Maritime Media Awards Brochure 2015 by Maritime Foundation

Crown Copyright

Maritime Media Awards 2015

Welcome This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Maritime Media Awards. Once again it is wonderful to see an ever wider range of nominations and there is no doubt a growing public awareness that we are increasingly dependent on the sea. Let us not forget around 95 per cent of goods entering and leaving the UK are handled through our ports and over 90 per cent of world trade is carried by sea. The media plays such an important role in spreading the word and my congratulations to all those who have once again contributed in their different ways. Over the last three years our in-house film team, Maritime Films UK, has been making short films for other maritime organisations and has successfully built good relationships with a wide range of clients. Our short theme film this year, which is titled Setting out on the Sea Superhighway, reflects on the opportunities for those attracted by a career in the maritime sector. I am delighted that, with the recent publication of various government and industry reports, the maritime sector is now being increasingly recognised as a vital part of the UK economy, which contributes not only to our exports and worldwide reputation for design and innovation but also provides significant employment and skill regeneration across all the work disciplines.

Countess Mountbatten of Burma CBE MSC CD DL President, The Maritime Foundation

Maritime Media Awards

2015

Foreword Admiral Sir George Zambellas KCB DSC ADC DL First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff

his year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Maritime Media Awards. In the two short decades since the Maritime Foundation launched the first Awards, global seaborne trade has grown enormously, and much of this growth has been to the benefit of the British economy. Meanwhile, beneath the oceans, travelling along the seabed in fibre-optic cables – the new digital networks that power that global economy have grown exponentially. These Awards celebrate the work of the media in communicating information and understanding about our relationship with the sea. The same two decades have seen huge developments in the media – the complete establishment of 24-hour news, the phenomenal utility of the internet, smart telephony and social media. Today, there are more ways to share, exploit and master information than ever before. The choice, the opportunity, appears limitless. And yet, despite all this complexity, some simple truths prevail: Britain is an island nation in a global age. We depend on the sea for our prosperity and our security. So our maritime message is as valid as ever. It remains, however, a great irony that something that defines us as a nation, something so fundamental to our way of life as our maritime activity, by and large takes place away from the public eye. So the work of the Maritime Foundation to deepen our national understanding of the sea has never been more important, as Britain continues her maritime story in this age of global opportunity. As for the Royal Navy, our story is changing to match this opportunity. For most of my career the Royal Navy’s journey has been one of orderly, managed, contraction. But now, for our sailors and marines stepping off the parade ground to start a life in uniform, it is a time of expanding responsibility, new possibilities and excitement. We find ourselves in the midst of a complete recapitalisation, with new ships, submarines and aircraft under construction and entering service. Foremost among these are our two new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Britain has always looked to the sea for authority and prosperity, and to magnify our power and reach, and these two carriers will be the embodiment, in steel and spirit, of our nation’s global ambition for the next 50 years. I thank all those journalists, writers, film-makers and digital specialists nominated tonight. Your work informs and inspires us, and helps to bind our island nation together, and to spread our message across the oceans, and across cyberspace. You are the custodians of our seafaring past and the advocates of our maritime future. So congratulations and, most importantly, have a great evening.

CONTENTS 2

Programme

Looking to the sea The Maritime Media Awards

Award nominations 2015

9 The political economy of trade and development Dr James Scott 12

Maritime education, research and technology Professor Richard Clegg

15 Towards a more secure maritime future Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB 18 Whose highway, whose resources? Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE 20 Ocean highways Picture spread 24 Is shipping coming clean? Dr Tristan Smith 27 Fishers and plunderers Alastair Couper 30 The ghosts of Scapa Flow Brian Lavery

Maritime Media Awards

Nash Room • Institute of Directors • Pall Mall • London Thursday 12 November 2015

Programme

2015

18.45 Guests arrive

Welcome by Julian Parker OBE, Anthony Harvey and Gillian Wettern

Reception

Waterloo Room

19.15

Proceed to dinner

Nash Room

19.30 Grace 21.00

Loyal toast

21.15

Welcome and presentations

Julian Parker OBE, Chairman, Awards Committee

Première of DVD

Setting Out on the Sea Superhighway

Desmond Wettern Fleet Award

Crystal ship’s decanter

Maritime Fellowship Awards

Athena bowls

The First Sea Lord’s Digital Media Award

Whitechapel bell

Donald Gosling Award for Best Television or Film Contribution

Crystal dolphin trophy

Mountbatten Maritime Award for Best Literary Contribution

Silver Armada plate

Desmond Wettern Media Award Crystal ship’s decanter for Best Journalistic Contribution

22.25

Presentation of port

Vice Admiral Duncan Potts

22.30

Vote of thanks

Guests depart

Music: string ensemble from Her Majesty’s Royal Marine Band, Portsmouth Guard of honour: City of London Unit, Sea Cadet Corps

The Maritime Media Awards

Looking to the sea 20 years on from the first Awards, their purpose, to help build greater understanding of our manifold dependence on the sea, is more important than ever This sentiment was carried forward into the fourth Britain and the Sea Conference, organised by the Maritime Foundation in conjunction with Plymouth University and held in London during the International Shipping Week, on ‘International Trade: Cooperation, Competition, and Confron tation in a Globalised Economy’. Articles based on the papers appear throughout this programme, and it was heartening to see such a comprehensive international media follow-up, with features in many publications leading to a better-informed understanding of the meaning of sea power in the 21st century. Two other studies have recently been undertaken in the commercial sphere. The Department of Transport has produced its Maritime Growth Study, seeking to affirm the UK’s position as ‘a world-leading maritime centre’. The other research by Lloyd’s Register has been to make an assessment of the future by predicting Maritime Trends 2030. The technique adopted in this study has been to examine three different scenarios, the status quo, a sustainable maritime commons and the outcome of competing nations. Much of what happens on or within the oceans is not visible to those who live in cities or work the land, but the UK has a central place in maritime affairs, hosting the International Maritime Organization, the unique Hydrographic Office, Insurance and the internationally recognised Lloyd’s Register as well as having the most influential maritime commercial centre in London. It is tempting to fall back on the past, but the future holds great promise. n

At the fourth Britain and the Sea Conference, organised by the Maritime Foundation and Plymouth University. Louis Mackay / MF

here is a growing awareness that the oceans are a dynamic part of the planet’s ecosystem. Earlier this year WWF published its latest ‘Living Blue Planet Report’, subtitled Species, Habitats, and Human Well-Being. The findings are not encouraging. In the words of Mario Lambertini, WWF International’s Director General, ‘The picture is now clearer than ever before: humanity is collectively mismanaging the oceans to the brink of collapse’. A further study by Professor Alastair Couper entitled Fishers and Plunderers: Theft, Slavery and Violence at Sea (see page 27) is similarly despondent, with a focus on lawlessness, and the feckless abuse of natural resources coupled with the appalling treatment of migrant fishers in the deep sea fishing industry. It is only through the diligent research of committed individuals and organisations that the reality of malpractice is identified. The media have a similar responsibility to ensure that the true situation and the consequences are communicated as widely as possible as this is one of the few ways that political influence can be brought to bear. The recent study by the World Bank estimates that the lost opportunity cost of overfishing is a staggering £38 billion each year. 2015 is the 20th anniversary of the Maritime Media Awards, which started with just two prizes, one for the best maritime journalist and one for the naval unit that projected the best positive image of the Royal Navy. Three additional awards now celebrate the best contributions to maritime literature, television and digital media. The awards have consistently attracted a high level of nominations on a wide range of subjects, so enhancing awareness of specialised subjects but also providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, learning and influence.

The media have a responsibility to ensure that the true situation and the consequences are communicated as widely as possible

THE MARITIME MEDIA AWARDS

Desmond Wettern Fleet Award (Royal Navy)

The award for maritime journalism is made to the writer, broadcaster, academic or other person who has made the most constructive contribution to generating public awareness of the United Kingdom’s current maritime issues. The award has been presented annually since 1995. The prize is an engraved crystal decanter and a cheque for £1,000.

The award is presented to the HM ship, submarine, Naval Air Squadron or Royal Marine Unit that has made the best contribution to a positive image of the Royal Navy. Sponsored and nominated by RN Fleet Media, the award has been presented annually since 1993. The award is a cut-glass ship’s decanter mounted on a plinth of oak from HMS Victory.

Desmond Wettern Media Award for best journalistic contribution

Desmond Wettern on HMS Exeter in 1983. A celebrated writer on maritime affairs for over 30 years, he was also the Daily Telegraph’s naval correspondent. In 1993 the Royal Navy established the Desmond Wettern Fleet Award in his memory. The Maritime Foundation, of which he was a founder member, created the Desmond Wettern Media Award to commemorate his dedication to the belief that the United Kingdom’s economic wellbeing and security are inextricably bound up with the sea.

Mountbatten Maritime Award for best literary contribution The award is made to the author of the work of literature (fact or fiction, prose or verse) that has contributed most significantly to public awareness of maritime issues. The award has been presented annually since 2001. The prize is an engraved silver Armada plate.

Donald Gosling Award for best television or film contribution The award is made to the director, producer or other person responsible for making the television programme or film that has made the most significant contribution to the public understanding of a maritime matter relating primarily to the United Kingdom. The award has been presented annually since 2006. The prize is a pair of crystal dolphins mounted on an engraved marble plinth.

Maritime Fellowship Award The award honours an individual who has made a truly outstanding contribution to stimulating public engagement in maritime issues in a manner that has a special or cumulative value, and is not covered by the other Maritime Media Awards. This contribution may have been made either through a lifetime of dedicated service or through a leading role in realising a particular project, such as, for example, a major nautical festival, the consistently imaginative editing of a well-respected maritime publication, or the development of a particular maritime sector. The prize is an Athena bowl with an engraved silver base.

The First Sea Lord’s Digital Media Award The award is made to the team or person who, in the opinion of the Awards Committee, has made the most constructive contribution to generating awareness of current maritime issues specifically produced and uploaded through digital media outlets. The prize is a Whitechapel bell.

Maritime Media Awards

2015

AWARD NOMINATIONS 2015 Desmond Wettern Media Award for best journalistic contribution Iain Ballantyne – Editor, Warships IFR Sam Chambers – Editorial Director, Maritime CEO Mike Critchley – Editor, Warship World Richard Jones – Reporter, ITV Meridian Sam Llewellyn – Editor, The Marine Quarterly Bernard McCall – Editor, Coastal Shipping Magazine Cathy McLean – News Editor, BYM News Louise Nicholls – Communications Manager, Royal Yachting Association Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE – Author and Commentator John Roberts – Editor, Scuttlebutt Hamish Ross – Editor, Sea Breezes Admiral Lord West GCB DSC PC – Former First Sea Lord Howard Wheeldon – Consultant, Wheeldon Strategic Advisory

Mountbatten Maritime Award for best literary contribution Paula Astridge – Bad Hand Fletcher Christian: The Last Piece of the Puzzle (Woodslane) Patrick Barkham – Coastlines: The Story of Our Shore (Granta Books) John Boyle – Blood Ransom: Stories from the Front Line in the War Against Somali Piracy (Adlard Coles Nautical) Captain Eric Brown CBE DSC AFC FRAeS RN – Too Close for Comfort: One Man’s Close Encounters of the Terminal Kind (Blacker Limited) Nick Bunker – An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America (Bodley Head , Random House) Tim Carter – Merchant Seamen’s Health, 1860-1960: Medicine, Technology, Shipowners and the State in Britain (Boydell Press) Alastair Couper, Hance D. Smith and Bruno Ciceri – Fishers and Plunderers: Theft, Slavery and Violence at Sea (Pluto Press) Anthony J. Cumming – The Battle for Britain: Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, 1909-1940 (Naval Institute Press) J. Ross Dancy – The Myth of the Press Gang: Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century (Boydell Press) Steve R. Dunn – The Coward? The Rise and Fall of the Silver King (Book Guild Publishing) Tad Fitch and Michael Poirier – Into the Danger Zone: Sea Crossings of the First World War (The History Press) Tom Fort – Channel Shore: From the White Cliffs to Land’s End (Simon & Schuster UK) Stewart Gordon – A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks (Oxbow Books)

MA R I T I M E M E D I A AWA R D S 2015 – N O M I N AT I O N S

(Mountbatten Maritime Award, continued) Barry Gough – Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon (Palgrave Macmillan) Jerry Grayson – Rescue Pilot: Cheating the Sea (Adlard Coles Nautical) David Gregory – The Lion and the Eagle – Volume Two: The Antagonists 1914-1915 (Writersworld) Edith Hall – Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind (Bodley head, Random House) Paul Heiney – One Wild Song: A Voyage in a Lost Son’s Wake (Bloomsbury) Henry Hemming – Churchill’s Iceman: The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke: Genius, Fugitive, Spy (Preface Publishing) Sam Jefferson – Sea Fever: The True Adventures that Inspired our Greatest Maritime Authors, from Conrad to Masefield, Melville and Hemingway (Bloomsbury) Sam Jefferson – Clipper Ships and the Golden Age of Sail: Races and Rivalries on the Nineteenth Century High Seas (Adlard Coles Nautical) Charles W. Johnson – Ice Ship: The Epic Voyages of the Polar Adventurer Fram (Oxbow Books) John Johnson-Allen – T E Lawrence and the Red Sea Patrol: The Royal Navy’s Role in Creating the Legend (Pen and Sword Books) Eric Kentley – Cutty Sark: The Last of the Tea Clippers (Conway Publishing) Brian Lavery – Nelson’s Victory: 250 Years of War and Peace (Seaforth Publishing) Rear Admiral C. H. Layman – The Wager Disaster: Mayhem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas (Uniform Press) Noel Malcolm – Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World (Allen Lane) Rose Mitchell and Andrew Janes – Maps: Their Untold Stories – Map Treasures from The National Archives (Bloomsbury) Roger Parkinson – Dreadnought: The Ship that Changed the World (I B Tauris) Michael Pye – The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are (Penguin Books) Nigel Rowe – Tall Ships Today: Their Remarkable Story (Adlard Coles Nautical) Anthony Smith – The Old Man and the Sea: A True Story of Crossing the Atlantic by Raft (Little, Brown Book Group) Lawrence Sondhaus – The Great War at Sea: A Naval History of the First World War (Cambridge University Press) Martin Stephen – Scapegoat: The Death of Prince of Wales and Repulse (Pen and Sword Books) Julian Stockwin – Pasha: A Thomas Kydd Novel (Hodder & Stoughton)

MA R I T I M E M E D I A AWA R D S 2015 – N O M I N AT I O N S

Donald Gosling Award for best television or film contribution Cameron Balbarnie / Robin Dashwood / Tim Dunn / Simon Winchcombe – Armada: 12 Days to Save England. BBC Television (BBC Two) David Belton – Nelson in His Own Words. Oxford Scientific Films (BBC Two) Rob Butterfield / Rebecca Nunn – Channel Patrol. Ricochet Ltd (BBC One) Colin Campbell – Raising the Costa Concordia. Windfall Films (National Geographic Channel) Graham Johnston / Siàn Price – The Boats That Made Britain: A Time Team Special. Videotext Communications / Wildfire Television (Channel 4) Nigel Marven – Nigel Marven’s Cruise Ship Adventure. Image Impact Ltd (Watch) Joachim Rønning / Espen Sandberg – Kon Tiki. Soda Pictures Ben Smith, Producer / Matthew Nicholson, Director – Trawlermen’s Lives. Shiver /ITV) David Starkey – Lusitania: 18 Minutes that Changed the World. 360 Production (Channel 5) Tom Weller – Impossible Engineering. Twofour (Yesterday)

The First Sea Lord’s Digital Media Award K D Adamson – Futurenautics: www.futurenautics.com Debbie Calvadoro – Nautilus International: www.nautilusint.org John Clandillon-Baker FNI – The Pilot Online Edition: www.pilotmag.co.uk Gary Davies – Maritime Photographic: www.maritimephotographic.co.uk Maritime & Coastguard Agency – To Save – Maritime and Coastguard Agency Film: www.supremedba.co.uk/to-save-maritime-and-coastguard-agency-film Cathy McLean – BYM News: www.bymnews.com Kate Pain, Yannick Guerry & Ian Hislam. IHS Maritime 360: www.ihsmaritime360.com Peta Stuart-Hunt – 2015 J P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race: www.roundtheisland.org.uk Sue Terpilowski OBE and Bridget Hogan – WISTA-UK – Came By Ship: www.camebyship.com Dr Dominic Tweddle and Matthew Sheldon – The National Museum of the Royal Navy: www.nmrn.org

Maritime Media Awards

2015

RECENT AWARD WINNERS

(Top) Sam Bannister, winner of the 2014 Desmond Wettern Media Award, receives his prize from Mrs Gillian Wettern. (Middle) David Glenn, winner of the 2013 Desmond Wettern Media Award, receiving his Award from the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir George Zambellas. (Bottom) HRH the Princess Royal presenting Professor Callum Roberts with the 2012 Mountbatten Maritime Award for Best Literary Contribution.

Desmond Wettern Media Award for best journalistic contribution 2005 Prof. Nicholas Rodger 2006 Dr Colin White 2007 Brian Lavery 2008 Julian Bray 2009 Peter Elson 2010 Tom MacSweeney 2011 Caroline Wyatt 2012 Richard Hargreaves 2013 David Glenn 2014 Sam Bannister

Mountbatten Maritime Award for best literary contribution 2006 Nicolette Jones 2007 Andrew Welch 2008 Tim Clayton 2009 Kate Lance 2010 Richard Guilliat and Peter Hohnen 2011 Prof. David Abulafia 2012 Prof. Callum Roberts 2013 Rose George 2014 Andrew Adams & Richard Woodman

Donald Gosling Award for best television or film contribution 2007 Crispin Sadler 2008 Marshall Corwin 2009 Ross Kemp 2010 Dan Snow 2011 Spencer Kelly 2012 Andy Attenburrow 2013 Will Anderson and Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall 2014 Simon Paintin and Adrian Edmondson

Desmond Wettern Fleet Award 2009 HMS Illustrious 2010 HMS Kent 2011 845 Naval Air Squadron 2012 HMS Somerset 2013 HMS Monmouth 2014 HMS Daring

Maritime Fellowship Award 2009 Charles Clover 2010 David Mearns 2011 Richard Woodman 2012 Richard Doughty and Adrian Evans 2013 Andrew Linington 2014 Richard Sadler

First Sea Lord’s Digital Media Award 2014 Aircraft Carrier Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award for journalism 2011 Peter Greenfield

AWARDS COMMITTEE Julian Parker OBE (Chairman) • Commodore Mike Beardall RN • Patrick Carnie Debbie Cavaldoro • Sarah Fletcher • Rose George • David Hall • John Johnson-Allen Kathy Mansfield • Martin Muncaster • Captain James Nisbet RN (ex officio RN) Professor Sarah Palmer • Alison Rayden • Jonathan Roberts (ex officio CoS) Rob White • Rear Admiral Philip Wilcocks CB DSC DL

PAST AND PRESENT SPONSORS BAE Systems • Babcock International • The Bristol Port Company British Marine Federation • Chamber of Shipping Daily Telegraph • Gosling Foundation Great River Race • Joseph Strong Frazer Trust • Kelvin Hughes • Livanos Trust Lloyd’s Register • The Mærsk Company • The Marine Society and Sea Cadets Nautical Institute • Offshore Marine Medical Services • Plymouth University Port of London Authority • Rolls-Royce • Royal Navy • Seafarer Books • Sea Vision UK Swire Group • Thomas Miller UK • UK Hydrographic Office • Wettern Trust

How does global free trade affect development, and what role can the state play?

The political economy of trade and development Muhammad Madi Karim / GNU Free documentation Licence 1.2

wo years ago trade seemed to be losing its lustre. The World Trade Organization (WTO) appeared to have become unmoored by the ongoing failure of its members to bring the current round of trade negotiations – known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) – to a close and there were suggestions that the WTO might even be finished as a forum for creating trade rules. The Obama administration was widely perceived to be unwilling to expend the political capital needed to push a strong trade agenda, and continued fall-out from the global financial collapse rendered the creation of new trade agreements a secondary concern. Today, things are very different. The WTO is out of the doldrums, reinvigorated by having secured in December 2013 its first multilateral deal since it was created in 1995. Building on this, in July 2015 a group of 54 WTO members, including the biggest trading nations, overcame the final hurdles to completing the Information Technology Agreement, eliminating tariffs on over 200 products. Meanwhile, in the United States Obama overcame initial Congressional opposition to secure trade negotiation authority, giving impetus to the so-called ‘megaregional’ deals the US is negotiating (namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). The wind has firmly returned to the sails of trade liberalisation and the WTO has started to get the stalled DDA back on track. For many, this turn of events is of unquestionable benefit to the world, and to the developing world in particular. It is not hard to see the importance of trade as a central component of successful development stories. The industrial revolution in Britain in the latter part of the eighteenth century could not have taken place without the trade patterns put in place in the preceding centuries and the opening up of foreign markets. The age of

Dr James Scott, Lecturer in International Politics at King’s College London, examines the issues

discovery unlocked the world to trade across the oceans, and ships continue to account for over 90 per cent of all commerce.

The container ship Nicolas Delmas discharging cargo with its own cranes at Zanzibar.

The export-led growth model The role played by trade in the more recent industrialising countries post-WWII was even more striking. Trade was so central to the development models of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan (the original East Asian miracle economies) that the strategy was termed export-led development. Trade generated the foreign exchange required to fund development programmes and provided the markets necessary for economies of scale in industrial production, while investment from Western countries created jobs and learning opportunities. More recently still, China has famously followed this path to spectacular effect, achieving some of the most rapid economic growth ever witnessed. Again, this was based on a model of export-led growth, driven by massive exports of consumer goods to the largest consumer markets in the world (particularly that of the

The wind has firmly returned to the sails of trade liberalisation

TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

For poor countries wanting to improve their lot, the policy prescription is often taken to be one of pursuing greater liberalisation

United States) as a means of generating employment and revenue. Such narratives appear at first glance to tie in strongly with traditional ideas around the benefits of free trade as set out by Adam Smith and David Ricardo during the Enlightenment, and have certainly been used in support of that principle (for example by the most unswerving contemporary proponent of free trade, Jagdish Bhagwati). In recent years this has been given a new spin through the rise of Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis. Though an old idea, GVCs have received great attention in recent years, pushed notably by the WTO. GVC analysis highlights the division of the manufacturing process across multiple countries, each performing different stages of production most suited to their particular level of technological development. Fifty years ago a product stamped ‘Made in the UK’, for instance, would have likely signified that almost all the manufacturing process took place within the UK’s borders with only the input of raw materials coming from elsewhere. Today, such labels are increasingly misleading, as almost nothing is made within the confines of one state anymore. In some regards, stamping things ‘Made in China’ (as is most prevalent nowadays) is almost meaningless, referring only to where the product was finally assembled and packaged, using components imported into China from many countries. For this reason the WTO claims that many goods should more accurately be labelled ‘Made in the World’. For poor countries wanting to improve their lot, the policy prescription flowing from this is often taken to be one of pursuing greater liberalisation to try to become more attractive as a site for entering these global production networks.

Johannes Jansson / Norden/org

(Left) Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations and theorist of free trade, and (right) the American economist Jagdish Bhagwati, a contemporary disciple.

The ‘developmental state’ And yet, controversies remain. Perhaps the greatest revolves around the vexed question concerning the appropriate role of the state in the process of economic development, something that has been a feature of political economy debates for centuries. Though, as noted above, for some the history of those countries that have achieved sustained, rapid growth points to the importance of market mechanisms driving trade, while for others the lesson to be learnt is almost the opposite. In detailed historical examinations of these examples, what stands out in each case is the crucial role of a ‘developmental state’, playing a much more active part in driving the development process than liberal, free trade theory would allow. Though Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ of the market was important, it would appear that the much more ‘visible hand’ of the state was also a necessary element, with the two working in tandem. The developmental state was crucial in actively working to change the areas of comparative advantage that the country enjoyed, pushing economic activity away from traditional areas (generally agriculture and raw material production) toward initially basic industry (primarily textiles and clothing) and subsequently into other more technologically advanced areas. A range of policies were used to do this, all of which contravened core tenets of orthodox economics and its emphasis on allowing the market to direct economic activity. Policies used included targeted tariffs to protect nascent industries, conditions placed on inward investment aimed at encouraging spill-over benefits, and preferential interest rates for key sectors of the economy.

The restriction of ‘policy space’ Such policies have been increasingly outlawed by the rules of the global trade

TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministers’ Conference in Bali, in December 2013. At such meetings, the WTO decides rules that not only govern the terms of trade among member states, but also constrain governments’ scope for determining and implementing national economic policies.

©WTO / ANTARA

system. The strategies used by the current industrialised countries – both those of the West and the more recent industrialised states of East Asia – during their own periods of rapid development are no longer permitted, shrinking the ability of other countries to reapply those lessons. WTO rules, which are backed up by its dispute settlement system and the threat of sanctions for non-compliance, restrict what has come to be known as developing countries’ ‘policy space’ – that is, the freedom that they have to experiment with a set of policies tailored to their particular circumstances, aimed at fostering economic development. There is a fear that new trade agreements made within the WTO or on a regional basis will further restrict this policy space, entrenching the concentration of developing countries in producing raw materials and agricultural goods. If that happens, the possibility of large-scale poverty reduction through trade is diminished, as industrialisation appears to be a necessary condition for achieving sustained, rapid economic development. Arguably, a similar argument holds true even for advanced, developed countries, in which there is still an important role for the state in sustaining a balanced, successful economy. Though the market mechanism has become something of a shrine to which all politicians bend the knee, the most successful high-technology, exporting nations – Germany and the United States are good examples – rely on a complex interplay between public and private sectors, with the public sector often playing a crucial but widely overlooked role in mitigating the risk of entrepreneurial activity and pursuing major technological advances. The current pursuit by governments of deeper, more stringent trade agreements that place ever greater restrictions on what policies the state can employ may prove to be far from optimal.

James Scott is co-editor of the recent books, Trade, Poverty, Development: Getting beyond the WTO’s Doha Deadlock (with Rorden Wilkinson, 2013) and Expert Knowledge in Global Trade (with Erin Hannah and Silke Trommer, forthcoming 2015)

Trade has always been one of the central arenas in which the big questions of political economy are played out

Louis Mackay / MF

In sum, trade has always been one of the central arenas in which the big questions of political economy are played out. Perhaps no such question is more perennial or more pertinent than that related to the appropriate role of the state in the economy. Trade undoubtedly has, in the right circumstances, the capacity to raise people out of poverty and to alter fundamentally the future prospects of poor countries. The opportunities opened up by increasing commerce are of immense benefit to a wide range of people across the globe, suggesting a need to continue the liberalisation agenda with renewed vigour. And yet, balanced against this, the lessons of those countries that have been most successful in harnessing the benefits that trade can bring demonstrate that the state plays a crucial role in this process, working alongside the private sector. Liberalisation, if pursued too far or too fast, prevents this happening – something that is forgotten all too often in the rush to pursue market efficiency. If the potential of trade for achieving development is to be realised, we must give greater recognition to this tension and re-open for debate the appropriate part that the state plays in enabling that process. n

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation

Maritime education, research and technology Professor Richard Clegg, the Foundation’s Managing Director, introduces a global charity working for greater safety at sea

Game-changing technologies in the 19th century – Fox Talbot’s photograph of Brunel’s SS Great Britain, fitting out at Bristol in 1844. This earliest known photograph of a ship records the advent of steam and iron, where there had once been only wind and wood, in transatlantic shipping, and a step change in the speed of crossings.

he Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a global charity whose aims are to enhance the safety of life and property and advance public education in engineeringrelated disciplines. It achieves this through sponsoring and supporting excellent scientific research, public engagement, education activities, and accelerating the uptake and application of research. In pursuit of its charitable activities, the Foundation is driven by a desire to achieve impact and excellence. It does this by working with the best minds globally and ensuring that what it funds is enduser inspired and useful. The Foundation serves many sectors, on land, on sea and in the air, with the maritime community being a particular focus. The Foundation is the sole shareholder of the Lloyd’s Register Group (LR), hence the significance of the maritime focus. The Foundation and LR are able to work together in pursuit of the charitable aims of the Foundation, in essentially making the world a safer place. One of the things the Foundation supports is the heritage collection of LR, built up over

its 256-year history. This collection consists of over 600,000 items and provides an invaluable and unique education resource, which the Foundation is committed to ‘putting to work’ for the benefit of scholars and wider society.

Marine technology history Delving into this archive reveals how maritime technology has evolved and shaped the industry over the centuries. In the nineteenth century the game-changer was the advent of iron and steam. The innovators of the new technologies were often outsiders, practical men from the emerging civil engineering profession with an empirical approach. This in turn led to the need for and growth in underpinning scientific knowledge and research, and ultimately the introduction of new rules as the century progressed. The twentieth century bought with it advances in new engineering skills, which were harnessed by the maritime sector, pioneering new applications. The gamechanging technologies were in the fields of communications, automation, the advent of shipping containers, and refrigeration. To illustrate this, the economies of scale of containerisation mean that a container of goods can nowadays be shipped the 11,000 miles from Southeast Asia to the USA in 22 days at less than the cost of a first-class air ticket. Similarly, the cost of shipping a bicycle from Thailand to the UK equates to about £6.50. For a DVD player the cost is £1. Although technologies have changed and shaped the maritime industry over centuries, the drivers behind R&D innovation have generally remained steady. The drivers arise from pressures to improve profitability (increase efficiency, reduce operating costs), enhance safety and seafarers’ welfare, reduce accidents, and improve environmental performance. As engineering and technology

T H E L LOY D ’ S R E G I S T E R F O U N DAT I O N

Game-changing technology in the 20th century – the intermodal shipping container revolutionised, accelerated and greatly cheapened the worldwide shipment of everything.

applications developed and systems became more complex, the underpinning scientific understanding – of how and why things worked, aged and failed – needed to keep abreast. This led to advances in engineeringrelated research fields such as hydrodynamics, metallurgy, materials behaviour, and more recently human engineering.

Impact of technology on seafarers’ skills and education Harnessing new technologies requires concomitant changes to seafarers’ skills and education. It is ironic, however, how innovations in new technology can actually end up diminishing the role of seafarers. This is not just a recent modern concern. In the late nineteenth century, worries were expressed about the danger of crews being overwhelmed by the management demands of proliferating and complex on-board systems. A pitfall is that lack of operator understanding of technology can lead to over-reliance and over-confidence. An example is radar. Introduced for safe navigation and collision avoidance purposes, over-confidence in the technology has itself caused accidents, leading to common usage of the phrase ‘radar-assisted collision’. New technology can also have the inadvertent effect of making the roles of seafarers more mundane, adding to difficulties in attracting and retaining staff. There is a danger that traditional, practical, hands-on experience is also lost as operator roles focus more on monitoring.

The twenty-first century Polishing up the crystal ball and looking into the twenty-first century, what do we envisage the game-changing technologies will be, and what will be their impact on the skills and education requirements of seafarers? From the Foundation’s perspective, candidate

technologies will probably be in the areas of big data, robotics and autonomous systems, 3D printing (additive manufacturing), and nanotechnology. In the area of big data, ubiquitous sensors coupled with advances in data analytics will lead to applications that in turn can enhance safety, reliability, performance, resilience and reduced operating costs, with feedback into better engineering design. Robotics and autonomous systems will ultimately lead to crewless ships. It is envisaged that 3D printing will herald an era of point-of-use manufacturing, which, it has been forecast, might reduce the global container shipping market by 39% because of the reduced need to ship raw manufacturing materials around the world and distribute products. In the case of nanotechnology, this will enable the manufacture of new designer materials that are stronger, lighter, more conductive, and with properties such as self-healing. The resultant impact on engineering design, choice of construction materials, coatings, joining technologies and electronics will be substantial. Many of these advances in technology are being made outside of the maritime sector. For centuries, however, maritime has shared knowledge and information with other sectors, harnessing new engineering skills and pioneering new applications. The same will undoubtedly be the case with the new twenty-

Game-changing technology in the 21st century – a visualisation by Rolls Royce of a fleet of crewless, robot container ships.

New technology can also have the inadvertent effect of making the roles of seafarers more mundane

T H E L LOY D ’ S R E G I S T E R F O U N DAT I O N

Technology trends within and beyond the marine sector that are likely to affect commercial shipping over the next 15 years (LRF).

Human engineering Moore’s law observed that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years. This is often taken to indicate that technology more widely is developing at an exponential rate. In the immediate future, many innovations and new technologies will be discovered and developed outside of maritime. The challenge for the sector is to harness these advances and pioneer new applications. And as technology advances, it’s not all about physical sciences and engineering. The people element, and a focus on human engineering, merits being of equal importance. n Richard Clegg has 30 years’ experience in the nuclear industry, government and academia, in both the civil and defence sectors. He is a member of the Nuclear Advisory Board to UK Government on UK nuclear strategy.

Louis Mackay / MF

The challenge for the sector is to harness these advances and pioneer new applications

first-century technologies. The opportunity for technology cross-over from other sectors will present major opportunities. Aerospace is one notable example, particularly in the areas of sensors, automation and big data analytics. Against this backdrop, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation is investing in a wide portfolio of grants supporting maritime-related research and education, for the broad safety benefit of society. In order to target its investment and charitable grant giving, the Foundation funds international expert panel reviews in hand-picked subject areas that identify those priority areas where it can make a distinctive contribution. Over the past two years the Foundation has published reviews in the areas of nanotechnology and big data. The nanotechnology publication has led to the award of £9 million in grants to three international consortia, one led by the Nobel Prize winner Professor Sir Andre Geim to extend his work on graphene into application areas including marine. The big data report has also resulted in a £10 million grant to the Alan Turing Institute to focus on the engineering applications of big data, which we have named data-centric engineering. In the very near future, further reports are due to be published covering the subjects of structural integrity and resilience engineering. Two more are in the pipeline in the areas of robotics and autonomous systems, and energy storage. In the skills and education area the Foundation is committed to supporting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in line with its charitable aims. Similar to the reviews mentioned above, such as in the area of big

data, the Foundation has worked in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) to map the UK STEM education landscape. This has revealed, as anticipated, a crowded and complex landscape with over 600 initiatives, providers and schemes, all with no real oversight or coordination. At the moment, the Foundation’s grant portfolio in STEM subjects amounts to about £8.6 million in about 16 countries, many of these linked to supporting maritime causes.

The main areas of focus for the Royal Navy and its partners over the coming years

Towards a more secure maritime future

Maritime security The UK’s economic security begins in our home waters, where the Royal Navy regularly works alongside government agencies in support of a range of constabulary tasks, including fishery protection, counter-

terrorism and counter-narcotics operations. However, it is often at range where the Royal Navy has greatest effect, working to prevent problems before they reach our own shores, or threaten UK interests abroad or British citizens overseas. Nowhere better demonstrates the Royal Navy’s support to trade than the Middle East. The Royal Navy, in concert with our allies and partners, plays a vital role in

Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon homeward bound in the Suez Canal after a tour of duty in the Gulf – currently the Royal Navy’s largest overseas commitment.

Crown Copyright

s an island nation, the United Kingdom has always been dependent on the sea for its prosperity and security. This is particularly true in the era of globalisation, as almost all of our international trade, including energy and food, is carried by sea, and most digital traffic reaches us through undersea fibreoptic cables. But the international system at sea can be fragile too. Failing states, terrorism and piracy all have the power to affect global maritime trade directly, while in the longer term, population pressures, environmental change and competition for natural resources pose challenges to the stability of the international system at sea and in the coastal regions which account for most of the world’s major population centres. This connection between defence and our economic interests helps explain the particularly close relationship between the Royal Navy and the UK’s maritime sector. At any one time, over 7,000 sailors and marines are on operations around the world, working either independently or with our allies, to contribute to the security of the shipping routes and the maritime infrastructure upon which we rely.

Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB, Fleet Commander and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff

contributing to the stability of the region. Currently, the Gulf represents our largest overseas commitment, and the UK will shortly re-establish a permanent naval base in Bahrain. This will serve as a home port for our warships, and will also allow us to project forces beyond the Gulf into the Asia-Pacific, as the economic and strategic importance of that region grows in significance. As well as physically protecting trade and patrolling shipping lanes, the Royal Navy’s economic responsibilities extend to engagement and diplomacy, often in support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or UK Trade and Investment. Here the Royal Navy is both the symbol and instrument of the UK’s strategic global ambition: quietly underlining our military and economic credibility; subtly reinforcing the prestige of the UK maritime sector, and our nation as a whole.

Failing states, terrorism and piracy all have the power to affect global maritime trade directly

TOWARDS A MORE SECURE MARITIME FUTURE

Crown Copyright

A boarding party from HMS Cornwall secures a dhow and releases the Yemeni crew, held hostage by Somali pirates for 92 days in 2011 while their vessel was used as the pirates’ ‘mother ship’. Thanks to the joint operations of many countries’ navies and merchant shipping interests, the number of pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean has since declined.

Like-minded navies working together – HMS Monmouth in company with India’s new Carrier INS Vikramaditya, a modified Kievclass aircraft carrier which entered service in the Indian Navy in 2013.

Royal Navy recapitalisation The Royal Navy’s ongoing recapitalisation will ensure our continued global presence. The centrepiece will be our two new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, which are currently under construction in Scotland. These ships, the largest in our history, will allow the Royal Navy to project power at sea and from the sea. They are at the centre of a much larger equipment programme that includes new submarines, patrol vessels, frigates and tankers, and a new generation of helicopters and jet aircraft, that will secure our maritime future for the next half-century. However, even though the Royal Navy is enjoying sustained investment, it is clear that public spending restraint is going to continue, despite the Government’s welcome decision to meet the 2 per cent NATO defence spending target. This is not a UK problem, but a challenge faced by navies around the world, in part as a consequence of the rising cost of sophisticated technology and the global proliferation of weaponry.

Working more effectively For these reasons, the Royal Navy, and our partners, must seek out better, more effective ways of working to maintain our

advantage, with a particular focus on four areas of action. Firstly, like-minded navies must work more closely together. We learned this lesson from a decade of counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. The solution was built on a persistent presence, together with a strong partnership. It involved intelligence sharing and coordinating ships and aircraft to maximise our reach and capability. As a result, whenever a suspected report of piracy was received, the nearest ship, irrespective of nationality, could be sent to respond. The number of successful pirate attacks has reduced significantly over the past couple of years, which shows what can be achieved when navies and commercial maritime interests coordinate a joint response. However, it would be wrong to conclude that the problem has gone away. Although Somali piracy has been suppressed, it has not been eliminated, and all those with an interest in maritime security must continue to work together. Secondly, there must be a greater focus on capacity building. The Royal Navy trains alongside navies and coastguards around the world, particularly those of developing nations, so they can better protect their own waters and contribute to regional security. Not only can this help prevent threats to maritime security from getting out of hand, but it also provides a stable and secure foundation upon which coastal nations can develop their domestic maritime industries. Thirdly, we must continue our efforts to improve information sharing between all users of the sea. The Royal Navy contributes to this objective through the UK Maritime Trade

TOWARDS A MORE SECURE MARITIME FUTURE

Crown Copyright

Boeing Defence UK

The launch of the new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth at Rosyth in July 2014.

a navigational tool and for safety at sea. If this insight was shared and disseminated amongst lawful users of the sea it could also increase our collective situational awareness within the maritime community. However, we will only be able to maintain our technological edge if we have the necessary expertise, which is why the Royal Navy is working with government, the education sector and our industrial partners to develop the training and skills that both the Royal Navy, and the UK, need for the future. This includes sponsorship of five University Technical Colleges, together with regular outreach activity, particularly with a science or engineering focus. We want to play our part in supporting the development of these skills nationally, because the Royal Navy leans on industry and academia to give us our technological advantage.

Conclusion In conclusion, the relationship between the Royal Navy and the UK maritime sector has never been closer, nor more important, than in this age of global opportunity. As our economic recovery continues, we want to continue to work together, because with a strong and credible Royal Navy comes global influence, greater security and the stability on which military and trading alliances are built.. n Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB joined the Royal Navy in 1978 and saw action in the Falklands conflict. He has held many seagoing and senior staff appointments and was appointed Fleet Commander and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff in 2012.

Boeing’s remotely piloted Scan Eagle, now being used by the Royal Navy for aerial surveillance,

We will only be able to maintain our technological edge if we have the necessary expertise

Louis Mackay / MF

Operations cell in the Gulf, which has been an integral part of the voluntary reporting service for this high-risk area. It is a proven way of increasing our situational awareness for the benefit of the entire maritime community, and is a pattern for future cooperation. Over the last few years we have also put in place the means to allow better information sharing within the UK, notably the National Maritime Information Centre, which brings together government departments and agencies to better coordinate their activities. Meanwhile, the Shipping Defence Advisory Committee continues its longstanding role of bringing together key industry members to discuss threats and security risks. The fourth approach is technological. As the maritime sector seeks to work more closely together, and to share information more effectively, it becomes increasingly crucial that navies develop the equipment and connectivity that make this possible. Unmanned aerial vehicles, for instance, are already employed by commercial maritime industries to inspect offshore infrastructure and improve safety at sea, while the Royal Navy has been using the Scan Eagle remotely piloted aircraft to undertake aerial surveillance and reconnaissance from our ships in the Gulf region. The benefits include reduced cost, lower risk, greater endurance and persistence and more capability, and these advantages cut across both military and civil use. That’s why the Royal Navy is working with our partners in UK academia and in industry, to push the boundaries of existing technology, including a project with Southampton University to test the world’s first experimental 3D-printed drone in a maritime environment. The ability to produce and operate cheap, recoverable, or even disposable drones at sea could vastly extend the eyes and ears of the captain of a merchant vessel, for instance, as

Will creeping territoriality end the freedom of the seas?

Whose highway, whose resources? Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE examines how the global power dynamics of the 21st century are likely to affect use of the oceans

Globalisation is shorthand for the way in which every aspect of human interaction has been stimulated, intensified and accelerated by technology, transportation and communications. As in the past, the tyranny of distance by land, sea and air has been overthrown in virtual terms, this time by technology. It has brought immediacy, efficiency and diversity to every aspect of life and stimulated economic growth. It has liberated the energies and aspirations of a generation in a blink of Clio’s eye. Meanwhile, electronic miniaturisation has led to both the miniaturisation and the expansion of global society, but the sea remains the unchallenged engine of globalisation. Typified by underwater trans-oceanic cables that carry the Internet, the interconnectedness and interdependence of the world are enabled by a mutually supportive and complementary relationship between the sea as a means of universal physical access and communication with an information phenomenon that together energise economic growth, international trade and cultural exchange within a range of synthetic human interactions. The technical complexity of the Internet is matched by the physical, watery world wide web, manifested by worldwide supply chains, trade protocols, port and harbour facilities and the vast apparatus of production and distribution, all supported by the graphical user interfaces of banking, insurance and credit. Similarly, the liquidity of the world’s financial system is mirrored in the physical liquidity of the trading system that relies on the sea. It is the world’s pre-eminent Leo Gaggl / CC-BY-NCSA2.0

Globalisation is fragile, subject to both natural shocks and man-made interventions

veryone knows that the sea is the interconnected body of salt water that covers 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. It is vital in moderating the Earth’s climate, in providing food and oxygen, in its enormous diversity, and for navigation. It dominates human life. Without it, the planet would look a lot like Mars on a bad day – any day in fact. The Internet is a lot like the sea; it is an environment in which man cannot yet live, except in a virtual or temporary sense. Both are used for global access, communication, business and trade. The crucial difference is that those elements that pass virtually over the Internet by e-commerce pass in reality, to a large, tangible and irreplaceable extent, by sea. For centuries, the sea was regarded as something else – a virtual world – which normal people did not inhabit. It had its geeks – deep specialists who understood the mysteries of the medium

A busy and strategically important stretch of the global superhighway – merchant shipping anchored and under way in the Straits of Malacca.

and how to exploit its various features. One could almost say that they understood the programming rules – the winds, waves and tides – that conditioned the flow of vessels around the world. Sea warfare was as alien a concept as cyber warfare is today.

The fragility of the system The lessons that can be drawn from history are that the use of the sea and the efficient functioning of the world’s economy cannot be taken for granted. Globalisation is fragile, subject to both natural shocks and man-made interventions. Investment in any aspect of the use of the sea as a highway or source of commercial gain requires countries and companies to be agile in their management of both military and civilian assets, with the ability to switch resources away from underperforming sectors to more promising areas or regions and the flexibility to switch them back again. It is also clear that countries need to maintain their grip on – or access to – the benefits and rewards of soft sea power, the ways by which the sea acts as a highway and as an exploitable resource. If they do not, others will – competing not just with soft sea power, but also with hard sea power in the form of military presence and power projection. Navies and government agencies can be used for good or ill in this process. States that have an interest in maintaining the international order and the ‘commons’ for their own and others’ benefit employ their naval power to ensure access and security not only for their own commerce, but also for that of the world in general and their economic partners in particular. However, those countries that benefit less from an ordered international trading system – for example those with extensive land areas and aspiring regional powers with assertive claims or authoritarian regimes – are likely to want to find ways to restrict or close down parts of the international system or control it for their own benefit.

The question of the century The great issue that will need to be resolved as the 21st century unfolds is whether the idea of the freedom of the seas is to persist or whether creeping territoriality – whereby states exercise sovereign jurisdiction over their adjacent sea-space, and in some cases beyond – is to prevail. The issues at stake in the South and East China Seas, and in the Arctic, represent significant test cases in this regard, as do, at a lower volume of noise, the disputes between the US and Canada about the status of the North-West Passage, Denmark and the United Kingdom (over Rockall) and those between a number of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is likely that claims to sea areas will become territorial in their application and interpretation, with might determining right and practice making case law. The more that states think of their maritime boundaries in the same terms as land borders, either for economic or for homeland security reasons, the more investment in the apparatus of security and sustainability they will need and seek to impose. If these disputes are not resolved peacefully, future naval conflicts are likely to revolve around and result in a ‘land grab’ at sea, just as land campaigns in the past were fought to acquire land and assets. The great powers have an interest in defending a world that either serves their interests or universal values – or both. The question is – is China an outlier or the leader of an emerging pack, each of which is watching closely how events unfold before making its move? The maritime domain is the oldest global common, which, with maritime trade, forms the backbone of the globalised economy, along with financial and information services worldwide in the form of cyberspace

(Above left) a billboard in a Chinese town: ‘The Diaoyu Islands are China’s – sovereign rights will never be abandoned’ . (Above) Japanese coastguards maintaining de facto control of waters around the same disputed East China Sea islands, known in Japan as Senkaku.

Andy Strangeway / Geograp.co.uk / CCASA2.0

strategic medium for access and exchange, providing military manoeuvre space and the worldwide means of communication for oceanic transport and human contact.

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Huangdan 2060 . CCA3.0-U

W H O S E H I G H WAY, W H O S E R E S O U R C E S ?

Britain’s claim to Rockall, and a surrounding Exclusive Economic Zone and airspace – as part of Scotland – is disputed by Iceland and Denmark. It is not the only disputed British claim in the Atlantic.

Ocean highways

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Shipping routes map by courtesy of MarineTraffic Image licence notes: 1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic 2. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

10.

12.

1. Offshore oil platform. (Photo: Berardo’621) 2. Container ship Mærsk-Mc-Kinney Møller at Gdansk. (Photo: Slawos2) 3. Allure of the Sea, the world’s largest cruise ship. (Photo: Jorge in Brazil1) 4

Deep sea drillship and support vessel. (Public Domain)

5. LNG carrier LNG-Rivers. (Photo: Pline2) 6. Barzan, UASC’s giant container ship. (Photo: HummelHummel2) 7. Taiwanese fishing vessel Yu Feng off West Africa. (USN, Public Domain) 8. MSC Oscar, the world’s biggest container ship. (Photo: Kees Torn1) 9. Traditional fishing pirogue, Madagascar. (Photo: WRI1) 10. VLCC Sirius Star (Photo USN, Public Domain) 11. Giant bulk carrier Vale Rio de Janeiro (Photo: Robert Smith2) 12. Hydrographic and ice patrol ship HMS Echo (Crown Copyright, OGL)

W H O S E H I G H WAY, W H O S E R E S O U R C E S ?

US Navy PD

transactions. Spaceborne platforms are similarly essential to the military and intelligence functions of the free world. As such, guaranteeing stable and free access to the common domains would appear to be a fundamental prerequisite for international peace, security and prosperity. The potential economic and military implications of inaccessible or unstable global commons are likely to be serious, leading to the denial of access to global markets and scarce resources to support the prosperity and integrity of an industrial world. It is ironic that those states seeking to close down the use of the sea for their own exclusive benefit are those that, in parallel, seek to deny the freedom of use inherent on the Internet. In addition, it also has to be recognised that inadequate surveillance, governance and enforcement outside those regions of national jurisdiction will lead to more opportunities for the malware of the sea – criminals, traffickers and terrorists – to ply their illicit trades.

(Top) The RIMPAC exercises in the Pacific in 2014, co-ordinated by the USA, involved 42 naval vessels from 15 nations, including two from China – previously only an observer at RIMPAC. (Above) Chinese naval crew, on a courtesy visit to Pearl Harbor, display a commitment to friendship with the USA and safeguarding world peace.

The potential economic and military implications of inaccessible or unstable global commons are likely to be serious

Mare liberum, mare clausum The next ten years are likely to be characterised by a largely contained international system at sea, in which states will largely cooperate, but will compete continuously for strategic and regional advantage both within – and around – the edges of international maritime law. States will compete in order to secure and exploit the resources of their economic zones, to maximise the opportunities provided by the sea to promote trade, conduct warfare and provide security for their societies and, in conjunction

with commercial concerns, to secure the resources of the wider global commons for their exclusive benefit. It will be important for those states that benefit most from globalisation to continue to assert their rights and demonstrate their commitment to the principle of the freedom of navigation and innocent and transit passage, right up to – and within – the limits of territorial seas prescribed by UNCLOS. It is necessary to preserve mare liberum (freedom of the seas) and resist the attempts at imposing mare clausum (closed seas). Established (status quo) powers will either embrace the opportunities presented by the sea, and they are considerable, or they will surrender the initiative and advantage to others. The question for the developed world is whether they wish China, Russia and other powers to seize the initiative at sea and to dominate the oceans in an era of globalisation. With Russia and China openly saying that they will not adhere to UNCLOS when it does not suit their interests, its provisions are likely to be subject to continual challenge and pressure from their national imperatives and considerations. As we have seen, Chinese investments in ports across the Indian Ocean and in Europe are beginning to look a lot like the ‘treaty port’ system in reverse. The warships are now following. The US, mainly through its Navy, but with important contributions from its other services and its allies, is the current ‘safeguard of the sea’ and, by extension, the whole global economic commercial and financial system. The end of the Cold War, the progressive but irregular and uneven liberalisation of trade and the emergence of capitalism as the dominant economic system, coupled with dramatic advances in telecommunications and digital technologies, led directly to globalisation on the scale that we understand it today. It is easy to take it all for granted and to forget

W H O S E H I G H WAY, W H O S E R E S O U R C E S ?

Where the advantage will lie Therefore, in a developed world in which sea, commercial and national power will be diffused, the advantage is likely to lie with those countries with powerful navies that are able to enforce claims and can deploy sufficient commercial power to exploit the carrying trade, the ocean routes and the exploitation of the resources of the sea. Indeed, where they possess and orchestrate within a coherent strategy both soft and hard maritime power, they are likely, as history reminds us, to control the strategic and economic levers of world power and influence. As Sir Walter Raleigh wrote, ‘Whoever commands the sea, commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.’ The prize for maritime dominance in the 21st century, as at any other time since the 15th century, is control of the engine of globalisation, which enables a country or group of countries to set the global agenda in its own image and interests, with regard to every aspect of human activity, interchange and security. Consequently, the 21st century is unlikely

to be quiet or straightforward for those who pass on the sea upon their lawful occasions. In a complex, competitive environment, modern maritime forces will be needed to ensure national security and the rights of access and trade at sea, especially to natural resources and energy products, in the face of increasingly assertive, adventurous and aggressive states. In some cases, these circumstances will lead to the threat and use of force in support of national interests or in support of international norms, through the employment of both manned and, increasingly, unmanned platforms and systems. In resisting attempts by some states, notably China and Russia, to assert sovereign rights over the global commons, the choices made by those states that benefit most from the existing international system will determine whether the principle of the freedom of the seas established five hundred years ago will continue to prevail. n Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE, after 36 years’ service in the Royal Navy, at sea and in senior staff appointments, was the first Chair of the UK’s Marine Management Organisation. He is the author of Super Highway – Sea Power in the 21st Century (Elliott & Thompson)

Warships of the Russian Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea during a ‘surprise combat-readiness inspection’ in March 2015. One consequence of global warming, and the promise of easier access to trade routes and marine resources, is a growing strategic interest in the Arctic region.

Louis Mackay / MF

that globalisation is secured and sustained by the simple fact that the leading proponent of capitalism also happens to be the world’s pre-eminent military power, with a substantial superiority of hard power at sea over any other country or regional grouping. The US, for reasons of simple fiscal reality and power ratios, is unlikely to be able to sustain that preeminence in every part of the World Ocean without the help, resources and commitment of its allies and like-minded partners.

mil.ru ,/ CCA4.0

National maritime economic zones, shown in red, and free global ocean (VLIZ, Flanders Marine Institute: www.vliz.be)

Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from global shipping

Is shipping coming clean? Dr Tristan Smith, Director of University College London’s ‘Shipping in Changing Climates’ project, considers how honest the industry is being in meeting its commitments

n 2015, international shipping is the key enabler of globalisation and the standard of living to which we’ve become accustomed. It carries the food and goods we personally consume, the energy commodities to heat our homes, fuel our cars and provide our electricity, the raw materials and manufactured goods that drive our economies. It is hard to imagine a future where these roles don’t continue, which is maybe why so many in the shipping industry find it hard to think of much other than a long-term trend of ‘business as usual’ – albeit superimposed on the usual market cycles of good and bad times. There are many different ‘things’ that could disrupt the literal and metaphorical behemoth that is international shipping: 3D printing, melting ice in the arctic, long-distance railways, nuclear Armageddon … For TRANSPORT TRANSPORT some of these it is worth speculating SUPPLY DEMAND about their timescale and potential impact, and many do. One ‘thing’ that we have now spent a few years thinking about with reference to the shipping industry SUPPLY/DEMAND DYNAMICS is climate change. In the Shipping in Changing Climates project which started in 2013, we are looking at three overlapping areas – impacts on transport supply (the ships and their Figure 1. The areas of operation), impacts on transport demand international shipping research being studied in (global trade), impacts on supply/demand the Shipping in Changing dynamics (the evolution of the industry, Climates project. the shipping markets and the regulation of shipping), shown in Figure 1. The backdrop to our thinking is the climate science that informs us about what futures we can expect if we follow various paths. From a climate perspective, the science can be distilled pretty succinctly: we have a knownknown that if the global economy emits more than approximately 1,428 Gigatonnes (Gt), we expose ourselves to dangerous climate change. That is change that will cause massive damage to society globally, and, if continued

unchecked, bring about the extinction of the human race. This backdrop explains the initiative of the United Nations Framework – Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to commit to a 2-degree stabilisation by 2100. The initiative has built gradually: through the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord, and hopefully the strongest commitment yet will be within the Paris Climate Agreement to be finalised this December. We already have firm commitments from a number of Annex I and non-Annex I countries, not least UK’s leadership with the Climate Change Act, strong EU leadership and US and China pledges. There is a direction of travel and its clearly towards firmer absolute emission reduction commitments. But at present it is still not strong enough to meet the 2-degree objective. So there is a known-unknown about how the discussions will play out. We can deduce some bounding scenarios to further consider what this will all mean for shipping: 1 Global efforts to control GHG fail and shipping will operate in a new era of dangerous climate change 2 Global efforts succeed, and other sectors of the economy decarbonise faster than shipping, enabling shipping to grow its share of emissions 3 Global efforts succeed, and all sectors decarbonise at a similar speed, sharing the burden approximately equally.

Knowns and unknowns In our research activity, we consider all three of these scenarios. We build evidence about how they might each influence the future of trade, the future of commodity prices (including pricing of marine fuels), the future regulatory mechanisms and their stringency, and the probable response of the shipping industry to these drivers. There remain many known-unknowns, but by

33 gigatonnes is the absolute limit that shipping can contribute to total GHG emissions before the consequent effect on climate change threatens human life.

assembling detail and using this detail to produce estimates of the range of foreseeable outcomes, we can minimise the unknowns and maximise the knowns. The work is still ongoing, but indications are that all three are technologically and commercially foreseeable, but result in very different pathways for the industry over the next few decades. Scenario 1 involves little change to the current system, at least until the effects of dangerous climate change hit, but at that point the health of the international shipping industry will be the least of anyone’s worries. Scenario 2 would certainly require international shipping to define an absolute emission cap, and the level of that cap and the transition it implies could vary considerably. GHG emissions would need to stabilise and then reduce, which would lead the industry to move away from its current dependence on fossil fuels, a process that could take place over several decades. Scenario 3 is perhaps the easiest to quantify and define: we know the total CO2 budget for all sectors, and we know that for the last decade or so, shipping’s GHG represent approximately 2–3 per cent of anthropogenic emissions. If shipping is to remain on average a 2–3 per cent share, the total emissions that can be emitted are 33 Gt and the emissions pathway would need to look something like Figure 2. We also know that there are expectations for growth in world trade and transport demand. If GHG emissions reduce and transport demand grows, then shipping’s GHG intensity (e.g. the g CO2/t. nm) would, across the whole sector, need to reduce by about 85 per cent by 2050. Besides building up analysis and evidence on this topic, we have also been collecting data and perspectives from stakeholders from across the shipping industry, freight supply chains, governments and NGOs, as well as following the coverage in the shipping and

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IS SHIPPING COMING CLEAN?

maritime media on the subject of GHG. What is becoming obvious is that there is minimal awareness of Scenario 3, let alone engagement in it. Many organisations actively call for Scenario 1, or at best a variant of Scenario 2 which involves the bare minimum: token reduction commitments. The dialogue in the media and policy fora is often structured like a PR campaign, promoting the efficiency credentials of international shipping in relative terms and highlighting the steps and progress already taken. The recent results of the Third GHG study by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) were celebrated for precisely the wrong reasons – using recent market-driven reductions in GHG as a sign of progress in the industry, and ignoring the risk of the reversal of this trend, or the dissonance between the same study’s forecast rising emissions from shipping, and the rest of the world’s intention to achieve absolute emission reductions.

A bubble of naïvety These stances are understandable. The shipping industry has had a tough time recently and has shown a remarkable ability to reduce its carbon intensity, which does deserve congratulation

The dialogue in the media and policy fora is often structured like a PR campaign, promoting the efficiency credentials of international shipping Figure 2. Trajectories of CO2 emissions for international shipping, assuming that the sector’s emissions remain 2–3 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions and that climate stabilisation is achieved .

IS SHIPPING COMING CLEAN?

Lade A/S

A steep reduction in emissions will be extremely painful for all involved

Another proposal for wind-assisted shipping – Vindskip®, proposed by the Norwegian designers Lade A/S. In this case, the high, convex hull acts as the aerofoil, harnessing power from the ‘relative wind’ created by the vessel’s initial, powered, forward motion.

(and analysis) – besides, no one likes a doommonger or purveyor of criticism. However, they are naïve stances, and imply that shipping is living in a bubble unaware of the wider global momentum building on the topic of GHG (China, the USA, and Shell’s CEO have all made commitments and statements about absolute emission reductions). Worse still, these stances have a significant risk of damaging the very industry they are trying to support. The reason this is likely to cause damage is that, unlike almost any other regulatory issue, GHG is a zero sum game. Furthermore, the societal and therefore political pressure to implement changes will only increase as the effects of climate change start to bite. Climate change and temperature rise are the consequence of cumulative emissions of CO2 – hence the concept of carbon budgets. It will still take some time for the UNFCCC to formulate a framework, and the IMO is following a three-step process on further technical and operational measures, starting with trying to measure fuel and emissions. In the meantime, every tonne of GHG emitted only makes the eventual required rate of emission reduction steeper, and any impacts/consequences on the industry more severe. Given the approximately 30-year lifetime of a ship and the difficulty and cost of technology change, a steep reduction in emissions will be extremely painful for all those involved. Rapid

emission reduction could lead to widespread premature obsolescence and scrappage, losses for the well-prepared and bankruptcy/ foreclosure for the least prepared. An industry experiencing high rate of change is unlikely to be conducive to growth in world trade, whereas an industry undergoing a gradual wellmanaged transition has better potential to keep its customers happy and sustain the demand for its services.

Transparency and evidence To summarise, one of the biggest risks to the future of global trade is a regressive shipping industry that refuses to engage in meaningful GHG emissions discussions and commitments and which consequently undergoes a late, steep and harsh transition away from its dependence on fossil fuels. International shipping needs desperately to have a more honest, open and transparent debate about these issues. It also needs a strong evidence base to inform the strategy that will help it negotiate the transition with the minimum of unintended consequences and the maximum stability, profitability and equity. There are potential starring roles there for both academia and the shipping and wider media, and the sooner we get started the better. n Dr Tristan Smith, who qualified as a naval architect and mechanical engineer, led the Third IMO GHG Emissions Study, and is the lead author of Ships and Marine Technology. The UCL ‘Shipping in Changing Climates’ project is jointly funded by the UK Research Council and industry.

Louis Mackay / MF

Windship Technology Ltd

The Auxiliary Sail Propulsion System (ASPS), proposed by the consortium Windship Technology Ltd, uses vertical aerodynamic wings fitted to the decks of vessels such as bulk carriers, container ships or tankers. The rigs rotate automatically to optimise the power of the prevailing wind. Computational fluid dynamic work by Lloyd’s Register’s Technical Investigation Department suggests that ASPS could provide more than 50% of a vessel’s required propulsive thrust, saving up to 30% of a bulk carrier’s fuel consumption.

A new study on the conditions of world fishers, the destruction of marine environments and the depletion of fish stocks

Fishers and plunderers Crown Copyright

here is excessive competition in world fisheries, and a vast oversupply of capacity and effort in relation to the volume of marine life. Consequently vessels spend longer at sea in pursuit of scarcer fish. Capital and operational costs are rising, and economies to offset these are obtained through subsidies from governments, increased technology, destructive methods in fishing, illegal catching, fraud and systematic criminality, and especially through drastic reductions in the labour costs of crewing. While there are many on-going scientific projects on marine ecological problems that stem from overfishing, pollution, acidification of the sea and climate change, our study gives particular consideration to the human elements involved in finding, catching, preserving and delivering fish to world markets. Our data have been derived from reports, articles and field work in Africa, Asia and the Pacific as well as in Europe. Because of the paucity of statistics on most of the topics, we have placed much reliance on fishers’ own statements. About sixteen and a half million sea fishers serve worldwide on over four million vessels in national and international waters; the greatest numbers are from developing countries. In total, around 90 million tonnes of fish are lawfully landed each year. This figure does not include illegally caught fish; nor are the millions of tonnes of fish dumped at sea as ‘bycatch’ included in overfishing estimates. Huge human risks accompany ‘the race to fish’. Available statistics on injuries and mortality are very sparse outside developed

Lead author Alastair Couper, Emeritus Professor at the University of Cardiff and a Director of Seafarers’ Rights International, summarises the findings

economies, but we know that, even in a wellconducted industry such as the UK’s, one in twenty fishers is likely to be killed at work. The risks are much higher elsewhere. Sea fishing is the most dangerous of all industrial occupations.

Imperial advantage Nation states claim rights to fish under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 82). Our study shows the advantage that the most developed countries, with their imperial inheritances, derive from this in the allocation of sea areas, as well as the preferences that governments give to larger companies in allocating quotas. The advantages that developed countries have over the mass of fishers in the developing world include subsidies, and extend to violations of UNCLOS 82 articles involving deprivation of opportunities for small-scale fishers owing to corruption in the provision of licences to foreign vessels by developing country governments, for private profits.

The French trawler Alf in heavy weather in the Irish Sea in 2013. In spite of the conditions, with the vessel’s deck rising and falling 40 feet, a crew member who had been seriously injured was successfully winched off by an RAF helicopter crew, with the RNLI lifeboat Angell and the Hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo standing by.

Fishing is the most dangerous of all industrial occupations

FISHERS AND PLUNDERERS

Some twenty to forty per cent of catches from many EEZs are taken illegally

Alastair Couper

A very large pelagic vessel with advanced fish finding and catching equipment capable of netting several hundred tonnes at every haul.

In several parts of the world, fishing vessels have become pawns in territorial disputes, and innocent fishers have been imprisoned as a result. At the same time, extensive illegal fishing throughout the world ocean not only deprives countries of income but again results in the imprisonment of fishers when vessels are apprehended and owners are not traceable behind corporate veils and flags of convenience. Some twenty to forty per cent of catches from many exclusive economic zones (EEZs) are taken illegally. The appearance of legality is given to sales of these black fish through systems of processing, disguise and laundering. The crews of distant-water fishing vessels are particularly exposed to systemic abuse and criminality. Under the intolerable conditions prevailing in many fisheries, low-cost crews can only be obtained by means of duplicity in contracts, and the trafficking of migrant

young men and boys from rural areas. Our study cites accounts of recruitment methods from several parts of South East Asia. Where contracts are involved, these are generally very unfair, but in the main there are no contracts. Agencies require recruits to pay for the job, and their representatives in rural areas provide only promises on pay and conditions while families have to provide collateral, and any costs involved in bringing migrants to ships are recovered from wages. We have some one hundred first-hand accounts of the conditions experienced by fishers, which include slavery, abandonment, beatings, and in several instances child labour, sexual abuse and murder. Actions taken by fishers in response to being deprived of opportunities to fish from their communities are evident in accounts of attacks by coastal people on foreign ships, though these have generally been unsuccessful in driving them away. Actions by fishers on board ships include desertion, mutiny and even the murder of captains and senior officers. All of these have resulted in imprisonment. However, it has been impossible to establish the full extent of such instances, the level of sentences and whether fair trials with representation have been possible.

Alastair Couper

The limits of the law

(Right) low-level, poorly paid work: adults and children peeling freshly landed shrimps on a south Indian quayside.

Alastair Couper

(Above) typical of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Somalia are smallscale fisheries, using skiffs driven by powerful outboard motors. Catches are landed on the beach and taken to market in pick-up trucks.

Success in the protection of abused fishers by recourse to legal methods is only achieved when trade unions and NGOs are able to bring matters to a court of law. The unusual case of New Zealand, where crews have taken legal action in pursuit of unpaid wages and compensation, offers an example of what can be achieved. However, our study also shows that fishers who cooperate in such cases have been exposed to blacklisting and other retaliation on return to their home areas. Poverty in fishing communities has driven many young men into crewing vessels engaged

FISHERS AND PLUNDERERS

Protecting fish and fishers What measures are being taken for the protection of fish stocks and the related wellbeing of fishers and their communities, and what more needs to be done? There is clearly a need to integrate science, technology and law, and to take due account of the many human factors involved. New international projects supported by the United Nations with massive state and private funding will make use of satellite surveillance to track thousands of vessels. But the methods of disguising catches, and the use of fraudulent documents and ports of convenience, can only be tackled with the cooperation of fishers themselves. Similarly, the expansion of marine protected areas requires the close involvement of local fishers, especially where fishing populations exist only on the margins of survival.

Phuketwan.com

The main conclusions of our study highlight a list of 39 issues that are receiving different degrees of attention under various international agreements that define the rights of fishers. Existing conventions on safety and training and the neglected articles of UNCLOS 82 need to be implemented, while the more recent ILO Work in Fishing Convention 188 (2007) remains to be ratified as well as implemented by member states. Such mechanisms will be given most force – channelled through retail companies and NGOs – by pressures from below that arise from public awareness of the atrocious working and living conditions experienced by the fishers who harvest the fish we buy and consume. n Fishers and Plunderers: Theft, Slavery and Violence at Sea, by Alastair Couper, Hance D. Smith, and Bruno Ciceri, is published by Pluto Press.

On 16 October 2011 the mutineers on the Supaporn killed the captain and the chief engineer and threw their bodies overboard. The boat broke down off Phuket and was boarded by the Thai coastguard. The young Burmese fishers are shown being questioned by a Phuket police commander.

Louis Mackay / MF

in drug smuggling. Their value in this role comes from their knowledge of coastal areas and their skills at sea. One chapter in our study provides a good indication of the extent to which drugs may be carried on board fishing vessels, even inside frozen fish. Transfers take place at sea to smaller craft able to make beach landings. When arrests are made and vessels are sunk in reprisal, it is the fishers who suffer, never the drug cartels. Another alternative for impoverished fishers is engagement with piracy. We have accounts of this from South East Asia and from East and West Africa. But fishers are themselves victims of pirates to a much greater extent than is evident from the coverage of hostage taking from merchant ships. Many fishers do not report being robbed for fear of reprisals against themselves when they next go to sea, or against their communities. Fishers can sometimes buy some protection from the gangs in the form of immunity certificates.

African Conservation Foundation

Destructive fishing with the use of dynamite in coral reef areas on East African coast – in regular use also in Asia, along with the use of poisons to stupefy fish for ease of collection.

Scapa Flow, Orkney, will be at the heart of the 2016 centenary commemoration of the Battle of Jutland

The ghosts of Scapa Flow Brian Lavery, naval historian and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, reflects on the history of the naval anchorage in two World Wars

Warships of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow, steaming in parallel columns in the North Sea during the First World War.

capa Flow in Orkney was the Royal Navy’s main fleet base during two world wars, because it was well situated to block the northern exit from the North Sea – it was the hinge of the door which isolated Germany from the outside world. Admiral Jacky Fisher claimed later that he had ‘discovered’ it, but this was disputed by Captain Munro. ‘It was a great pity that when he did “discover” it that he did not take in hand its construction into a defended naval harbour ...’ At the end of July 1914, as war with Germany seemed certain, a great fleet of 20 Dreadnought battleships, four battle cruisers, 21 cruisers and 42 destroyers was ordered to Scapa. In the expectation of battle, all wooden items were cast aside, including wardroom furniture and even pianos. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe arrived on 2 August as the second-in-command of the force, now known KIRKWALL

MAINLAND Stromness

Graemsey

Hoy Sound

Houton

HMS Royal Oak sunk, 1939 German Fleet wrecks, 1919

S C A PA FLOW

Rysa

Lyness

very nerve must be strained to reconcile the E Fleet to Scapa. Successive lines of submarine defences should be prepared, reinforced by contact mines as proposed by the Commanderin-Chief. Nothing should stand in the way of the equipment of this anchorage with every possible means of security.

Blockships, mines and drifters

Cava

HOY

as the Grand Fleet. In the morning of 4 August he received instructions to open a secret envelope, ordering him to take command of the fleet. War between Britain and Germany started formally at midnight. Aware that nothing had been done to create a safe anchorage, Jellicoe wrote, ‘I was always far more concerned with the safety of the Fleet when it was at anchor in Scapa Flow.’ On 1 September his worst fears seemed to be realised. A look-out in the cruiser Falmouth reported a periscope about 50 yards away and the ship’s guns opened fire. The whole fleet was ordered to go to sea. But there was no German submarine in the area; the look-out had probably seen a pole caught in the wash of a passing destroyer. The fleet went to Loch Ewe, and Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote an order in a style that was to become familiar to millions in a later war:

BURRAY Fara

FLOT TA

Sound of Hoxa

SOUTH WALLS 0

Miles

SOUTH RONALDSAY 5

The first blockship was sunk in East Weddel Sound on 14 September and that channel was largely blocked two days later. Where it was necessary to allow access, Captain Munro developed a form of boom defence. The first minefield in the base was laid off South Ronaldsay, at the end of 1914. The entrances to the Flow were patrolled by fishing boats and destroyers. Sub-Lieutenant Angus Cunningham-Graham found it very hard work. ‘The weather at the boom always seemed to be foul and a seven knot tide ... kicked up the nastiest sort of sea. The drifter

T H E G H O S T S O F S C A PA F LO W

German warships of the High Seas Fleet, including the cruisers Emden, Frankfurt and Bremse, entering Scapa Flow in November 1918, following the armistice.

was lighted by acetylene gas, and if I smell carbide, even now, my mind goes straight back to that patrol.’ This could not protect against tragedy. The battleship Vanguard was lying peacefully at anchor off Flotta on the night of 9 July 1917, when a tremendous explosion lit the night. Until oil fuel became common later in the war, ships coaled up as soon as they came back from an operation, a filthy, laborious business. e hold gangs began shovelling furiously to Th get the bags filled. ... Throughout the night the shovels were working and the winches rattling away, whilst the inboard gangs were clearing the dumps at the double to have the coal tipped into the bunkers. Those poor devils in the bowels of the ship were trimming the bunkers as the coal shot into them.

A population of about 150,000 sailors, fishermen and civilian workers had to be fed. 320 tons of meat were needed per month, along with 800 tons of potatoes and 80,000 pounds of bread. Stephen King-Hall claims that ‘… those who spent some time in that part of the world … passed through three stages. First, they talked to themselves; then they talked to the sheep; and lastly they thought the sheep talked to them.’ Many of the seamen had their homes and families at almost the opposite end of the United Kingdom in the Plymouth area. The leave train from Thurso to London, the ‘Jellicoe Special’, was often grossly overcrowded and took 24 hours or more to complete its journey. At the end of May 1916 the main fleet sailed from the Flow to join other ships from Cromarty and the Forth to fight the Battle of Jutland. It was a crushing disappointment for those who hoped for a great victory, though the main losses were among the battlecruisers

based in the Forth rather than the ships at Scapa Flow. But the battle confirmed that the German High Seas Fleet was unlikely to defeat the Royal Navy, and it hardly left harbour again. Many aircraft had flown off ships by this time, but none had landed on them. On 5 August 1917 the battlecruiser Furious steamed across the Flow at high speed and Squadron-Commander Edwin Dunning flew his Sopwith Pup round the superstructure and at his stalling speed, which was equal to the airflow over the ship, he was pulled down by carrying handles fitted to his wings. The following day he tried again and was killed – ‘flat-top’ aircraft carriers would be needed.

The German fleet scuttled By 1918 the facilities in the Firth of Forth were judged sufficient and on 11 April the Grand Fleet headed south to leave Scapa for the last time during that war. But some of the ships were back by the end of the year, guarding the German High Seas Fleet, which was interned under the armistice of 11 November. In June 1919 Admiral von Reuter,

(Above) the German battleship Bayern, sinking after being scuttled with the rest of the captive fleet in 1919, and (below) the scuttled destroyer G102 with a tug alongside – and a figure apparently jumping onto the bridge.

Scapa Flow today, looking towards the island of Hoy.

T H E G H O S T S O F S C A PA F LO W

in command of the ‘Internment Formation’, issued secret orders to prepare for scuttling. On the 21st a party of local schoolchildren on a day trip round the harbour watched in amazement as the great fleet disappeared. Some went down with their sterns almost vertical above the water, others listed to port or starboard with vast clouds of steam and rivers of oil pouring out of their vents and bubbling to the surface after the ships had reached the bottom and there was the roaring of escaping steam and the shouts of thousands of sailors as they made off in the boats.

The Second World War The British fleet only visited Scapa Flow intermittently during the 1920s and 30s, ‘Super-Dreadnought’ battleships HMS Warspite and HMS Malaya. Though badly damaged, both survived the 1916 Battle of Jutland

2016 Battle of Jutland Centenary Government-supported events in Orkney and elsewhere will include l A service at St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall on Orkney Mainland l

A commemorative event at the RN Cemetery at Lyness, Hoy

A wreath-laying ceremony at sea by British and German ships

Royal Navy major warship visit to the Orkney Islands

The opening of HMS Caroline in Belfast as a museum

l The laying of commemorative paving stones in honour of the

four Victoria Cross recipients from the Battle of Jutland l

Orkney Island Council’s cultural and educational activities

l The commemoration of Jutland casualties buried in Sweden, Norway

and Denmark l

Commemorative events in Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham

l Commemorative events in Germany in Wilhelmshaven, home to the

German High Seas fleet, and at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Kiel

and again the harbour was unprepared when the next war started in September 1939. Immediately there was tragedy when the battleship Royal Oak was sunk by U-47. Ludovic Kennedy wrote, ‘The islands were treeless, just heather and grass, seabirds and sheep, and across the bare face of the Flow tempests blew, often for days on end. There were no women, shops, restaurants, just a couple of canteens that dispensed warm beer, a hall for film shows and the occasional concert party …’ The role of the Flow had changed, as Germany no longer had a battlefleet, so a concentration like the Grand Fleet was not needed. It was the base for the disastrous operations off Norway in 1940, and in May 1941 the ships of the Home Fleet, including the ill-fated battlecruiser Hood, sailed from there when the Bismarck escaped into the Atlantic. By the end of 1941 the Flow had become the base for support of the Russian convoys and facilities improved slightly. D A Rayner observed in August 1943, ‘Where there had been miles of muddy roads and open fields there were now hard roads and serried ranks of good huts. There were canteens for the men and there was also a giant mess for the officers.’ But there was nothing to get excited about, and one sailor recounted, ‘Harbour routine at Scapa was the same day after day: clean guns; clean ship; watch-keeping; divisions; evening quarters; store parties ...’ It was far worse outside the harbour. In 1943 a midshipman in the cruiser Belfast wrote after a patrol, ‘I think most people were glad to see Scapa again, almost as glad as they were to leave it before.’ Though the harbour had played a vital role in winning two world wars, the navy was not saddened when Scapa Flow was abandoned again after the war; its role is commemorated in the Heritage Centre in the old naval base at Lyness on the island of Hoy. n

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