I have had the dateline to get a head start on recovering from the excess of daughters Christmas lunch. The statistics used in Mr Grabow are irrefutable. The European shipbuilders focused on what they were good at: cruise ships, offshore ships of specialist designs and ferries.
To outsiders articulated tug and barges and wire tug and barges are an abomination over a certain distance and certainly during the winter months at higher latitudes. I have long been an admirer of waterborne trade in US Inland waters.
The skills required of ship’s crews 60 years ago are no longer required by crews of today to move most cargo apart from specialist lifts.
The question of sharing foxholes among Allies might have been answered during WWII.
The Texaco Bombay was hit by a unexploded rocket which lodged in the electrician’s bathroom steaming up the Saigon River with avgas for US Forces during the Vietnam War. The complement, British officers + one Kiwi and Indian crew.
Skills 60 years ago.
Crew splice wire, Liverpool salvage and Admiralty for survey. clean hatches, brine bilges , repair and sew new hatch covers, general maintenance including at height on stages and bosun’s chairs. Strip down derricks and prepare for survey.
Deck Officers conversant with all types of cargo. Carriage temperature for different commodities and ventilation requirements. Grain calculations for stability, deep tank use for tallow etc. Repair of items such as gas detection and calibration. Yes this is hard to accept these days but we used to replace components in MSA meters and test them with a control gas. Heavy lifts (OK these were less than 200 Tonnes).
Navigation without position finding equipment except a dodgy radar and an even dodgier DF . On some ships no gyro.
Engineer Officers were all tradesman machinists with a 4 year apprenticeship and to get accepted for employment had to be employed in a heavy machine shop preferably involved in ship repair or building before obtaining. a 3rd engineers qualification.
The machinery required a lot more maintenance than today.
The master and chief engineer were more isolated from the office and had to make a lot more decisions on their own.
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