent media is still all too prevalent in the Eurocentric shipping media” ‘Sailor Bill’ discussing Egyptian corruption “The Suez Canal Authority is like the Mob. You don’t get a job unless you’re an earner, and send money up to the bosses. Canal pilots are like vacuums, they suck up everything in their path”

Arjun Vikram-Singh sticks up for the carriers in the face of a barrage of criticism from shippers “Freight forwarders have long been the bane of ocean carriers, with their predatory negotiating tactics, their manipulations, their shopping around for space, their notorious last-minute cancellations”

Martyn Benson on shipping’s murky reputation “Shipping has many of the traits of the bar of wet soap that can’t be easily found and, even when located, is difficult to grasp. The persistence of flags of convenience, pirates, tax-free fuel, a general unwillingness to publish detailed financial records and ethereal debates about carbon offsets and credits all contribute to an image of an industry which really does not want to be transparent to the man/woman/non-binary in the street”