John Konrad
Captain John Konrad is the founder and CEO of gCaptain, one of the world’s most-read maritime news websites, and a member of the Pentagon Press Corps. He holds a USCG Master Unlimited license. John studied naval architecture at the U.S. Naval Academy before graduating from SUNY Maritime College with a degree in Marine Transportation. He is also a Y Combinator Startup School alumnus. His decade at sea included service aboard Military Sealift Command-operated ships, crude-oil supertankers running to Valdez, and dynamically positioned drillships supporting deepwater projects. In industry leadership roles, he participated in major offshore exploration and drilling campaigns, including the KG-D6 discovery with Reliance Industries and world record-setting deepwater work with Chevron. On April 20, 2010, John had finished overseeing the $750 million Deep Ocean Ascension newbuild project for BP when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. His seven years at Transocean and personal ties to members of the Horizon crew drove him to investigate the disaster, resulting in Fire on the Horizon (HarperCollins, 2011). In 2025, he co-authored Returning from Ebb Tide: Renewing the United States Commercial Maritime Enterprise for Marine Corps University Press. John has contributed to publications including Forbes, CIMSEC, Lloyd’s List, and the U.S. Coast Guard Compass, and has appeared on outlets including NPR and the BBC. He has also consulted for major newsrooms and public institutions on maritime reporting and offshore industry topics. His reporting draws on primary documents, official maritime records, and on-the-record sources cultivated over two decades in the industry. He is an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute and a member of the Council of American Master Mariners and the Navy League of the United States. His work has been recognized with the U.S. Navy Combined Maritime Forces Naval Support Award and SUNY Maritime’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tsunami Infographics – Best Of The Web
Photo by mchaconcr Is the tsunami a maritime news story? Should gCaptain be providing coverage and at what level? These are some of the questions gCaptain
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
USS Port Royal Grounding – Incident Updates, Links and Photos!
After seven months in dry dock and $40 million in repairs, the cruiser USS Port Royal is back in the water in Pearl Harbor following the embarrassing February
Saturday, September 26, 2009
M/V Shagra – Ship Photo Of The Week
Photo by; gCaptain Today’s photo of the week is of the LNG tanker M/V Shagra and her sister ship the M/V Zagra. More info can be found on the
Friday, September 25, 2009
Manned Models – An Unusual Training Device
From the gCaptain archives… Our friend Peter Mello at Sea-Fever, a must read maritime blog, brings us the model building obsession of William Terra. This
Monday, September 21, 2009
M/V Marti Princess Vs Renate Schulte – Incident Photo Of The Week
More details on this January’s casualty-free collision of the M/V Marti Princess and M/V Renate Schultecan can be found HERE and
007 Technology Spied Aboard Russian Mega-Yacht
It seems that 007 technology really exits in the mega-yacht world. Wired tells us: Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Bizarre Maritime Technology – A Desalination Plant From The Future
From our bizarre ideas file comes the M/V Seadove or “Sustainable Energy and Desalination on Vessel” The ship is an Australian invention that hopes
Monday, September 14, 2009
M/V Elli, A Crude Oil Tanker’s Broken Back – Incident Photo Of The Week
Crude oil tanker M/V Elli broke her back on August 28th after considerable hogging was witnessed while she was in ballast and anchored awaiting drydock near
Thursday, September 10, 2009
SHI Shipyard Photo, A View From Aloft – Photo Of The Week
Photo By gCaptain Today’s Photo Of The Week is an HDR view of Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI)– Shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. This photo was taken
Radar is out? Stop cursing and grab a plotting sheet.
Ok your entering the fairway at Galveston and your radar goes out, what is plan B? How about handing the mate a plotting sheet and sending him to the
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Superyacht Conversions – From Workboat To Luxury Yacht
During the years I spent as a cadet on SUNY Maritime‘s training ship Empire State, I could not begin to tally up the hours spent chipping,
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Secrets Behind Cruise Ship Cutaway Illustrations
Ever wonder how graphic designers create cutaway illistrations of ship? Khulsey.com clues us into the secrets HERE. Once you learn about the process click
VTS Photo Gallery – A look inside maritime vessel traffic services worldwide.
Our friend Richard Rodriguez of the BitterEnd Blog had an excellent post titled VTS – Working with large vessels, that gives Puget Sound boaters tips on
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Interview with Vice Admiral Papp
On the heels of gCaptain’s interview with Commandant Thad Allen, the Unofficial Coast Guard blog sits down with the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Is Your Equipment Intrinsically Safe?
We are still debating whether this guy was using a flashlight, LED or his cell phone to check the level of this tank but we are certain it wasn’t
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thad Allen, Commandant USCG – A Conversation On The Digital Age Of Shipping
The Digital Age – A conversation with Admiral Thad Allen, Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the United
Ship AIS Tracking Via Satellite
Kongsberg Simrad announced a partnership with Norway to bring Automatic Identification System, AIS, ship tracking beyond its current line of sight
Friday, August 7, 2009
Shipboard Fire Teams, Assets and Deficits – 4 of 4
Fire Gear Lockers: I could ramble for hours on Repair Locker organization. For now, we’ll keep it simple. Keep in mind, again, your assets and deficits.
Merchant Marine Jobs – 101 (or so) Tips To Find A Dream Job At Sea
Over the past few months the gCaptain team has been working hard to put together the internet’s best Merchant Marine Jobs Board and, after finally
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