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The Salty Barrister
Experienced admiralty attorney John Fulweiler shares some insights into the "Law of the Sea". Capt. Fulweiler grew up as a RI Boater, and spent several of his collegiate summers as a Safe/Sea Captain.
Navigating Around Change
John Fulweiler - Wednesday, May 26, 2010
I don’t like change. Let’s get that right out in front. So maybe it’s for that reason I spend a lot of time looking around in search of the kind of marine vendors I remember from years ago. You know what I mean, the couple that designs and installs boat canvas themselves, or that fellow who can weld like nobody’s business, or the marine electronics repair store that rummages up an adapter where no one else could.
You see, in my book, boating is not about the exercise of making way across the water. It’s about the preparations and individual effort associated with getting out there. Any idiot can sit behind a schooner wheel; it takes a true waterman to assemble all the pieces necessary to getting underway.
I remember in Rhode Island past there was a boat supply shop floored in creaking broad pine, organized with old shelving crooked with inventory, and staffed by eclectically knowledgeable folks. There were no uniforms and the staff wasn’t necessarily friendly. They knew their business though, and they took a kind of methamphetamine-charged interest in solving whatever riddle you might push across the counter. A mere twisted portion of rusted bolt lacking any semblance to the original casting was quickly associated with a particular brand, a size, style and – voila – a replacement was produced. You see, for those folks, what I remember is a pride in what they did and how they were perceived. I don’t see that much anymore. Nowadays I troll along vast aisles trying to find replacement bolts myself, I speak to employees who might as well be selling me a cup of coffee, and for sweet’s sake, some places make me check my purchases out myself!
So you go on and buy from the big box stores with the clean lines and overhead lighting. Me? I’ll stick to rummaging around, dusting off and cobbling together. I never did like change.
I drove 700 miles last night. I pushed a rental car made for suburban grocery runs along old twisted roads with quick turns and shifting grades that hitched the chassis back and forth. The way that car moved might just have made me think of a boat in a seaway if it hadn’t been so late, and I hadn’t been so focused on staying awake.
So, here I am. Pressed shirt and suit, rumpled mind.
Boy, my earlier posts on the marina bill rousted some passionate voices. I’m tired of the topic, but it’s worth me reminding y’all that these are my words, and my personal opinions. I’m grateful for the easel on which to hang them kindly supplied by Safe/Sea, but it’s my stuff and doesn’t have anything to do with what the Safe/Sea folks might be thinking, doing or dreaming.
That’s all I have today. 700 miles will do that no matter what you’re driving.
The two weeks that encompass the Christmas and New Year holidays always seem to pass with frightening speed. One moment someone's leaning into your office with holiday wishes, and the next thing, your secretary is cheerily reminding you that your letter has the wrong date: "It's 2010 now, John." So it is.
You say what you want about progress, I like the nautical bubble because things seem to take a little longer to change. And that's a good thing. Take the past decade, for instance. Oh, I know the marketers will sling this and that as heralding "marked" change, but really? The things that count to me seem pretty much unchanged. There's still wooden hulls being pushed along under acres of sail, good looking small craft, harbors that'll hold an anchor, moorings and launch service, floating docks, Saturday races, bags of ice, grills on transom rails, tan lines, sailing lessons, your wake's white curl, a boater's friendly wave, rafting up for the concert, the rumble of twin engines, an open line of ocean, moonlit cruises, high tides, the smell of varnish . . . .
I didn't write a holiday post. I'll let my earlier Thanksgiving post stand for the Season.
My sister is a professor at a university here in the Northeast. She lets me come around once a semester and talk to her oceanography students about maritime law-like things. It's hard to condense maritime law into a fifty-minute or so period; so, what I end up doing is the ol' shotgun approach.
We hit topics that I think might keep a college-aged brain interested. I talk about salvage (peril, voluntariness and success), chatter on about the differences between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone (one's your backyard and the other's kind of like the neighborhood), meander around some causes of action available to an injured crewmember (Jones Act and Unseaworthiness), and usually close by addressing whether a captain can actually perform a marriage aboard a vessel (mixed law; statute says no go, but some case law suggests otherwise).
When you're lawyering, a lot of what you say is measured in favor of the advocacy of your position. What I get to do once a semester before a bunch of college kids is a refreshing change. Think of it as the difference between an employer's Christmas party, and having a drink with friends.
Alright, we'll get a couple of more posts in before the Holidays. Speaking of holidays, take a look at Captain Doug's recent blog post on The Daily Breeze? That's the way to do it, friends. Christmas in Staniel Cay, Bahamas. One of these days I plan to do the very same thing, snow and sleighs be damned!
If you’re reading this Blog, it’s a fair bet that you’re not lugging water from a well, that you’re not cowering in fear of a local militia, that you have monies sufficient to put food on the table, and that you have a roof overhead. Yes, some of you might be sick or without a job, I know that. Life is not an easy stretch of water, but if you’re reading this blog, I can darn well guarantee that you have plenty more to give thanks for than the majority of this world’s population.
I’m no bleeding heart, but if you consider yourself a “boater,” then life’s been ok to you. Being able to slip across the ocean’s surface on one’s own time and without being driven by the urgency of trying to land a meal, or fleeing a hostile coastline is amazing fortuity. You, my friend, have a lot to give thanks for in that alone.
I was going to try something clever like writing about the number of maritime cases that refer to Thanksgiving (31, if you’re interested), but my aim is not to entertain today. If I may suggest so, get off this damn computer, and go count your blessings.
I'm not sure what a Tweet is all about. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm LinkedIn, I e-mail up a storm, and my web "presence" is decent. It's just that the idea of a steady stream of observations seems fatuous somehow. I guess thinking others want to know your randomness presumes something I don't like. For the now, I'll leave the Tweeting to the Hollywood crowd and bumble along, but in case things change I've had a go at a practice Tweet below. (For those non-Tweeters, it's short because you're only allowed 140 characters in each Tweet.)
Thx 4 cmg abrd.Jst rd nw law in NY.Ownr/optr plsr bts <21' incldg rwbts kyks canus only allow bt op if all abrd wearing PFD b/t 11/1 - 5/1.
Boy, the English language is going to die under this program, huh?
Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft by Thor Heyerdahl. If you haven't read it, pick up a copy and if you have read it, have another go. It's a great story about several fellows that built a raft of balsa logs and sailed 4,000 plus miles across the Pacific. The successful voyage supported the author's thesis that Peruvians were the settlers of various islands in the far Pacific. What a story though, alone on nine balsa logs with the sea's creatures, the weather and rippling currents. Storms, a reef, injuries and the ever-lurking panic of being swept into the sea make it a read that'll put some grit back into your seagoing affairs.
And yes, this post has a little bit of maritime law flavor; namely, that Thor and his friends didn't seem to need the counsel of any maritime attorneys to fight off a meddling bureaucracy.
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