Life at Sea Weblog

I am the technical editor and Nordic/Baltic correspondent on the leading shipping newspaper, Lloyd’s List.

I have spent the last ten years ashore working as a journalist and business event manager following a period of about ten years at sea. As an industry, shipping is generally ignored by the general public, and life on-board vessels often misunderstood or dismissed by those who should know better.

This blog started out as a four day report on my views, returning back onto a vessel for the first time in over a decade. It was an attempt to explore modern life on board a technologically sophisticated merchant vessel. Having now left the vessel ( I sailed from Göteborg to Southampton, via Zeebrugge), I asked the Fidelio’s second officer, Ellinor Arvidsson, if she would like to continue the blog going, writing her thoughts and observations as the vessel goes across the Atlantic to the East coast of North America, visits a number of ports before returning to Europe.

The opinions on this blog are my own personal views, and those of the ships’ crews voiced here, and therefore have no bearing on those of Lloyd’s List, or the papers owner, Informa. This is an attempt to highlight the technical innovation and complexity of modern tonnage, and the men and women who have the role of ensuring that cargoes (whether it is your next car, camera or coffee) get to their destinations safely.