John Noble News

Donjon Marine, Co., Inc., a provider of multi-faceted marine services including marine salvage, heavy lift, dredging, emergency response services and most recently shipbuilding and repair, has named John Noble as Managing Director - Donjon UK. Mr. Noble has worked in commercial shipping since 1962 when he joined HMS Conway, the preeminent pre-sea training school in the United Kingdom. He served as a deck officer in the British Merchant Marine sailing with shipping lines including Blue Funnel and Palm Line. After obtaining his Master Mariners certificate, Mr.

The Nautical Institute and the International Salvage Union (ISU) have launched 'Casualty Management Guidelines', a book aimed at providing practical guidelines to help seafarers during a casualty, when demands can be confusing, contradictory, unclear or a combination of all three. In the book masters and crew members are told what to expect from people or organisations that might be involved as the casualty unfolds. Chapters are presented, describing how masters should expect to deal with different people, from owners to government officials, insurance representatives and salvage experts. It will give all involved an idea of the job each may be undertaking, together with priorities and responsibilities.

John Noble has been appointed Development Adviser to the International Salvage Union. He took up his appointment on April 2.Noble is a Master Mariner, served 13 years at sea and spent two years in the late 1970s with the P&I Club. He joined Murray Fenton in 1980 and subsequently attended over 60 casualties, specialising in cases involving salvage, pollution and wreck removal. He became Chief Executive of The Salvage Association in 2001. Over the past two years, he has carried out assignments for BMT, who acquired Murray Fenton in 1999.

The Salvage Association is staging a comeback. Having been acquired by British Maritime Technologies in March last year, the SA has now been revamped and relaunched. In an attempt to transform itself from a not-for-profit organisation into one that can survive in a commercial world, the new SA has announced an expansion of its services into all maritime sectors. In addition to traditional hull and machinery surveys, the SA is now offering a whole host of services, including litigation support and expert witness work. The relaunch was announced at a well-attended reception at the Baltic Exchange in London last week. By far the most energetic response to the SA plans came from the legal contingent following the announcement of a new legal fees collection service for lawyers.

What do you get when you spend 19 hours at a Fourth of July party onboard a tugboat in NY harbor? A sunburn, welts from hurled bagels, about 12,000 calories and some incredibly good memories, Don Sutherland found. Officially it's Independence Day, but everyone calls it the Fourth of July. Its inalienable rights accrue to the common man, whose life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness necessitate keeping things simple. And is any form of theater simpler than a fireworks dispay? No plot to keep up with, no dialog to follow, just plenty of action. America feasts during many of its holidays, but with varying complication - where Thanksgiving is an elaboration of side dishes and stuffings and sauces, July Fourth is plain barbecue. Sauces? What do you call mustard and ketchup?

We couldn't say it never happens, but we doubt it is any too frequent: a fine artist, commission in hand and passion in heart, sets-up easel, mixes palette, and fervently depicts the people at work at the of Motor Vehicles department. Sure they're good people, and they uphold social order. Still, their setting, their actions, their challenges each day, do not seem the sort to engage the artist. This is the stuff for the Kodak Advantix. Artists could spend hours reproducing a gesture that took a split second in life. This gives them time to think. What was the mood of that gesture, and its eventual effect? The artist expands time with those thoughts, having seen what came before, during, and after the instant depicted.