Friday 9/21/2012

MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST:

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BLOOD ON BROWN WATER?

 An Offshore Service Vessel in Harm's Way

"BLOOD ON BROWN WATER", if you haven't been reading with us since early summer, was our first attempt to serialize a book on line. "BLOOD ON BROWN WATER " is also published as" National Mariner's Association Report  number R-213." In the Spring this 78 page volume was distributed to Congressional staff of the various subcommittees dealing with the Coast Guard , Merchant Marine, and marine safety. The purpose of the book was to generate political and public support for the National Mariners Association's "SECOND REQUEST TO CONGRESS" requesting Congressional action relative to abuses of Jones Act merchant crewmen aboard certain domestic trade vessels. The issue has languished in Congress for lack of a sponsor from both parties. Democrats willing to introduce the needed bill  feel that it has no chance of passage if no Republicans are willing to act as co-sponsors. So far no one has crossed the aisle.

 We had a lot of technical issues with the serialization. We had hoped to be able to make the book available as a free down load when the serialization was complete. We have run into another major technical problem with that idea. We still hope to eventually be able to offer it as a down load. Meanwhile if you have read the work and want to introduce it to someone else it is still on line as a serial. The Prologue through Chapter 1 is reprinted at the bottom of the scroll of the "MERCHANT MARINE INTEREST SECTION". We are in the process of moving more of the serial  there but may not be able to retain the entire document there. All of the serialization exists in the blog archive. So if you want to introduce some one to the publication for free the prologue was published July 16, 2012 and the Epilogue was published August 18, 2012.   Anyone can go to the Blog archives to the right of the "station ID" and postings and click on July, scroll down to the 16th and find the words "BLOOD ON BROWN WATER". click on the link and start reading the serial. When done with one installment go back to the July postings and click on the next one with the key words from the title in it.

 The book is also available for little more than printing and postage costs by contacting the National Mariner's Association at 985-851-2134 and asking for Report  R-213.

 For those of you new to the site BLOOD ON BROWN WATER is a collection of true horror stories about third world like labor conditions aboard certain types of U.S. commercial vessels today in the 21 st century.