Resumo de The Tankship Tromedy - Melike Asli Sahinsoy

With hard-hitting opinions on tanker design and construction, *The Tankship Tromedy - The Impending Disasters in Tankers? written by Jack Devanney is a very interesting book dedicated to understanding the tanker business.

?Tromedy? is an elision of ?tragicomedy?. The author attracts the reader?s attention to the topic by saying ?these events sometimes make me smile, sometimes cry? in the first page of the book?s first episode. Drawing on 30 years of working experience in the tanker
industry, Mr. Jack Devanney, defines it as a Tromedy - both a tragedy and comedy.

Opposing to the concept of the double hull, he believes that Tankers are designed for the convenience and profit of the shipbuilders amid a sort of institutional conspiracy - the "tromedy" of his title. For him, it is the tromedy which builds ships with too light scantlings, inadequate welding, ships which are too liable to corrode, to explode, to leak or to break down with their single power plant and inadequate steering system.

Devanney uses the word ?tromedy? as "current system for regulating tanker industry" or "web of relationships by which we regulate the tanker industry", so he makes us think that this word can be replaced with ?Order? or ?System?.
Providing an in depth analysis of spills that have taken place in the past and suggestions for prevention in the future, he talks about the legal system which regulates the industry and pulls down the safety standards. According to the book, those who make the ?System?, who are the parts of this Order are the tanker owners, controlling organs; the regulators -mainly classification societies and flag states- and the shipyards.

As an "insider Jack Devanney has a very important career in the tanker industry and he has his own Center for Tankship Excellence. Regarding his position in the industry, his fierce criticisms on every aspect of the industry which designs, regulates, classes and operates tankers today, are very important, too.

The author?s main criticism as an ?insider? is to this ?tangled web?, those who constantly pull down the safety and the stability criteria of the ships for years in order to increase their own profits. According to him, the regulators depend on and compete for the ship owners and shipyards that they are supposed to regulate. He argues, ? We must replace the current shipowner-controlled flag state/classification society system.
It is not regulation; it is an auction.?

In his book, ?The tankship being built today is flimsy, highly unreliable, unmaneuverable, and nearly impossible to maintain. And the situation is becoming progressively worse. As a result, there will be gargantuan oil spills in the future that need not have happened.? says Devanney.
With a very strong language, fierce criticisms and compelling statistics in reference to his own experiences and working life in tankers, he outlines the history of tanker regulation. In a very colorful framework, he warns the people and calls for fundamental changes in both tanker design and the regulatory system. He wants a revolution, and going further, like Lenin or Mao, he advocates a wholesale slaughter of the existing order.

REFLECTION OF EXPERIENCE
Jack Devanney''s background is unique, combining an unusual technical background (faculty member at Massachusetts Institute of Technology) with 25 years experience as a tanker owner and operator, during which time he was responsible for constructing the largest double hull tankers ever built.
He spent much of his career in and around big tankers, broking, building and operating these giant ships, including the enormous white-painted Hellespont quartet which were the first ultra large crude carriers built for more than a quarter century.

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