Posted by David Reid looks at eight shipwrecks and their causes. You may never view Swiss Cheese the same.
Eight Down reviews eight maritime casualties over forty-two years beginning with the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975 to the Stellar Daisy in 2017. As a former seafarer and member of the maritime profession for the past fifty years, all of the “Eight” have taken place during my watch. I have found resonance with my own experiences, that has sparked my curiosity. I explore the connective threads that will illustrate how these events are the consequence of what Professor James Reason has called the “Swiss Cheese Model.” I know from my own experience that there were many instances when I might have been but one step away from being a maritime casualty — is it luck? Or is it the awareness or raised consciousness of someone who acts before that last step occurs? I hope to provide insight into the management of change as it relates to safety and the avoidance of traveling through the final hole in a “Swiss Cheese.”
“The Geography of Risk” by Gil Gaul deals more with the shore than off-shore maritime concerns, but anyone in the maritime biz will find interest here.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Gaul (Billion-Dollar Ball) writes about the increasing cost of maintaining and rebuilding U.S. coastal cities after events such as hurricanes, tropical storms, or even heavier-than-normal rainstorms. Touching on places in Florida, Louisiana, and the Carolinas but using New Jersey as the paradigm, the author traces the rise of city development in some of the riskiest areas: barrier islands and other ocean-front arenas. Using an array of sources from governmental studies to newspaper accounts to expert interviews, Gaul follows how developers, local politicians, homeowners, and the federal government have created an unending and unsustainable cycle of rebuilding. With sea levels expected to rise even more over the coming decades, stronger storms an ever-increasing reality, and taxpayers footing more and more of the rebuilding costs, Gaul’s work provides a sobering historical and present-day account on a seemingly never-ending cycle.
David Reid looks at eight shipwrecks and their causes. You may never view Swiss Cheese the same.
Eight Down reviews eight maritime casualties over forty-two years beginning with the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975 to the Stellar Daisy in 2017. As a former seafarer and member of the maritime profession for the past fifty years, all of the “Eight” have taken place during my watch. I have found resonance with my own experiences, that has sparked my curiosity. I explore the connective threads that will illustrate how these events are the consequence of what Professor James Reason has called the “Swiss Cheese Model.” I know from my own experience that there were many instances when I might have been but one step away from being a maritime casualty — is it luck? Or is it the awareness or raised consciousness of someone who acts before that last step occurs? I hope to provide insight into the management of change as it relates to safety and the avoidance of traveling through the final hole in a “Swiss Cheese.”