The following item appeared in the February 1986 issue of the "Tees Packet", which is the journal of the Teesside Branch of the World Ship Society. It was contributed to that publication by Bob Sweeting, with acknowledgement to the Kelang Port Authority. Regardless of its far-distant origin, the item is a gem which could easily apply to any port here on our own Great Lakes, and we thought it appropriate that it should appear in "Scanner" as well.

1. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

2. Left to themselves, problems in the port go from bad to worse.

3. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that goes wrong will be the one that causes the port the most damage.

4. If everything appears to be going well, the port management has obviously overlooked something.

5. A piece of cargo-handling gear dropped while in use in the ship's hold will, without a doubt, drop onto the most fragile case.

6. During a day when forklifts are urgently required, some forklifts will only start after overtime has commenced.

7. Nothing is impossible for the port staff if they don't have to do it themselves.

8. (a) The port manager is always right.

(b) When the port manager is wrong, refer to Rule 8 (a).

(c) When all else fails, read the instruction book.

9. If facts don't conform to the theory of port working, the facts must be disposed of.

10. Experience gained by port maintenance staff is proportional to the amount of machinery ruined.

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Ed. Note: The "Tees Packet", in the same issue, ran a verbatim reprint of our December Ship of the Month feature concerning the British American Oil Company Ltd. tankers BRITAMOIL, BRITAMOLENE, BRITAMLUBE and BRITAMOCO, complete with a reproduction of both sides of our photopage, for these handsome tankers were built on the Tees. The Editor of the "Tees Packet" was much taken with our feature and we hope that his readers also enjoyed the material. It was two of our T.M.H.S. members who brought our article to his attention.

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