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Displaying items by tag: Working on Ships

#Seafarers - Over three million seafarers, both men and women live in the twilight world of big shipping according to the Seamens Christian Friend Service (SCFS).

Seafarers are responsible for most of the goods you will of had acquired over the Christmas season. It's a lonely life and as such they don't get to spend Christmas with their family.

Crews roam the world's oceans for up to 12 months at a time. They come from more than 100 different nations and speak dozens of language. For most of them accessing the internet is synonym of keeping in touch with the family.

This year, SEA-Tech Evolution Ltd, an Irish IT company established in 2007, worked with the Port of Cork, Port of Waterford and Rosslare at improving crew welfare. The company take this service very seriously but it is sometimes hard to convince the shipping industry of the benefits of decent internet connectivity.

Commenting on the benefits of such technology, Arnaud (R.no) Disant, Engineer (CTO) at SEA-Tech and Lecturer at National Maritime College of Ireland, said you know you’ve done something good this year when you see a smile on the face of a man that truly values your work.

 

 

Published in Ports & Shipping

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).