by Klaus Luhta | Oct 31, 2012 | maritime news, maritime private security
As the Department of Defense faces looming budget cuts, the various branches of the military must be scrambling to assure the administration as to the efficacy of their various programs. The service provided during war time it is clear and higher military spending is...
by Klaus Luhta | Jul 26, 2012 | maritime news, maritime politics
If you are looking for some licentious and lascivious reading relating to shipping, look no further than the Paris MOU list of vessel registry rankings. The greatest obscenity of the rankings is the United States demotion from the white list to the gray list. At...
by Klaus Luhta | May 21, 2012 | maritime news
I had the privilege recently to visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England and see firsthand not only the demarcation of 0° longitude, known as the Prime Meridian or the Greenwich Meridian, but also John Harrison’ s revolutionary timepieces. This visit is a...
by Klaus Luhta | Apr 3, 2012 | maritime news, maritime politics
If you peruse news outlets and the internet you may notice a growing number of articles and blog posts denouncing the Jones Act, concluding that it causes high gasoline prices. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) even recently introduced legislative amendments that would...
by Klaus Luhta | Mar 2, 2012 | maritime news, maritime politics
The annual Great Lakes Waterways Conference, themed, “Recovery, Renewal & Reinvestment 2012,” was held during the last week of February in Cleveland, Ohio. Various industry experts from both Canada and the United States attended and participated in roundtable...
by Klaus Luhta | Jan 24, 2012 | maritime disasters, maritime news
One of my first shipping assignments out of school was aboard a break bulk cargo vessel bound for Thule, Greenland. The neat thing about that run are the massive icebergs as you get closer to the Arctic Circle. But the bergs can also be the most devastating thing...
by Klaus Luhta | Jan 11, 2012 | maritime disasters, maritime news
Has the concept of fatigue simply become a buzzword for criminalized mariners when they are forced to defend themselves against punitive Coast Guard investigations? Or is the idea of fatigue legitimate? In this modern age and with all the studies that have been...
by Klaus Luhta | Dec 13, 2011 | maritime news, maritime politics, maritime private security
Cynicism runs rampant through our federal government. It is contagious and spreads to those who have any regular interaction with government employees and personnel. It is almost a form of communication unto itself, a learned vernacular of the trade. Taking into...
by Klaus Luhta | Nov 17, 2011 | maritime news, maritime piracy, maritime private security
This Bloomberg Businessweek article details the advent of convoys-for-hire as a new protective service for merchant vessels transiting the High Risk Area off the coast of Somalia. This new service brings to mind a few serious concerns. The primary concern is one of...
