Odds & sods

Odd kind of Stories to do with the sea, seafarers & ships

(well most of the time)

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RISKS

A recent Norwegian health study that ranked seamen as having the second highest risk caught my eye the other day.

I think the same factors that cause this rating would have applied even more so in our days.

People working in mines and quarries have been found to have the greatest cancer risk of all occupational groups. According to the Nordic Occupational Cancer Study, seamen have the second-highest risk, while tobacco industry workers come in third.

      The study, which is being released on Tuesday, finds that the lowest cancer risk is among farmers and garden workers.

      The head of the project, Esko Pukkala, notes that lifestyle is a much more significant factor than profession in the spread of cancer.

     Certain jobs affect correlate with a higher cancer risk not by exposing workers to cancerous environments as such, but rather by promoting certain lifestyle features, such as cigarette breaks.

     "Dust, asbestos, or chemicals, which directly come with the profession, only explain about four per cent of cancers suffered by men, and fewer among women."

     "However, there are 500 of these cancers a year, and when the causes are recognised, they can be removed, which is already a big factor", Pukkala says.

      Pukkala estimates that a lack of exercise is responsible for about 400 cases of breast cancer each year.

      "If a person does not exercise, the body does not work as well. With men, the impact of the lack of exercise is not as clear as with women."

Factors contributing to cancer rates among mine and quarry workers include radon gas, rock dust, and asbestos. Finland's asbestos mines were closed down a long time ago, but the disease can break out decades after exposure. "In mining work, factors that promote cancer have been largely removed", Pukkala says.

Cancers among ship crews are linked with factors such as the asbestos insulation that was previously used in machine rooms, and occasional exposure to chemicals in cargo.

     Seamen also frequently suffer from cancers caused by smoking and alcohol, such as cancers of the mouth larynx, liver, and the lungs.

No doubt the duty free price of cigarettes and booze didn’t help us to abstain.ed.

     Those working in the tobacco industry have been entitled to free cigarettes. Pukkala also notes that the air in cigarette factories has also had large amounts of carcinogenic substances.

     Restaurant personnel have suffered from having to breathe large amounts of second-hand smoke.

  Male journalists frequently have alcohol-related cancers, but they have fewer smoking-related cancers. Women journalists, for their part, have more than double the lung cancer risk of the average woman, apparently resulting from a higher rate of smoking.

     Men in general tend to suffer from cancer more frequently than women.

      The cancer risk among women teachers is slightly higher than that among women in General, and with woman doctors the risk is a quarter higher than among the female population at large. This is attributed to lengthy studies, resulting in a delay in the birth of the first child, and having fewer children, both of which are believed to increase the risk of breast cancer.

     The cancer rate among male teachers and doctors is significantly below the average for all men.

Pukkala attributes the low cancer rate among farmers, garden workers, and forest workers to the beneficial exercise that comes with the job. Women in farming have traditionally smoked rarely, and had children early and more frequently.

     "Farmers rarely get melanoma, because they rarely get sunburned. In addition, they eat vegetable-based foods", Pukkala says.

So don't say you haven't been warned!

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A mechanical beak for a bird, amazing what doctors can do. I could do with a new appendage, I wonder...

Shanghai truckies know how to do it!!  I wonder what our traffic police would say.

 THE WELL KNOWN WRECK OF THE CHERRY VENTURE

A FADING Queensland icon is about to receive its last rites.

She wasn't there when I was there!  I looked. The wreck has been a famous stopping point and talking point for tourists useing the beach 'Highway' from Teewentin (just north of Noosa to Rainbow beach, where you get the ferry to fraser island)

Hundreds of tourists are expected to farewell the famous Cherry Venture shipwreck one last time this summer before the rusty Sunshine Coast landmark is demolished in the New Year.

How she looked in 1973

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service yesterday confirmed more than three decades of weather and tides had rendered the tourist spot too dangerous.

Time takes its toll.

QPWS regional director Terry "Venture" Harper said deadly asbestos had spread into the engine room and the structure had corroded.

"It's a shadow of its former self," Mr Harper said.

"The story is important locally but the wreck is now a liability rather than an asset."

A two-month demolition, costing about $570,000, will start in February. An information board will remain to tell the Cherry Venture tale for future generations.

The Singaporean cargo ship ran aground at Teewah Beach near Double Island Point on July 8, 1973, after being smashed by 12m waves and 140km/h winds.

Local tourism groups are lamenting the loss of the popular day trip site and pit stop for Fraser Island four-wheel-drivers.

Tourism Noosa chief Phil Harman said operators who used the site would find business elsewhere.

"It's a pity to see it go but I don't think it will have a great impact on tourism in the region," Mr Harman said.

A Queensland Maritime Museum spokesman said the wreck held no historical value.

"We're glad to see it go," he said.

(A little sequel to this story, about 1975 I was peggy/pilot cutter seaman at the Sydney pilot station at Watsons Bay. The new 'Cherry Venture' was berthed at the single point mooring bouy in Botany Bay, discharging Arabian light crude to the Ampol Refinery (Now long gone) - a big storm came up quick, big swells coming in made the berth untenable, the ship slipped her cable and put to sea, leaving ashore the Captain, Chief Engineer & about 4 other crew members.

The storm kept on making unsafe to attempt to put then back on the ship for a couple of days.  When the weather abated somewhat, still big big seas but not the vicous sort we took the Japanese crew members out to sea to put then back on the ship.

The first attempt was unsucsessful, seas to big and they unused to small boats, terrified and horribly seasick.

It took about 4 days to get them back on board trying twice a day.

I felt real sorry for them, each day they faced the trip with a calm brave, brown Japanese face, coming back their faces were pea green and they would be lying on the deck groaning.

They were good they managed to keep most of the vomit in their buckets and we didn't have to much cleaning up to do.)  

*******

WORLD ‘KNOCKING’ CUP

I WONDER WHO WON.

(I came across this little item recently, its old news but I couldn’t resist sharing it with you, I never heard it mentioned in all the World Cup broadcasts I heard & saw)

Next year's soccer World Cup will be a boon to a host of German businesses, not least, the sex trade. One host city already has an answer as to where all those extra transactions will take place.

One of the seedier spin-offs of the soccer world cup that will take place in Germany in 2006 is expected to be a boom in the local sex trade. And that's raising a host of concerns and considerations. Moral issues aside, order-loving city officials in Dortmund have at least addressed the logistics of the pending flurry of entrepreneurial activity.

After all, prostitutes will need places to service their clients. And Dortmund officials are determined that those places should ideally be removed from public streets, parks and residential areas.

Not surprisingly, the solution has been imported from Germany's liberal northern neighbour, the Netherlands, in the form of a series of drive-in wooden "sex huts."

"In Dortmund, we have an official red light district on the outskirts, but there is a problem. There is not enough space for everyone to park," a city official said.

Dortmund plans to arrange the huts in an area complete with condom vending machines and snack bars. The huts have also been introduced in Cologne, another World Cup venue.

"Men have to get used to them of course, but a high percentage accept them because they can protect their anonymity," the official said.

Experts estimate that as many as 40,000 prostitutes will travel to Germany to offer their services to soccer fans during the tournament.

DW staff (dc)

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PASSAGE OF CRUISE SHIP BLACKS OUT HALF OF EUROPE!!

Cruise Ship Blacks Out Germany - 05 November 2006

A routine safety operation in Germany is thought to have triggered a massive power blackout that affected millions of people across Western Europe on Saturday night (04 Nov).

The outage affected numerous countries, lasting a few minutes in some places, but up to 90 minutes in others.

The private German power utility E-ON says reports of cuts began after it shut down a high voltage line in the northwest of the country. A company spokesman said the line over the river Ems was shut down so a Norwegian cruise ship was able to pass through safely.

What happened next is highly technical, but essentially Western Europe's inter-connected networks became overloaded.

A kind of domino effect kicked in, where national grids were automatically deprived of power to avoid a complete blackout.

There have been calls for an urgent explanation from the German government, and the Italian Prime Minister said the cuts show there is a need for a common European energy authority and policy. Industry commentators say bitter disputes over mergers have hampered efforts by the European Union to formulate a collective policy.

ueen Mary’s return to Clyde in doubt

 Q

By Jenifer Johnston

An ambitious plan to bring the Queen Mary back to the Clyde has been holed beneath the waterline after a representative of the city of Long Beach, where the ship is in a dry dock, said it was “not for sale.”

Property developer Adrian Pocock said yesterday that he is prepared to put up £5 million to investigate whether the liner could be berthed near the Museum of Transport in Glasgow, operate as a major hotel, and attract thousands of tourists to “a fantastic and exciting addition to the Clyde”.

Pocock, who won widespread public acclaim earlier this year after donating £270,000 to allow museums in Glasgow to continue opening on Mondays for the next two years, said that he has put together an initial consortium of hoteliers and developers who would help him work out a bid to bring the ship to Scotland.

Constructed over seven years at John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank, the Queen Mary was the epitome of luxurious transatlantic travel for decades, and also served as a transport ship during the second world war.

Sold to the city of Long Beach for $3.45m in 1967, the 300 metres-long vessel is now used for conventions, weddings and as a floating palace of art-deco bars and restaurants. However, the current operators are mired in bankruptcy proceedings, casting a shadow over its commercial future.

Pocock plans to travel to California to see the Queen Mary in the coming weeks, and the idea of relocating has sparked initial interest from tourism groups and Glasgow City Council.

Officials there are examining bids to appoint a new company to run the attraction and associated hotel. A decision is due in the new year.

Also, when the ship was purchased it underwent major renovations to make it into a tourist attraction in a dry dock. As a result, all its boiler rooms and an engine were removed, along with a substantial amount of pipes, wiring and supports. It would cost “millions” to even return the ship to a state where it could be towed back to the UK, said Bob Maguglin of the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

He said: “In order for it to be made seaworthy there would have to be a major construction exercise, even to get it to a point where it could be towed.

 “There has always been speculation about schemes for the future of the Queen Mary – while you can never say never, it would be unlikely that the city would accept an offer.”

On whether Californian residents would be unhappy to see the ship leave temporarily or permanently, Maguglin said: “I really don’t see it happening.

“The Queen Mary draws 1.5 million tourists a year and there would be a lot of political upset, public worry, if a bid to remove it came to anything.

“While I sympathise with the idea of its Scottishness, I get quite upset sometimes when people question why is should be here in California. The truth is this ship is not just British or Scottish, it is a world ship, it has a global history. It transported thousands of troops to Europe during the second world war, not to mention the thousands of immigrants that travelled third class to the US and started their new life here.

“We have a huge emotional attachment to it in the US and Long Beach, it is an icon of our city. It’s not for sale.”

Pocock, however, is confident that he could make the Queen Mary a major attraction on the Clyde. He said: “I’m excited about the thought of bringing the Queen Mary here.

“It’d create hundreds of jobs, provide scores of rooms for the Commonwealth Games – should Glasgow host them in 2014 – and more importantly bring some much-needed interest to that part of the Clyde which has been neglected. It’d be great, a wonderful sight to see it there on the quayside. If it can’t be done logistically then so be it, but it would be wonderful to get it here and I’m tenacious enough to give it a go.”

19 November 2006

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SEAMENS CEMETERY TURNED INTO RUBBISH DUMP

From the

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Merchant seamen forgotten in death

Mariners' cemetery buried in debris, used as parking lot

Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, November 25, 2006

In a little valley ringed by trees on the edge of the Presidio of San Francisco is a lost cemetery containing the graves of hundreds of merchant seamen, buried years ago and forgotten.

The graves are unmarked and the names of many buried there are unknown.

The cemetery itself, located just beyond the closed Public Health Service Hospital near 15th Avenue and Lake Street , is invisible. The graves, which once had neat wooden headstones enclosed by a fence, were buried under 16 feet of debris from excavations of a missile site in the 1950s.

A parking lot was built at the same time over one corner of the graveyard and a tennis court over another. And then the cemetery was forgotten -- literally covered up.

Now, archaeologists from the Presidio Trust, which operates the former Army post, are looking into the lost cemetery with an eye to explaining it to the public.

It is an eerie spot, even now. The cemetery is located behind the derelict and abandoned hulk of the old hospital, which looks a bit like a shipwreck. Its windows are broken and the walls are covered with graffiti. There is not a single sign explaining what lies under the weeds in the little valley of the dead.

It is a story waiting to be told, said Jennifer McCann, an intern who works in the Presidio Trust archaeology office. "It is just waiting to be interpreted to the public.''

The cemetery had its beginnings more than 130 years ago when the U.S. Treasury Department leased land at the Presidio to set up the San Francisco Marine Hospital, which took care of the health needs of merchant mariners.

The hospital opened in 1875. In 1881, the adjacent cemetery was first mentioned in records of the Marine Hospital Service. Burials continued there for at least 31 years, or until 1912.

Those years marked the high tide of San Francisco as the greatest port on the Pacific Coast. The city's docks were full of sailing ships and steamers. It was what is called the Age of Sail, a time now regarded with fondness and nostalgia.

However, in those days, sailors were outcasts, men with no families, who worked long hours under brutal conditions. A look at the cemetery records of the Marine Hospital shows that most of the dead were young. Many were in their 20s.

Most of the deaths were the result of respiratory diseases, like tuberculosis. "I think probably dampness and hard labor killed them,'' said McCann, who has been studying the records most of this year. "If you found someone in his 50s in this hospital, he was thought to be really old,'' she said.

McCann said various estimates put the number of graves from 200 to 800. "My guess is between 600 and 700 people are buried there.''

In the spring of 1896, the San Francisco Call newspaper ran a feature article on "the almost unheard of'' sailors' cemetery. "A desert spot,'' the paper said, "a valley dreary with stunted growths and hummocks of half-tamed sand dunes.''

Here lay "men who sailed into the port of San Francisco and never sailed away again through the Golden Gate,'' the Call said, "rough sailors who are now God knows where.''

San Francisco had four, and sometimes five, newspapers in the era of the Marine Hospital, but the graveyard was never mentioned again in the public press. One reason might be that 80 percent of the dead sailors were foreign. Most had no families; the sailor's grave was a pauper's grave. "It seems likely that most of these men have no living descendants,'' McCann said.

In 1912, the country's marine hospitals were renamed Public Health Service Hospitals.

In 1931, a new hospital building replaced the 1875 facility. Photographs from the 1930s show the cemetery with rows of wooden tombstones.

In 1952, the hospital expanded and money was appropriated to move the cemetery, but apparently this was never done. "Instead, they built a new wing,'' said McCann. "It was easy to kick over headstones.'' Then the cemetery was covered with debris.

By 1981, the hospital had been ordered closed.

John Sammons, the facility's last chief of environmental technology, said he remembers seeing a certificate in the files that said the graves had all been moved. He didn't believe it. "It doesn't surprise me at all that the cemetery is still there,'' he said.

The Army, which got the land back from the Public Health Service, found that the old cemetery was called Landfill 8.

"I noticed a cemetery on an old map,'' said Sannie Osborn, a Presidio Trust archaeologist who was working for the Army Corps of Engineers in the '90s. "I borrowed a backhoe and a backhoe operator, and did a small excavation," Osborne said. "We found two coffins.''

"Due to the extremely embarrassing nature of the discovery,'' McCann wrote in a report she did this summer, "it was kept very quiet.''

The Army marched out of the Presidio in 1996, and the old military base was turned over to the National Park Service and the nonprofit Presidio Trust. The two organizations started looking into the historical past of the old post. And when McCann, who is studying for her master's degree at San Francisco State University, was assigned as an intern, the story of the graveyard was brought to light.

Now, says Jody Sanford, a public affairs specialist for the Presidio Trust, the plan is to develop a scenario to open the area for public viewing and put up signs to explain the Marine Cemetery with an appropriate memorial. The abandoned Public Service Hospital may be turned into housing.

But the old sailors will not be moved. "We do not plan to exhume them," Sanford said.

They will remain in what historian Matthew Brady called "the fo'c'sle of the dead.''

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700 GO DOWN SICK ON A CRUISE LINER

It was ‘All hands on the scrubbing brushes when the “carnival Liberty” docked at  

Port Everglades on Sunday Nov 19.

The “Carnival Liberty”

110,000 tons952 feet in length 116 feet wide

Passengers: 2,974 Crew: 1,160 Registry: Panama

A thorough scrubbing of the Carnival Liberty began as the ship docked Sunday after a virus sickened nearly 700 passengers on a trans-Atlantic cruise. Fourteen guests and five crew remained ill and in isolation when the ship arrived at Port Everglades, according to a statement released by Carnival Cruise Lines.

More than 530 guests and 140 crew had reported to the ship's infirmary with similar symptoms during the 16-day voyage.

Some passengers were escorted off the ship in wheelchairs by crew wearing blue gloves to prevent infection.

The Dining Room

Preliminary tests identified the source of the outbreak as the highly contagious norovirus, which had struck several guests just before they boarded the cruise Nov. 3 in Rome, Carnival officials said.

Passengers who fell ill during the cruise said they received over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication and pills or an injection to ward off nausea in the ship's infirmary, and had been quarantined in their cabins while showing symptoms.

The Pool

"They brought us 7-Up, bottled water, ice and a diet of rice, though you didn't feel like eating," said Jim Lankes, 48, of Phoenix. Lankes and his 45-year-old brother both got sick when the ship was docked in Barcelona, Spain. "There were 10 people at our dinner table, and seven of the 10 got sick during the course of the cruise," he said.

Crews scrubbed the ship's handrails and utensils, offered disinfecting hand gel and halted the self-serve buffets after the outbreak started. Even plastic menus were wiped clean, said Pedro Carreras, 51, of McDonough, Ga.

"They served everybody so nobody touched the same spoons," said Carreras, who escaped the illness.

Most cruise activities and excursions continued as scheduled, passengers said, though the crew's illness disrupted some personal services.

"Our cabin steward was struck, and we didn't have anybody to clean our cabin for five days," said Pamela Stupnik of Pueblo, Colo. She said she and her husband spent two days vomiting in their cabin.

The Atrium

A team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control boarded the cruise when it docked in St. Maarten to oversee the cleaning operation and try to determine what caused the outbreak, Carnival said.

Norovirus is a group of viruses that cause stomach flu symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps, according to the CDC. The illness usually lasts one to two days without any long-term health effects. It spreads through contaminated food or liquids, by touching contaminated surfaces or objects and then placing that hand in one's mouth, or through direct contact with someone who is infected and showing symptoms.

Cabin

The Liberty had been scheduled to set sail again Sunday afternoon on a six-day Caribbean voyage, but Miami-based Carnival delayed its next departure until Tuesday so crews could have extra time to disinfect the ship.

Its new four-day itinerary includes stops in Key West and Cozumel, Mexico.

Entering Port Everglades

The Liberty, which made its maiden voyage in July 2005, is one of the world's largest cruise ships, with 13 passenger decks and room for 2,974 travellers.

Don't be jealous fellas, just think of all those decks to scrub and all that Soogi-ng!! 

*****

I hate some TV shows especially those puporting to be 'NEWS' shows.

I hate TV journalists and so called TV investigators who often stick a mike into the face of someone who has just had a husband,wife,child killed and say "how do you feel"?!!! 

This story about a Channel 7 crew being told to leave the cruise liner

"Pacific Star" tickled my 'equaliatarian bone' 

 Justice in this world at last

TV Crew Kicked Off Cruise Liner- 30 October 2006

An Australian film crew, from Channel Seven has been allegedly been booted off a P&O cruise ship in Vanuatu after allegedly covertly filming passengers for a story.

P&O Cruises said four people travelling aboard the "Pacific Star", which left Brisbane last Wednesday (25 Oct) on a 10-day voyage of the South Pacific, were "disembarked" at Port Vila, Vanuatu.

It is understood one of those ordered from the boat was a teenage girl and that the film crew had been officially warned not to provide alcohol to a minor.

Channel Seven's director of news and current affairs, Peter Meakin, confirmed that a Today Tonight film crew, led by reporter Colin Chapman, had been removed from the "Pacific Star".

Mr Meakin said he was not certain about a teenager being removed with the film crew or if the group had been warned not to provide alcohol to someone under 18 years of age.

He said the crew were "filming a story about conduct on the liner" but he would not provide further details, including whether the current affairs program would be running a story on the incident.

"As I said, we are keeping our powder dry."

The incident comes just over a month since Today Tonight host, Naomi Robson, and her film crew were ordered to leave West Papua during an assignment to film Wa-Wa, a six-year-old boy who was supposedly going to be sacrificed to a cannibal tribe.