Category Page

Unless one is a polyglot, searching for the equivalent of ‘seafarer’ in different languages can be a daunting task. According to Ethnologue, the leading resource on world languages, there are 7,139 known living languages. Perhaps not all of them have names for ‘seafarer’, but even a partial list of such names would call to mind the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

In this day and age, maintaining a website seems imperative for most businesses. But it’s not just a question of having one as some people might think. The following are 10 maritime websites that stand out because of their design and, more importantly, the way their content is organised and presented for the benefit of site visitors. They call to mind the words of Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, as quoted in an article in The New York Times: ”It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Have you ever wondered how a maritime publication can cover developments all over the world as though it had correspondents everywhere? Or why there is so much homogeneity in the news reporting? Well, you need not wonder anymore. The following facts should cast light on the workings of the maritime press. I speak as one who served for many years as a correspondent/contributor to British maritime trade journals and who continues to observe closely the state of maritime journalism as a blogger.

“What’s in a name?” asked Juliet in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The following synonyms for some maritime names and phrases may not smell sweet to the parties referred to. I hope, however, that readers of Marine Café Blog will find them funny, yet not detached from reality.

Marine Café Blog has been guided by three basic precepts since it started in 2009. Call a spade a spade. Don’t kiss ass (it’s incompatible with honest writing). Serve it hot and flavourful like coffee. The following is a list of the blog’s strongest brews in 2020 — each one a reflection of the three rules that have sustained the blog and defined its character.