Tug World Review 2010 Dawn Gorman (Ed)
The latest edition of the Tug World Review contains details of 34 new vessels delivered during 2010, and there are some ground-breaking designs among them.
First up is the revolutionary BRAtt training tug, which many of us were lucky enough to visit during ITS Vancouver, but the publication is wide-ranging, and workboats, tugs, offshore vessels and ETVs are all included. The publishers generally stick to the tried and tested format of a double page spread, with an outline drawing on one page and a photograph and description opposite. This makes the publication easy to use and very informative.
There is also a Preface by Dawn Gorman, and the traditional review of the news for the year, which is worthy of study by anyone even remotely interested in our industry.
Over time, these books build into a fascinating record of the evolution of tug design. It is easy enough to detect the increasing power of modern tugs, but it is also fun to trace the fortunes of various propulsion systems and configurations, and to see just how much innovation goes on in our business.
Subscribers to International Tug & Salvage magazine and members of the ITS Club receive a copy automatically as part of their subscription, which is one more reason for signing up, but copies are also available from the publishers. Vital reading for anyone interested in the world of tugs.

Tug Use In Port. A Practical Guide
Second Edition.
Capt. Henk Hensen FNI FITA. London. The Nautical Institute. 2003.

This book is so well-known it hardly needs any introduction. Since the first edition was published in 1997 it has become the standard work on the subject of harbour towage. Henk Hensen contacted tug operators in dozens of countries when researching the book, and it is wide ranging and full of excellent photographs and diagrams as a result.

He covers design factors, tug types, towing methods and the capabilities and limitations of each tug type before looking at bollard pull requirements, interaction and safety. There is a detailed section on towing equipment, and chapters on simulation, training, escort towage and recent developments. He includes rotor tugs, carrousel tugs and ship docking modules, so the book is an up-to-date guide to all aspects of harbour towage.

This is the definitive work on the subject, and should be on every tug and in every office ashore. Simply brilliant!

Celestial Navigation
Tom Cunliffe
Wiley Nautical. Chichester. 2010.
My only complaint about this book is that is was written 41 years too late. I wish it had been available when I was struggling with the complexities of celestial navigation for the first time.
This is not an academic text book with long sections on the haversine formula or longitude by chronometer, so it will not be the only book you need to pass your certificate of competency, but it is a practical guide to navigating using the sun, moon, stars and planets and it is the best such book I have seen. The diagrams are clear and simple, and the explanations are all concise and understandable.
The author begins by introducing the earth and heavens, then describes the sextant and how to correct it and care for it. He then moves on to noon sights, time, position lines, the Nautical Almanac, and sights using the various heavenly bodies and the Sight Reduction Tables. Brief sections on compass checking and great circle and composite sailings complete the book.
There are worked examples throughout, and some useful pro forma sheets for taking the different sights. Like other Wiley books, there are online tutorials and calculation sheets which the buyer can access. And all this for a mere £11.99.  Excellent!

Rats, Rust & Two Old Ladies
David Creamer
Whittles Publishing. Dunbeath. 2008.
Captain Creamer started his seagoing career in HMS Worcester before spending many years with Bibby Line. More recently, he became a delivery master, and in 2003 he accepted the task of delivering two 38-year-old former Mississippi river tugs from Bahrain to Trinidad. He thought it would be a unique experience, and took the job even after his employers warned him that conditions on board were ‘primitive’.
In the event, ‘primitive’ was an understatement. It took many days of hard work in Bahrain to make the vessels even vaguely habitable – which explains the rats and rust in the title of this excellent and entertaining book.
But the problems of preparing for sea were nothing compared to the problems experienced once the vessels sailed. On their passage in company out of the Arabian Gulf, through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, then on through the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic, they experienced a series of disasters which would have turned lesser men into gibbering lunatics. They had to survive fire, flooding, contaminated water and fuel, blackouts and lavatorial blowbacks of epic proportions. Within sight of their destination, there was even an explosion.
Now this was not very funny at the time, but the author turns the experience into a book which is both amusing and page-turning. The reader can hardly wait for the next disaster!
Underlying everything, of course, is the knowledge that the crews involved were serious professionals who found themselves in a series of daunting situations and rose to the challenge every time. Even the daily routine would have defeated most of us – six hour watches in hand steering, without a rudder indicator, for weeks on end are just one example. To find out what other challenges they faced, you will just have to buy the book. We are sure you will enjoy it. If you can overcome your reservations that the author goes to sea with his teddy bears, and constantly calls the tugs ‘tugboats’, then you are in for a real treat. Highly recommended.

Tug Use Offshore in Bays and Rivers
The Towmaster's Manual

Capt George & Grant Livingstone
ITS Club Discount Available of 10%
This book sets out to document the practices which are used to handle tug barge systems in port and at sea. The main focus concerns operations on the West coast of the USA and Canada. However the hard lessons learnt there will transfer into other areas around the world so making this book a valuable source of reference for tug operators generally. This book includes the new certificate standards required by the USCG and also the results of a major study into bridge collisions in American rivers. The main chapters cover: Boat handling; Towing equipment; Ocean towing; Towing and manoeuvring barges in harbours, bays and rivers; Towing close astern; Multiple barge towing; Special tows and disabled ships; Flat towing/dead ship movements; Pivot point; Watch standing priorities; Command; Conclusion.

Ship Efficiency : The Guide
Peter Lockley and Alison Jarabo-Martin (Eds)
Fathom. Windsor. 2011.

This brand new book is a timely addition to the maritime canon. Subtitled A comprehensive guide to ship eco-efficiency technologies and measures, it is a wide-ranging survey of the latest eco ideas and products for ship design, propulsion, machinery and scrubbers, and offers sections on operational and technological strategies.
Topics include optimising ballast and trim, hull forms, aerodynamics, propellors, kites and sails, batteries and fuel cells, biofuels, solar power, waste heat recovery, weather routing, slow steamimg, energy saving awareness and hull coatings, to name just a few.
In a thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction, the editors highlight some of the problems facing our industry and express the hope that the Guide will  ‘help the industry to strive even harder after efficiency’. They then include articles by Lloyd’s Register on the outlook for shipping,  BIMCO on emission regulations and MARIN on making decisions about energy saving devices, before plunging into the body of the work.
Most of the text comprises descriptions of the various products and technologies, with the efficiencies claimed for each. This could easily become simple advertising, but it is saved from such a fate by the editors, who insert Fathom comments at regular intervals. These can be brutally honest at times (‘A proven product, but little savings potential’) and do not appear to have been written to please the manufacturers.
One sector of which this reviewer has direct experience is the solar power field, and I found the information in that section to be accurate and up-to-date, so the editors appear to have done their homework.
Tug men may note the lack of information on hybrid propulsion systems, since there are so many hybrid tugs in operation today, but there is a section on hybrid auxiliary power, so the topic is not entirely ignored. Other than that, the book appears to be a comprehensive audit of the available technology and contains a useful glossary listing all the manufacturers.
This book deserves a place in every technical department, and is well worth a look by anyone who cares about the environment or the image of our industry.

Towing Manual. Offshore and Ocean Towage with related shipping matters and opinions.
Jan ter Haar. Netherlands. STC-Group. 2010.

This volume sets out to do for seagoing towage what Henk Hensen did for harbour towage, and it deserves to become a success.
Jan ten Haar begins by describing the purpose of seagoing tugs and their construction, and explains the purpose and evolution of many of the design features. There is an excellent section on winches and towing hooks, followed by propulsion systems, fire fighting and pollution response.
The author then turns to towing equipment and looks at wires, pennants, shackles, stretchers and towing sleeves, gog ropes and stoppers.  He goes on to describe pre-tow procedures and includes clear diagrams of various towing arrangements and the use of emergency towing gear. An excellent chapter with clear diagrams covers getting a tow under way and controlling it at sea, and there are sections on heaving to, transferring the tow, and even methods of bunkering from the tow.
He then has sections on escort towing, anchor chasing and stability before discussing towing contracts. Then the final third of the book contains a series of appendices including the IMO Guidelines for Safe Ocean Towing and technical papers about modern tug designs. The cover pages of a number of typical contracts are also included.
The author has relied mostly upon sources and examples from northern Europe, and I feel the book would have benefited from more international coverage. There are also sections where the experienced tugmaster will want more information than this volume provides. However, this is an excellent effort, and I am sure it will find its way into many tug offices. It will be an invaluable tool for junior managers and officers embarking upon careers in towage, but I would like to see the author produce an Advanced Towing Manual to augment the excellent start he has made.

Collisions And Their Causes Capt. R A Cahill MBA FNI
The first page of the late Captain Cahill’s master work contains the homily “A superior seaman uses his superior skills to keep out of situations requiring his superior skills”. I suppose this is true, but any officer who has stood a navigational watch will surely recognise the scrotum-tightening moment when he realised he had not managed to keep out of a situation requiring his superior skills, and the feeling, akin to panic, which caused him to break out in a cold sweat as he frantically sought to bring the situation under control.
This book is horribly fascinating, because many of us will be able to identify with unfortunate officers who, often through a series of minor oversights or misjudgements, ended up featuring in a book about collisions.
The author chooses important cases which have been the source of significant legal judgements, but he also cites a number of less well-known collisions to demonstrate that mariners have a habit of repeating the mistakes of others. He deals with numerous cases of restricted visibility, crossing situations, overtaking, narrow channels, and cases where the improper use of VHF contributed. He also has a chapter on collisions with tows, and another on interaction, which will be of particular interest to ITA members.
There is also an interesting and detailed section on how the author recreated some collisions where the statements of the witnesses were unreliable. He is far too polite to say they were telling lies……
The new edition of the book by The Nautical Institute highlights the author’s more important conclusions and statements in boxes in the text, and some are real gems:
“It appears that those in charge on both vessels were oblivious to the danger until the vessels collided. This can only have been due to an extremely bad lookout”.
“She considered herself a stand-on ship when she was not, and that was a fault that most decidedly contributed to the collision”.
“Part of the proper conduct of seamanship is to make allowances for the possible unseamanlike conduct of other mariners”.
Unfortunately, the author also includes his views on the conduct of tugs, as follows:
“The individual conning a tug does not have to possess the qualifications required by a sea going vessel. His knowledge of the Collision Regulations may be lacking and his experience may be woefully inadequate”.
It is up to all of us to prove that Capt. Cahill was wrong on that point, and a careful study of his book will help us all to be better watch keepers and less ‘woefully inadequate’ mariners.
This is a book which should be studied and discussed by all bridge watch keepers on ALL vessels.
In his will Capt. Cahill asked Capt. A N Cockcroft to supervise future revisions of the work, and Capt. Cockcroft has added a chapter citing some recent cases. There can be no better man to continue this important work.
If we have a complaint, it is that the first edition published by Fairplay contained a number of typos and some vessel names were transposed when describing collisions - the actions of vessel A were assigned to vessel B and vice versa.
These typos were not corrected in the second edition, published by Nautical Books of Texas, and they have slipped through in the new Nautical Institute edition as well. Let us hope for a more careful proof reading before the next edition, because this book deserves to be around for a very long time.

The Mariner’s Role in Collecting Evidence - Handbook
A guide to good practice
North of England P&I Association. London. The Nautical Institute. 2010.
This small volume is packed with a great deal of useful information. Intended as a companion volume to the third edition of The Mariner’s Role in Collecting Evidence - In Light of the ISM Code, it can also stand alone as a vital addition to the bookshelf of every tug.
Starting with some useful pointers on collecting and preserving factual evidence, the sections which follow contain basic notes about each situation, then a comprehensive checklist to remind the mariner what he should be doing.
The structure is logical, starting with basic evidence required for almost all incidents, then building up lists for incidents involving people, cargo, the ship, hull and machinery and finally commercial disputes.
The book is easy to read, the content is clear, and the authors have done an excellent job of producing a volume which will be referred to again and again by mariners in these increasingly troubled times. It is destined to become a standard work.

Chronometer Jack : The Autobiography of the Shipmaster John Miller of Edinburgh (1802 - 1883).

Robin Craig, Ann Nix and Michael Nix (Eds).  Whittles Publishing. Dunbeath. (2008).

At the age of 72, John Miller took up a notebook and wrote an account of his life for his family. The notebook was found many years later and recognised as an important contribution to our knowledge of the period, so it was edited for publication.
It tells of Miller’s apprenticeship, his rise through the ranks to command, his travels, business ventures and eventual career with HM Coastguard.
He lived a remarkable life, and he describes numerous adventures including calls at St. Helena when Napoleon was imprisoned there and after his death, opium smuggling in the Pearl River delta, his dealings with Matheson (of Jardine Mathieson fame), and visits to Australia when it was an infant colony. He and his wife lived for a time in Launceston, where escaped convicts presented occasional problems, and he became a ship owner.
After making and losing fortunes (and ships) Miller returned to Britain, where he became a coastguard commander and enjoyed a long career mainly on the NE coast.
Among the adventures he recounts are his voyages with the East India Company, and a later trip where he visited Washington DC while it was still under construction. He found the White House to be ‘shabby’. He was also kidnapped near Macau while involved in opium smuggling, but ransomed for $50 - the intermediaries were supposed to demand $2000, but they were only poor villagers, so they accepted the first offer which was made by the captain of the rescue vessel.
All this is told with humour and great gusto, which makes Chronometer Jack an excellent read, particularly for anyone with seafaring links to Australia, India or the Far East. And to discover the origin of the author’s nickname, you will have to read the book.

By Captain Jeff Slesinger
Cornell Maritime Press, 2010  [ISBN: 978-0-87033-617-1]

Piracy
The complete history
Angus Konstam
prey Publishing. Oxford. 2008.

This excellent book traces the history of piracy from Egyptian times to the present day. It includes the Viking raiders, Barbary corsairs, the era of the Elizabethan privateers, the so-called ‘golden age’ of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd and Western encounters with pirates in the Far East, before concluding at the dawn of the present century.
Konstam is an authority on the subject, and he writes well, so we have no hesitation in recommending this book to members. If it has a weakness, it is simply that the subject is so vast that the author cannot cover everything in detail - we would have liked to see more about piracy on the China coast in the first half of the twentieth century, for example.
This is a minor criticism, and the book is well worth reading. Konstam is particularly good at demonstrating what squalid people most of them were, and what a vicious business it is.

Zeebrugge
Eleven VCs before breakfast
Barrie Pitt
Cassell Military Paperbacks. Cassell. London. 2003.

This superb book was first published in 1958, and tells the story of the raid on Zeebrugge during the First World War. The raid was intended to block the canal mouth in the port area, because it was a major route for German submarines which were starting to decimate Allied shipping.
The coast was heavily defended, so it was almost a suicide mission, but when Admiral Keyes started looking for volunteers he had to turn people away. And his band of volunteers showed their worth when they went in with block ships after midnight, and had won eleven VCs, 21 DSOs and 29 DSCs before they pulled out at breakfast time. Only at Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War have so many VCs been won in a single action.
The author considers claims that the raid was a failure, but shows that it did disrupt submarine traffic and, more importantly, gave a boost to morale at home while restoring people‘s faith in the Royal Navy.
We do not normally review naval history, but this book contains a salvage aspect as well. When the planners under Keyes needed to know how to sink the blockships and make them difficult to remove, they called in salvage professionals to advise them. In our opinion, the book would have been even better if this aspect had been covered in more detail, but it is still a splendid read.

A Guide To The Collision Avoidance Rules
A N Cockcroft and J N F Lameijer Butterworth-Heinemann. Oxford. 2008.

This book should really need no introduction, and should be on the bridge of every vessel afloat. It has been published continuously since 1965 and is described as ‘the classic text for all who need to, practically and legally, understand and comply with the Rules’.
This is more than just the publisher’s blurb. The book is indeed a clear exposition of the Rules and how they should be implemented by the officer of the watch, but it also highlights a number of important court judgements to demonstrate how they are interpreted legally.
The authors write in plain language, with clear diagrams where necessary, so the book is easy to understand, and the structure is straightforward - they simply quote each rule in turn, and comment upon it with cogent examples.
There is also a section of colour pages depicting navigation lights, an extract from STCW about watchkeeping, and some very useful tables about manoeuvring and the effectiveness of certain alterations of course.
The importance of the book was clearly demonstrated to your reviewer when he was involved in a major court case concerning a collision. Upon opening his copy to check a particular point, he noticed several Ukranians seated nearby doing the same thing. Their book seemed familiar and, sure enough, it turned out to be the Russian version of Cockcroft and Lameijer.
Don’t leave home without it!

Slaver Captain
John Newton
Edited and with an Introduction by Vincent McInerney
Seafarers’ Voices. Seaforth Publishing. Barnsley. 2010.
Seafarers’ Voices is a series of first-hand accounts of seafaring through the ages. Each is abridged and edited for a modern readership, and if this volume is typical, then it will be an excellent series.
John Newton was a bad lad. Pressed into the Royal Navy, he secured a Midshipman’s berth due to his father’s influence, but was flogged for insubordination and reduced to the ranks. He was then placed in service on a slave ship, but he upset the Captain and was put ashore in Sierra Leone, where he became a virtual slave of his employer’s wife, who treated him very badly. He was finally rescued, but on the voyage home the ship was almost lost in a storm, and young John became religious.
Sadly, his conversion to Christianity and his own experience as a slave did not stop him becoming captain of slaving vessels. Only later did he join the abolitionist camp, and attempt to become an Anglican clergyman – almost impossible for a man who did not attend university or enjoy a classical education. Nonetheless, he succeeded, and today he is best remembered as the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace.
The book is divided into three sections. First he writes a well-argued account of the evils of slavery, then an account of his life at sea. Finally, the full text of Amazing Grace is included. Having read the book, the reader will find a new significance to those famous words.
Fascinating!

Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex
Owen Chase
Pimlico. London. 2000.
In 1820 in the Pacific Ocean, midway between the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands, the Nantucket whaler Essex encountered a pod of sperm whales and sent her boats after them. Three whales had been harpooned when a large member of the group, measuring more than 30 metres, broke away and headed for the Essex.
Twice the whale rammed the ship from ahead, and the combined speeds of the whale and the whaler ensured that massive damage resulted. The ship foundered two days later, and the crew of 20 were left in three lightly-built whaleboats with only the small quantity of food and water they could carry.
The nearest islands were to the south west, but the crew were afraid of being eaten by cannibals, so they decided to sail south in search of a favourable wind to carry them to the coast of Chile. Their voyage was to last for three months.
They landed at Henderson Island, where there was no reliable source of food and water so, although three men decided to stay and try their luck, the boats pressed on. They became separated in a storm, and the Second Mate’s boat was never seen again.
In the Captain’s boat, they eventually resorted to drawing lots and shooting and eating the unfortunate man who drew the short straw, while in The Chief Mate’s boat, they only ate those crew members who dies naturally. Both boats were eventually spotted by different whalers as they approached the coast, and the five survivors were landed at Valparaiso. A rescue vessel picked up the three men from Henderson Island.
Perhaps the supreme irony is that the islands which the survivors avoided had already been converted to Christianity, so they would have been in no danger from cannibals. Instead, to avoid the non-existent threat, they became cannibals themselves.
Owen Chase was the Chief Mate, and he later wrote this account for publication. It was used by Herman Melville as the inspiration for Moby Dick, and also inspired a story by Edgar Allan Poe. The narrative is fast-paced and very engrossing, and anyone who is irritated by all the digressions into science and philosophy in Moby Dick will find this much more readable. It is augmented by a pamphlet containing the Master’s account of his voyage, and a facsimile of Melville’s hand-written notes on the book.
Owen Chase went back to sea and commanded whalers for many years, while his captain lost another ship on his very next voyage and ended his days as a night watchman in Nantucket.This is a fascinating book, and is sure to be of interest to all mariners.

Landsman Hay
Robert Hay
Edited and with an introduction by Vincent McInerney
Seafarers’ Voices. Seaforth Publishing. Barnsley. 2010.

In 1803, aged only 14, Robert Hay ran away from home and joined the Royal Navy. He became a boy servant to a number of officers, most of whom helped him with his education and treated him well. However, he did not enjoy the conditions on board and the only reason he did not jump ship was his fear of the severe punishment if he was recaptured.
He saw service in India and spent several months in hospital with an injured foot before he returned to England. His next ship was wrecked in Plymouth Sound shortly after he joined, and in the confusion of getting everyone safely ashore, he did manage to desert. Unfortunately, he was taken by a press gang and, terrified of being identified and punished, he escaped again and eventually made it home to Scotland.
This is a good story, well told, and is laced with humour throughout. For example, when describing his wife he says “She possessed then neither beauty nor fortune, but as I myself possessed neither, I had no reason to complain”.
Another fascinating memoir from Seaforth, and ITA members are encouraged to write their memoirs now for publication in the next century!

Knox-Johnston on Sailing
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
Wiley Nautical. Chichester. 2010.
This is a compilation of the author’s columns for Yachting World magazine, and covers a wide range of subject matter, from his early days as a deck officer in the Merchant Navy to becoming the first person to sail solo and non-stop around the world, and on to his more recent exploits. These include another solo circumnavigation in a modern yacht at the age of 68, so he shows no sign of slowing down.
He writes entertainingly and well, but as a professional mariner he also writes with a great deal of common sense and insight, so his opinions are always worth reading. And unlike many yachtsmen who write about their adventures, one cannot imagine Knox-Johnston ignoring safety, or setting out without his navigation lights. When he faces problems at sea, he always deals with them in a seamanlike manner and the risks he takes are always calculated risks.
The blurb describes the author as Britain’s greatest living sailor, and I remember, as a first-trip cadet, hearing the news that he had brought Suhaili safely home at the end of his record-breaking circumnavigation. The fact that he was one of us meant we considered him a hero even then, and his subsequent adventures did nothing to change our minds. This is a book that I think all members will enjoy, and a man we can all admire.
Only one thing left me disappointed, and that is that Sir Robin does not give sufficient explanation of why he thinks a single-handed yachtsman can keep a good lookout at all times as required by the collision regulations, especially when he criticises another vessel for not doing so and almost running him down. Perhaps he will expand upon the topic in a future column. In the meantime, readers cannot fail to enjoy this excellent book.

Life of a Sailor
Frederick Chamier
Edited and with an introduction by Vincent McInerney
Seafarers’ Voices. Seaforth Publishing. Barnsley. 2011.
Frederick Chamier was a conteporary of Captain Marryat, and also wrote novels of the sea. For many years, this work was thought to be fictional, but recent research has proved it to be an accurate memoir of his naval service.
The work was also unpopular with the authorities because it showed sympathy for the Americans who resisted the British in the War of 1812. When describing his first action in the war, he mentions American militiamen who were “guilty of the unnatural sin of protecting their own country”. This did not make him popular with the British government and their supporters.
Chamier went to sea in 1809, long after the Napoleonic wars and the glorious days of Nelson, but he saw plenty of action and enjoyed a varied career which he recounts with gusto. He is not politically correct, and the modern reader will wince at his assertion that slaves were better off than their free African ancestors, but he is at least honest. Approaching Mexico City he writes “Mexico City was before us – with an air of insignificance beyond all imagination”.
He became a friend of Lord Byron when the poet was travelling in the Mediterranean, and visited the ruins of Troy with him. He also recounts the story of a captain who fell in love with an Italian lady and appears to have been driven mad with longing for her. This captain even refused orders to join the fleet for the attack on Algiers, preferring to stay close to his paramour. When he was finally ordered to face an enquiry into his conduct, he cut his own throat.
The book is highly readable, opinionated, and exciting at times, and is recommended to anyone interested in maritime history.