Surely NOT again! Would be a first thought for Iranians of a certain age.Those, for example, who lived through the previous civil unrest of forty years ago. For then it was protests against the secular leadership of the Shah Reza Pahlavi which crushed his leadership and brought in the religious theocracy of the Islamic clerics.The Shah eventually fled Iran, but not…
‘A tenuous link’ seems the right phrase: how else could you call a merchant ship British – a ship built in south-east China, its owner, Stena Bulk, a Swedish company, and its all non-British crew of Latvians, Indians and Filipinos recruited by a subsidiary of the aforementioned Stena Bulk.True, the recruitment agency (Northern Marine), is based in Clydeside no doubt employing Scottish workers, but as far as research goes…
This four-day event sponsored by the Royal United Services defence and security arm – a military think-tank – started on May 15 and was attended by the usual top brass of admirals and captains, the aim of which was to ‘test whether apparent change in naval national strategy is by default or design.’ (1)Quite a mouthful, but a statement I understood referred to is whether…
A Jimmy Cagney lookalike in baseball cap and plaid shirt, the Mississippi river pilot was quite opinionated of American society: “too many Jews and African-Americans in government” he proclaimed as the ship swung ten degrees port up river to New Orleans.I thought: oh! dear, is this the type of prejudiced society I half-expected it to be? By the way, for those fortunate…
As the ship passed the Cape Hatteras lighthouse off North Carolina it was the deck cadet who spoke first: ” I’ve been here before”, he proclaimed.No-one answered until the lighthouse beam flashed, casting an eerie shadow inside the wheelhouse.”Yes, me also” replied the skipper
The first time I saw the circling speedboats from a distance of three nautical miles, I realised a ship was under attack. For this was the Gulf ‘tanker war’, part of a lesser- known conflict precedingthe 1990 Gulf War. At this time the Iraq-Iran conflict had been raging since 1980, it’s territorial losses and gains changed monthly. This stalemate prompted attacks on ships by both belligerents,…