gCaptain.com

1. Who developed this coating?
a. Northeast Maritime Institute in Fairhaven, MA USA has an engineering group under its sister company Transportation Security Logistics. This group worked to solve a problem of splash proofing and water proofing a man overboard system. This coating evolved out of that product and the need to make the device work when exposed to water.

2. What is Northeast Maritime Institute?
a. The Northeast Maritime Institute is an educational facility for mariners. The Institute’s creed is to Honor the Mariner. We expect that this process will help to keep mariners safe.

3. Where is the process currently performed?
a. The process is currently performed in our laboratory in Fairhaven, MA. The lab has the ability to perform coating in small volume exists in this facility.

4. Can a camera be coated?
a. There is no reason a camera would not be able to be coated but it does have challenges that make it different then some other electronic items. We’re currently looking at the optics and how they’ll be handled, also there are some small moving parts that we’ll have to consider.

5. Were there other reasons this product was developed?
a. Like many people we’ve had our own phones drop into water. After Skiing one of the inventors managed to wash two of his daughter’s cell phones. That drove him to want to find a coating that would prevent this problem.

6. Can I get specific answers to my individual questions.
a. Yes, subscribe to the newsletter and we’ll contact you to see if you have questions.

7. When will this process be available to the public?
a. We can provide the process now, but we need to set up the distribution system and regionalize the process. The availability is measured in months and we expect that it will be 4-6 months before we can say we’re fully on line. We’ll update the website on how we can do it sooner.

8. What’s your favorite thing you’ve coated so far?
a. We had lots of fun coating a 100W speaker and blasting some country music in the 5 gallon bucket.

9. What aspects confuse people most about this process:
a. People get confused and think this is a spray. It isn’t, the coating needs to be applied in a piece of equipment.
b. People seem to wonder a lot about the contacts and how they’re sealed. The contacts aren’t, the surfaces are sealed. So, water can run in and out.

10. Why haven’t you coated any cameras?
a. We’ve been researching the cameras and the best way to handle the lenses and shutters. We’ll be coating some digital cameras soon.

11. How do I stay informed about new developments?
a Keep an eye on our homepage, follow us on twitter or bookmark gCaptain’s Golden Shellback section.

Mental Floss brings us “Ship Happens - 10 Things To Know Before Boarding an “Unsinkable” Ship“:

So, on that note, today is the 96th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Yes, we all know about Jack and Rose and their brief-but-intense relationship aboard the ship, but which details did James Cameron get right, which did he exaggerate and what did he leave out altogether? Below are 10 things you may not know about the real Titanic.

Read the full article HERE then head over and buy the official “Ship Happens” t-shirt HERE. While you have the credit card out… might as well pick up a gCaptain t-shirt!

While not quite the payday other blogs have recently enjoyed we are very excited to announce a new partnership with an amazing company called Unofficial Networks. We are still inking the deal so I can’t discuss the merger in full detail but I can LINK to THIS video post from Chief Negotiator Richard Astley.

Techcrunch has the full details HERE.

-John

John Konrad is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage and the captain of this project. Since graduating from SUNY Maritime College he has sailed 4 of the world’s oceans and reports from his ship via satellite.

John is also writes for our ski sites UnofficialSquaw.com and UnofficialAndes.com

(Ed. note: This comes from a current student, Dave Yell. You may well be able to deduce that Dave is British. In deed he held a Unlimited License there. He’s planning on doing some work here, which is way he’s in a class. I should note he is a fantastic resource.)

A man knows where he is, at all times.

He knows this because he knows where he isn’t.

By comparing where he is with where he isn’t or where he isn’t with where he is, he understands there is a Deviation.

His built in intuition uses Deviations to generate corrective commands to drive him from a position where he is to a position where he isn’t, and arriving at a position where he wasn’t, he now is.

Consequently: the position where he is now is the position where he wasn’t and it follows that the position where he wasn’t, is now the position where he is.

In the event that his actual position is not the position where he wasn’t, his conscience has acquired a Variation.
Variation is the difference between where the he is and where he is supposed to be or where he wasn’t.

If Variation is considered to be a significant factor his conscience can generate corrective commands to drive him from a position where he is to a position where he should be, and arriving at a position where he wasn’t, he now is.

However, to achieve the above he must also know where he was. His built in intelligence creates a scenario that works as follows: Because both Deviation and Variation have been modified by corrective commands of his intelligence and conscience some of the initial position information that he obtained is now inaccurate.

Therefore, he is not sure where he is.

However, he is sure where he isn’t and he knows where he was. He now compares where he should be with where he wasn’t. By differentiating this comparison with where he should be with where he was and where he wasn’t with where he now is, he is able to obtain the sum of the true Deviation and Variation, which he explains as – ERROR.

- Dave Yell 2006

- Adapted from the Missile Guidance System explanation.

___________________________

This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

In the vein of Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s On First,” only related to ships.

Thanks to BitterEnd reader Robert S, of Seattle and gCaptain forum user CMA_decky for this great find.

gCaptain’s all time favorite TV commercial and worst nightmare.

Funniest video of last year! Thanks, Berlitz

(Is your company blocking access? View the file here: LINK )

“This video contains a lot of (very old) pictures on Titanic, and even two short (original) films”

Related Post:

Was the titanic sunk by a small key?

Tim’s Times has a conversation that put a big smile on our faces and reminded me of my favorite TV commercial. Here’s the story:

You have to imagine a heavy French accent and a heavy East European accent replying

French VTS- What kind of vessel are you?

Tanker- We are oil tanker.

French VTS- What kind of ‘ull ‘ave you? (silent h in front of ave and ull)

Tanker- ‘ull ‘ave?

French VTS - yes ‘ull, what kind of ‘ull ave you?

Tanker- please repeat question, not understanding?

French VTS- You are a tanker, what of ‘ULL ave you, a single ‘ULL, a double ‘ULL ?

Tanker- no we have no HOLE in ship, everything OK, no HOLE

French VTS-(exasperated) you have no ‘ULL? You have single or double bottom?

Tanker( penny finally drops) ah we are double HULL vessel…….

Frsnch VTS (audible relief in voice) OK sir sank you, ‘ow many crew onboard?(silent h in front of ow)

Tanker(confused again) ‘OW?

and so on and so on, maybe we should all learn French…..

SMILE

Tim has many other interesting sea stories at his blog: Tim’s Times

[Continue Reading →]

Do You Know What They Call Me?
By The Artful Blogger

I’ve been accused of many things. I’ve been called a liar, a cheater, and a womanizer, among other things (Well, there was the thing with the goat, but the goat was asking for it). Lately though, I’ve been accused of being heartless, someone who takes another’s misery and makes light of it. Well, duh? Actually, I’m an asshole. I can’t help it, and I won’t apologize for it, but I am. It didn’t start off that way, but I found that it can be a great tool to get people to listen to you. As long as I use my assholism (is that a word? I know my Spell-Check didn’t like it.) for the greater good. I was once asked, “Do you have any boundaries?” Only one: I will not make fun of the dead. They’ve paid the ultimate price, and you’ll never see me write about it. Pretty much everything else, though, is fair game, which reminds me of a sea story:

Back in my navy days, I had this skipper. He was a firm but fair leader (That meant that he yelled a lot). He found out though, that due to his temper, his crew would hide information from him for fear of reprisal. Realizing this, he made a deal with his crew. You could tell him “anything” as long as you brought him a candy bar. The only stipulation was, that he would ask you, “What did you learn?” and you would have to have an immediate response. OK, it’s a little weird, but it worked . . . until it was my turn.

I had the pleasure of informing the captain that I had just blown up a clutch assembly for one of the main engines, and the port shaft was down hard. With Snickers Bar in hand, I made my way up to the skipper’s cabin. I ran into the captain’s steward along the way. He asked me what was going on, so I flashed the Snickers Bar. The steward shook is head and informed me that the captain really prefers Milky Way Bars. I blew him off as an idiot and continued on my quest. Besides, even if it were true, I didn’t have the time to hunt down the proper “candy bar of the day.”

When I got to the skipper’s cabin, he asked me my business. I drew my Snickers and started telling my tale of woe. He silently chewed his Snickers as I unraveled the details of the incident. He continued to silently munch until I got to the part where I told him that I paralyzed half of his main propulsion plant.

To say that he exploded would not do him justice. He stood, got nose to nose with me, opened his mouth and verbally chastised me. I mean, metaphoric diarrhea was literally pouring out of his mouth (or maybe it was half-eaten Snickers Bar).

By the time he finished his verbal assault, I was scraping the adverbs off of my ego. That’s when he asked the question, “Well, what did you learn?” I replied, “Sir, next time, I’m hunting you down a Milky Way Bar!” You know, he actually gave me a medal for fixing that clutch. Maybe it was just guilt.

Anyway, as the old saying goes: “Sometimes when you’re up to your ass in alligators, you have a tendency to forget what your main objective is.” I have an incident to talk about.

Today’s bedtime story is another cavalcade of errors. As always, it could have been avoid and more than one person made things worse. At least no one was killed.

On an oilrig, a caustic barrel required repair for a seized mixing paddle (Take note on what kind of barrel; there will be a test later). The barrel was flushed for 30 minutes, then drained, and sent to the Hot Work Area for repairs. With a torch, the welder cut a rectangular hole on the bottom of the barrel. He noticed a two inch thick hardened buildup of a powdery substance. (Gee, a hard, powdery substance in a caustic barrel. I wonder what it could be? Actually, so did he.) He assumed that this was what was seizing up the paddles and used a piece of metal tubing to pry the paddles around. He bent over and looked inside the barrel to check his progress (OK kids, can anybody guess what happens next?). The welder then was nailed with escaping caustic vapor/steam which covered the unprotected portions of his upper face.

Oh, it gets better! Feeling his face starting to burn from the unidentified substance (Hmm, its a caustic barrel? Perhaps it might be something . . . oh . . . caustic?), he immediately flushed his face at rig eyewash station in his shop. The welder went to the medic for treatment. After reaching the medic he explained what happened. The medic asked him how long he flushed his face. (OK, now it really gets good.) Upon hearing the welder’s answer, the medic determines that his now burning face hasn’t been flushed enough. (I know, you think the medic continued the flush. Hell no! If he did that, I wouldn’t have anything to write about.) The medic sends the welder back to the eyewash station (As always, I’m not making this up) to finish flushing his face for the required amount of time. (Huh?!?) Well, the welder goes back to the Hot Work Area and (this is really good) exposes himself to the caustic substance again for another two minutes. (This guy’s now pretty much feeling unloved and on fire.) The medic later realized that skin flushing water needed a neutralizing agent (Really? What gave it away?), and was not clear on how effective immediate, vigorous irrigation is in reducing the effects (Maybe the festering blisters on the welder’s face was the give away?). The medic was also not aware of the emergency first aid treatment recommended on the MSDS sheet. The sheet was provided to him while the incident was being handled (I don’t know who handed it to him or how it was handed, but I’m sure that welder wanted to roll that sheet up and give the medic a colitis attack!).

A safety meeting was held with all crewmembers within 30 minutes of the incident. It was stressed that proper procedures must be followed. The incident likely started by not properly flushing the barrel with plenty of water after each use. Poor design was also a factor. A properly completed JSA might also have recognized the not-so-common hazard of caustic vapors from the cutting process and included any recommendations to reduce or eliminate the hazard. The bottom line is that all chemicals should be considered an energy source when completing a JSA and any hazards associated with them must be reviewed and recognized. Further training of Hazard Identification, Hazard Labeling, and elimination of those hazards prior to continuing with a task should be completed by all rig personnel. Mud Engineers on locations should be consulted about the effects of chemicals on site and response procedures should be reviewed so there is no delay in the treatment process. Lastly, (Are we paying attention?) if you come across a substance that you’re unaware of what it is (Yeah, even if it’s in a caustic barrel), ASK!
OK, kiddies, that’s my bedtime story. If you were offended, try chewing on a Snickers Bar. I’m the Asshole . . . er . . . Artful Blogger. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it

Have a suggestion for The Artful Blogger? Think he is out of his mind or simply “on target”? Leave a comment below or write your own story and submit it to tips {at} gcaptain.com. If it’s well written and of interest to the maritime community, we’ll post it right here on gCaptain.

More from The Artful Blogger:

Bravo on My Watch

Aw Nuts