Northern Ireland

My wife enjoys that kind of breakfast.

I saw the prices for some of that stuff...

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-2827.aspx

Well, I want to re visit. 4 days wasn't enough. Next time I know to get there in good time for the Bushmills 12 year old. etc etc. We didnt get to go across the rope bridge as the weather wasnt so great at the point and the baby slowed us down somewhat. So another time.

The Mrs caught up with some clothes shopping though.

One of my trademarks in all the ships I have been responsible for contracting - and something that has now, years later, become madatory for all new bulk carriers.

http://www.imo.org/blast/mainframe.asp?topic_id=583&doc_id=2693

In fact MOST of the innovations in the design of that ship have either become mandatory or widely adopted.

(I will give myself a pat on the back at this point)

Free-fall lifeboats
"The MSC agreed to the recommendation for a single free-fall survival craft with float-free capability, to enable rapid evacuation of crew, to be a requirement for new ships only, and instructed the DE Sub-Committee to develop relevant draft amendments to SOLAS chapter III and/or the LSA Code accordingly."

Work colleagues of mine had to attend special classes for these. I never did as I never worked on a rig where they had them. Tended to be on newish platforms.

I believe that my son Alex, now 19 and a deck cadet aboard Swires' WUCHANG, may be the youngest person to have done a drop - he was six at the time - and I took him for a drop to prove to Andy Hill and Steve Clinch of P&O Bulk that freefall boats were perfectly safe. Alex still has his certificate! (And Steve Clinch is now the Head of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch of the DoTp!)

In theory they are. As long as they get off the ramp and dont hit anything once off the back of the rig or boat. And presumably dont leak...

You should have been around when they built the Titanic.

Thomas Andrews, the Chief Designer at H&W, had the right ideas. His drawings showed the bulkheads carried up to "B" deck, 45 lifeboats so that there was space in the boats for all on board, and a full double hull. In fact. except for the important counterflooding arrangements which worked so well on the Costa Concordia, pretty much what we have now.

He was overruled by the customer, who pointed out that the Board of Trade did not require so many lifeboats, and that the double hull and raised bulkheads would interfere with the working of the ship.

He drowned in her.

In the words of a friend, as the pin is released you could hear a pin drop - except of course that the pin would not drop...

He certainly did. And the band played on.

But I thought there were never enough lifeboats in the first place? Ah. Yes. I see you point out he was overuled by the customer. Customer is always right eh....

The lifeboats and davits that he drew on the plans were deleted at the insistence of the customer, because the Board of Trade regulations for lifeboat capacity were based on the gross tonnage of the vessel on a sliding scale up to 10,000GRT.

The Titanic was 41,000 GRT.

Have you been to the museum? They focus a lot on H and W. The Drawing Offices are still there.

When I was there the Drawing Offices were in use, the studios used for Game of Thrones were the paint shops, (Catholic, unlike the pipe shops, which were Protestant) and John Bedford, the successor to Thomas Andrews, had only recently been allowed to mention the word "Titanic" - his knowledge was encyclopedic, and is the source of what little I know!

Just was talking to this Irish fella (married to a Filipina) who left N. Ireland 12 years ago as he had a bomb placed under his car and his brother in law was killed by a bomb.

I have a friend who runs a haulage business; he is from Belfast and like many another trucker he learned his trade in the RCT.

But he is Catholic; his decision to join the Army meant that he had to get his whole family across to England.