Maine Sea Captain attends Labor Mural Protest

"History of Maine Labor" mural (link to artist website with view of mural)

If you want to support the artists involved, here is the link "Saving the "History of Maine Labor" mural 

Will the Village People Dancing exec face charges?

Deepwater Horizon on fire - USCG Photo 

When I saw this headline: Report: Feds may charge BP execs with seaman's manslaughter my first thought was: 'good' -but then I though I don't really know the facts, I can't say one way of the other if BP execs deserve charges of seaman's manslaughter.  Then I remembered this article:

Shifting Procedures Upset BP's Rig Team

According to the article:

Just days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, the onshore BP PLC manager in charge of the drilling rig warned his supervisor that last-minute procedural changes were creating "chaos" on the rig.

The crew is drilling what has turned into a troublesome well in water almost a mile deep.

The shoreside director wrote to his boss:

"The operation is not going to succeed if we continue in this manner," wrote John Guide, who directed the Deepwater Horizon's operations from BP's Houston offices.

The answer:

His supervisor, David Sims, told him to tell rig workers "to hang in there." Then Mr. Sims signed off to attend a dance practice, promising to call later in the day: "We're dancing to the Village People!" he wrote.

Hang in there? Dancing?  - so yes, they need to explain this to a judge.

K.C.

Best Movie Captain

Jürgen Prochnow Old Salt Blog reports that Tom Hanks has been picked to play Capt. Phillips in a movie A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea,

Tom Hanks?  The best no-nonsense movie captain  is  Jürgen Prochnow, the actor who portrayed the captain on Das Boot

K.C.

Good source of info on Japan nuclear incident

There is a good table concerning the ongoing nuclear incident in Japan (Wikipedia), it  is being contiously updated,   the full article Fukushima I nuclear accidents is here .


For information about units used to measure human exposure to radiation - this article has a good summary. About the atomic crisis in Japan – background information and reliable news sources From the site Fabius Maximus


K.C.

Your Kennebec River Ice house - move it or lose it.

CG Cutter Shackle (USCG Photo)  

AUGUSTA, Maine—The Coast Guard is warning ice fishermen to move their ice shacks from the Kennebec River as it prepares for its springtime ritual of breaking the river ice.

From Coast Guard ready to break Ice

K.C.

Fire on the Horizon - A review

Fire on the Horizon by gcaptain's John Konrad and Tom Shroder of Washington Post Magazine tells the story of the  semi-submersible offshore  drilling ship the  Deepwater Horizon  and, importantly, the story of it's crew. The book weaves together  technical and  personal details creating context for events as they unfold towards the explosion which resulted in the deaths of eleven crew and the loss of drill ship.

The book gives a good overview of the world of off-shore drilling as well as the details necessary to understand the incident. For me it was like finally getting the story from a trusted source after months of gossip and rumors for uninformed sources.



I was especially interested in the flooding incident the Deepwater Horizon suffered in 2008 which illustrated how dependent rig operators  are upon complex instrumentation and how little interest regulators had in a very serious near-miss.  Konrad details   BP's  obsessive focus on  worker safety while seemingly missing  the big picture of a crew nearing it's breaking point attempting to deal with the difficulties  of drilling the Macondo well.


Fire on the Horizon is a page-turner.  I recommend it  to anyone seeking to understand events leading  to the incident which resulted  in massive ecological damage  to the Gulf of Mexico and changed forever the lives of the crew of the  Deepwater Horizon and  the lives of the  families connected to them.


K.C.