Enough with the Norwegian S***

Scuttlebutt
126

I can assure you that I am as critical to hypocrisy and excessive nationalism when it comes to Norwegians as I am towards the American eqv. incl. on Norwegian forums.
BTW; Nice to see that you are able to admit and admire the obvious fact that Norwegian Maritime technology, especially in the offshore and fishery industries, are superior.

I am NOT of the opinion that any one race or nationality has a monopoly on being good seamen and have NEVER stated that Norwegians are better or more qualified than Americans to be seamen. What I HAVE stated is that it takes experience to efficiently operate the complex vessels and perform the operations that is carried out by the modern CSVs. Few Americans have that experience YET.

As to being arrogant, I remember you posted somewhere that you had worked with Norwegians on Factory trawlers in Alaska that had “out-arroganted” even you. Those were most likely “Sunnmoringer” and, to paraphrase Churchill, “had a lot to be arrogant about”.:yum:

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There I made that whole paragraph more concise to your point.

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Your words, not mine.

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I just got off a vessel with a Kongsberg DP and ECDIS. While Kongsberg DP system is top notch. I can not say the same for the ECDIS. There are far better and more user friendly ECDISs out there. Maybe the Norwegians are slipping?

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Been working on norwegian gas tankers for 9 years now, and overall they are good people to work with. Norwegians definitely are cocky, don’t admit when they’re wrong, and act like absolute idiots when they get a sniff of alcohol (always the chief…). Norway is a nice country for sure, I’ve spent some time in Hammerfest, Lofoten, Stavanger, and Oslo. You guys are fortunate to not have drug/violent crime problems like the US has in most cities, but it gets to your head a bit too much! And yeah, I get it, shipping goes back many generations for the Norwegians, and in any one small town there is usually someone who works in the shipping industry. It’s a larger part of your culture compared to here in the US. But when the Captain tells me not to order a local dishwashing soap from the US, that it has to be Norwegian “Zalo” soap since it is superior to all other soaps because it is from Norway (this logic has also been applied for many spare parts and other consumables), I have to laugh.

2 Likes
131

You should let Kongsberg know what you find wrong, don’t like, or think could/should be improved. I’m sure they would appreciate your input and, in combination with other comments from actual users, (not from people that just want to criticise anything non-American) would make an effort to improve their products.

That is how small Norwegian companies have become world beaters within the Offshore Marine field. Just look at ship designers who are now selling their designs all over the world, or shipyards that used to built small fishing vessel a few decades ago, now building the most sophisticated vessels in the offshore industry, with equipment developed and manufactured by local companies.They listened to the user of the ships and equipment they developed and corrected any mistakes based on input from them.

Is this bragging?? Well, maybe so, but prove me wrong.

BTW; I’m equally proud of what has been accomplished in Singapore in that same time span. From being a colonial backwater and transhipment port, to today being among the world’s leading shipping centers.

In the 1960’s and early 1970’s there were three yards for ship repairs run by British and Japanese companies.In the early/mid-1970’s American rig builders arrived and set up shop, building rigs from US designs (with drawings in US units, but built from Taiwanese steel in metric sizes) with all American machinery and equipment imported from the US.
Today Singapore is a leading rig building, conversion and repair centre, with their own proprietary designs and with subsidiary yards all over the world, incl. in the US.

I lived there during most of this time, watched this development and, in some small part, participated and contributed in it. I am - in equal parts - proud of my two “home country’s” accomplishment.

Do I need to apologize for being a Norwegian and long time Singaporean resident? Well, I’m not and will not, no matter the amount of “encouragement” to do so I may get from certain quarters on this forum…

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Welcome here on the forum. Nice to have someone with a broader view of the world who can help correct the worst misperceptions of all things “foreign” that some forum members appears to harbour.

There is another thread here about serving on foreign ships. Maybe you can help explaining some of the many intricacies there appears to be for Americans to do so?

Hope you get to call at Hammerfest at this time of the year, with the sun shining day and night (weather permitting) and reindeers with their newborn calves grazing in people’s gardens.

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We did let Kongsberg know. Their attitude was well it is the Kongsberg system take or leave it. They seem to be a bit arrogant. Like we have the market share and we are the best so you will have to accept what we give you. They really didn’t care what the user has to say.

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Everybody has their special idiosyncracies. “Foreign ships” is a broad term. To the rusty foreign flagged bulker with a crew that doesn’t give half of a shit working for a company that gives half of THAT shit, and calling to the US with nothing tested or operational, thats one thing, and I fully agree with how American mariners feel about that. But for a decent foreign company with a straight set crew, they try as hard, and are just as educated, as anybody else.
Americans definitely have more of a sea sense than most of the Europeans and Asians (maybe equal to the Norwegians), we more or less grow up around the sea. Compare that to the russians/indians/filipinos who get their license, and the ship is the first boat they have ever driven in their life.
Kongsberg is Kongsberg. Their fortune is made in the military sector. Their shipboard automation is definitely top notch, but their ECDIS is the worst thing on the planet (whoever designed their night palette has never been on a bridge at night), and their service has not the best.
Hammerfest would be ok this time of year, the bottom at the anchorage is blanketed in massive king crabs and 10-20lb cod

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CSC_8066.jpg3986×2241 2.23 MB

Happens in the Blue Mountains too.

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Slight correction if I may -There are completely 7,107 islands in the Philippines including the small islands and the half-island.
I was working with Philippines for 22 years and they are very good mariners.

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Maybe Kongsberg has grown too big to follow the pattern of smaller Norwegian companies when it comes to listening to their customers and end users?
Did you contact their Norwegian HQ: [quote]Main contact
Phone: +47 32 28 50 00
Email: km.sales@kongsberg.com[/quote]
Or one of their local US offices??

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Oslo and Singapore is competing for the position as the most complete Shipping Hub in the world: http://splash247.com/finance-case-oslo/

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Both the Norwegian office and the one in New Orleans. After a short time, it wasn’t worth the hassle to keep chasing this. The ECDIS we got is the one that we are stuck with. All the contact with them wasn’t going to change this fact. We will adapt and improvise.

I think you are correct that they have become to big. One might even call it arrogance. It is fine, somebody else will come along and do cheaper and better at some point. It will probably be the Chinese.

1 Like
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On a different subject; why is Norway of all countries, so interested in Electric cars??
Here is a video from PBS in America that may help to explain it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE6yEP48anM

It still doesn’t make sense. After all, Norway is a major oil & gas exporter and if electric cars, busses, trucks and all manners of other consumers of fossil fuel is replaced with electric powered units, that is bad for the oil price, the economy and bad for jobs, right??
So says Donald Trump anyhow, but not everybody appears to agree with him, incl. most Europeans and Chinese, who see this as something creating jobs and growing the economy.
Besides it may save the Bayous from disappearing below the waves and major coastal cities around the world from having to build dikes and become like the Dutch, living below sea level.

So why are the Norwegian so stoopid and what is the logic in investing billions on exploring for oil and gas in the Arctic, while you try to kill your own market by investing in wind farms and solar power development all over the world?? Beats me, but maybe we should ask Trump what is the logic behind his ideas.
Maybe he knows something nobody else do, or maybe he saw something on Fox News about it??

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I am totally comfortable with Chi-Coms and Europeans not agreeing with our president.

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You care to elaborate. Which side of the argument are you on??

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I’m on which ever side of the argument Fox News tells me to be on this week.

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For the time being the electric cars, most people donot realize this, run indirectly, for still a long period, on one of the products of crude oil as the present power plants need that as fuel to generate electricity. Well, Norway comes a long way with their natural hydropower. An big advantage of electric cars is of course that urban pollution is so much lower.

I think that it is wise to invest in oil and gas exploration as particularly oil is pure gold, also in the future, in the sense of all the products that are made/distilled out of it. Here is a partial list of 144 products out of 6000 that are made from petroleum.

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You’r in good (or BAD??) company then. Maybe you are Tweeting about it too?