4/7/2013
WHO THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS ANYWAY?
Lately We have been asked about the relationship between our blog and the American Admiralty Bureau. Techno-legally there isn't one, historically that's a different matter. We don't use real names in this blog very often because we often disagree with the government and given our backgrounds we have to make sure no one could mistake our personal professional opinions with official opinions. That's one of the reasons why we hired that outspoken giant catfish, no prior government employment. Below is a reprint of a post that we ran last summer in response to the same question.
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| A Different Motley Crew From Another Time and Place |
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP, IF ANY, BETWEEN THE AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BUREAU AND AMERICAN ADMIRALTY INFORMATIONAL SERVICES ?
There is no corporate relationship between the now closed American Admiralty Bureau , Ltd. and the present American Admiralty Informational Services, parent "organization" of American Admiralty Books. There can't be a "corporate" relationship between AAIS and any "other corporation" because AAIS isn't incorporated. It is just a loose academic association whose future will be determined by our readers. However a number of those associated with the efforts of AAIS are former corporate employees or contractors with the now closed American Admiralty Bureau Ltd.
The American Admiralty Bureau was a corporation registered in Louisiana and organized as an attorney service bureau providing investigations, analysis, testing, research, consulting, and expert witness reports for admiralty lawyers. The senior service providers were licensed U.S. Merchant Marine Officers, or retired commissioned Coast Guard officers, some of whom were also post graduate educated mechanical engineers and/or lawyers. The American Admiralty Bureau was the publisher of the widely cited American Admiralty Bureau COMMENTATORS and GUIDES which are still in print, one of which we reviewed within the last three days. The senior service providers were called "Forensic Examiners" and they applied good forensic practice to the examination of maritime accidents before the admiralty courts for more than 20 years. The mission of the American Admiralty Bureau while different from our own here at American Admiralty Books, none the less influences our efforts. That mission statement is worth a look:
"The mission of the American Admiralty Bureau is to serve the public interest and the needs of their clients by improving marine safety through activities promoting the increase and diffusion of knowledge of the nautical arts and sciences, marine regulations, codes , standards, authoritative literature, and good marine practice.
In furtherance of this mission, the American Admiralty Bureau provides technical seminars, consultations, research, and expert witness services."
Some of those Forensic Examiners are now reviewing nautical books and videos for us here at AAB (Books). We don't do consulting, investigations, or expert witness work. But like the old AAB (Bureau) we are all about organizing, analyzing, and distributing maritime information in the service of marine safety and maritime security. However at AAB (Books) we go beyond our services to admiralty lawyers, merchant marine, and naval interests and reach out towards the nautical sportsmen, the recreational boater, surfer, diver, and fisherman. The Bureau came to an end as each of us in turn had enough of telling truth to power and then having to spend a seemingly endless amount of time trying to collect our fees. We worked for federal and state agencies, insurance companies, and the contingency lawyers of injured seamen. We had collection problems with everyone. I personally had some very large issues with one federal agency which literally tried to silence me because I had an inconvenient truth to tell.
So here we are, the survivors, older and wiser escaped into cyber space. Here all we have to ask of you the knowledge seeker is "how can we help you". There is no ticket booth in front of the blog. There are no bills afterward unless you actually buy a book or link over to a fee for service site. We have no collection headaches . The only thing that we have to do to earn the revenues to keep us in business is to constantly improve our efforts of supplying the maritime and nautical information needs of the English speaking public. Every time you click into our site whether to be entertained or informed you literally "vote" for us to keep working towards our goal. That goal includes not only developing our opinion pages, news service, and special pages but also more of the special tools features like like Ben's Tech Corner , or our legal research links so that professional mariner, water sportsman, and lawyers alike will eventually find this site as useful and comfortable as a special collections library. Unlike the old AAB (Bureau) , AAB BOOKS is not aging. Yes we have experts two days older than water and one day older than dirt who have had careers as professional mariners, maritime litigators, and teachers, and engineers, but we also have 20 and 30 somethings squarely leading the cyber efforts to economically grow ever more information dense while becoming constantly easier to use. We may be a bit motley and eclectic but we have the right stuff and I believe we are here in cyber space to stay and prosper while helping to make knowledge serve maritime safety and security.
Please help keep us in the game by clicking in often.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING!
Og
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