Atlantic Lines

Saturday, 9 April 2016

MFV Louisa

The fishing vessel Louisa was lost off Mingulay in the early hours of today, 9 April 2016. Her emergency positioning beacon was activated when she went down, and Coastguard sped to the scene. Two crew have been found deceased, one was airlifted to hospital in Stornoway with non-life-threatening injuries and one remains missing. We remember the deceased and keep their family and friends in thoughts at this sad time.

Louisa was launched exactly 7 years ago for a family from Marvig, South Lochs under the registration of SY30. She fished for crab around the Western Isles. In February 2014, she was on the Goat Island slipway for repairs, which is when I took this image.

Thursday, 7 April 2016

The Dutch referendum

The Netherlands went to the polls in a referendum yesterday, which was to advise the government how the people felt about the EU trade deal with Ukraine. About two out of every three people said 'nee', [no], they didn't like it. This coming from one of the founding members of the European Economic Community of the 1950s is profoundly disturbing. My personal assessment is that this no-vote was brought about on the back of the migrant crisis, currently gripping Europe, as well as the political uncertainty in Ukraine. Don't forget that that is a deeply divided country, where the western part would like to be more integrated with Europe, whereas the eastern part would like to be more integrated with Putin's Russia. The civil war in Ukraine, fomented by Putin, has subsided after our Vlad decided that it wasn't getting him anywhere and it was all backfiring on him - I refer to #MH17.

However, there is more to this issue than just the EU and Ukraine. It is about dissatisfaction with the European bureaucracy, which is held to be undemocratic and not properly held to account. The UK is going to the polls on its membership of the EU on June 23rd, and this result will be viewed with interest this side of the North Sea.

Further analysis is given on the link to the BBC news story.

Monday, 4 April 2016

104 and 112 years ago

104 years ago today, RMS ‪Titanic‬ arrived in Southampton for her maiden voyage to New York. 112 years ago next June, the SS Norge departed Christiania (modern day Oslo) for New York. Both ships were to founder on voyage. Did you ever hear of the Norge? On 28th June 1904, she went down at Rockall, 250 miles west of Scotland, with the loss of 635 souls. A naval inquiry in Scandinavia found that there were insufficient life-saving apparatus on board for all passengers and crew. A recommendation was made for all ships to carry enough lifeboats etc to account for all on board. Had this recommendation to have been enshrined in law around the world, Titanic's sinking would not have been prevented, but the number of people saved would have been much, much higher.

Tombstone for victims from the Norge, who succumbed after landing at Stornoway

Memorial plaque to the Norge in the Stornoway ferry terminal

Saturday, 26 March 2016

Srebrenica

This week, Radovan Karadzic, former president of the Bosnian Serbs of the mid 1990s, was sentenced to 40 years in jail. His general, Ratko Mladic, executed the occupation of and extermination of the people of Srebrenica. More than 8,000 were dead at the end of it all.

In the 1990s, I worked for the Dutch MoD, and several of my colleagues and friends were in Bosnia at that time. One of those colleagues was a member of Dutchbat, which was supposed to guard the ostensible safe-haven of Srebrenica - with pea-shooters against tanks. He was nearly eye-balling Mladic. He, and others in the battalion, could have pulled a gun and killed Mladic. It didn't happen.

It would not have made a lot of difference. The commander of Dutchbat, Col Karremans, has been hauled over the coals for apparently collaborating with Mladic. Dutchbat assisted Mladic - what else could they have done? Resistance would have led to many dead among the UN forces. Collaboration was odious. But in truth, what option did they have?

This is a very sore point in recent Dutch history, and the Netherlands government has been reprimanded over the role of Dutchbat. However, it strikes me that the United Nations should similarly be reprimanded for not issuing its forces with proper kit to match that of Mladic's troops. Gorazde and Srebrenica are two names of infamy in the annals of the UN. Srebrenica is a black mark on the Dutch conscience.

Bear in mind that the Yugoslav civil war of the 1990s was justified by referring to a battle from the 14th century.

Beware of living in the past.

Tuesday, 22 March 2016

Cameron Terrace

Distances are not often mentioned on island roadsigns. Who needs that sort of information? Does it matter that it is 30 miles to Tarbert or 8 miles to Garynahine? If you live here, that is irrelevant. You just know how long it takes, and what you'll encounter along the way. The masts at Eitsal are your reference point, as is the sea. You'll know the dead tree by Achmore, and the long straight by Loch Ganvich. You can never go far. 80 miles is the longest distance in Lewis and Harris. It's quite cosy, really.

Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Trump

My preliminary assessment of the US presidential race is that it will go between Clinton and Trump. And of the two, Trump is the one most likely to win. I don't like Donald Trump, politically or otherwise. However, in the current international climate, it could well be that we need a character like him at the helm of the USA. Only someone like him can stand up to Putin, Assad, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and other leaders whose intentions are rather insular, shall we say. Why? Because Trump is about as insular and hard-nosed as you get, in addition to being a flicking nutcase.

Russia and Syria

Russia and Syria fomenting Europe's troubles. Russia threatening WW3 if Turkey invades Syria on the ground - i.e., Syria is VERY important to Putin's gameplan for making Europe his backyard. For he will then claim, in a couple of years from now, that only Russia can take proper care of Europe. Awful truth is, a lot of the Middle East rubbish goes back to the Spheres of Influence policies of the Cold War era, in which both America and the USSR indulged. Latterly, it has been America's badly judged involvement with Iraq which let the cat out of the bag, creating a power vacuum in a region that can only be ruled by odious strongmen, democracy being an alien concept in the Middle East. This power vacuum was taken advantage of by Al Qa'eda, later by Daesh. The latter is being bombed into submission, but their presence has been seized with both hands and both feet by the Moscow regime of Vladimir Putin to really back the uprising against Assad of Syria. David Cameron was all for bombing Assad, but was reigned in 3 years ago. I am not in favour of getting militarily involved in the Middle East at all, but for strategic reasons (oil) we seem to have to. Four hundred people have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Eleven million have been driven to flight. Just to keep Bashir al-Assad in power? Putin tried it on in Ukraine, but found that militarily he didn't really get anywhere. But subversion is much more subtle, and in the long run, likely to have a greater likelihood of success. Again, the only language that Putin understands is that of power. We'll have to be strong against his odious little plans.