The Operator Theory conferences, organized by the Department of Mathematics of INCREST and the Department of Mathematics of the University of Timi oara, are conceived as a means to promote cooperation and exchange of information between specialists in all areas of operator theory. This book comprises carefully selected papers on theory of linear operators and related fields. Original results of new research in fast developing areas are included. Several contributed papers focus on the action of linear operators in various function spaces. Recent advances in spectral theory and related topics, operators in indefinite metric spaces, dual algebras and the invariant subspace problem, operator algebras and group representations as well as applications to mathematical physics are presented. The research contacts of the Department of: viathematics of INCREST with the National Committee for Science and Technology of Romania provided means for developing the research activity in mathematics; they represent the generous framework of these meetings too. It is our pleasure to acknowledge the financial support of UNESCO which also contributed to the success of this meeting. We are indebted to Professor Israel Gohberg for including these Proceedings in the OT Series and for valuable advice in the editing process. Birkhauser Verlag was very cooperative in publishing this volume. Camelia Minculescu, Iren Nemethi and Rodica Stoenescu dealt with the difficult task of typing the whole manuscript using a Rank Xerox 860 word processor; we thank them for this exellent job.

This anthology aims to explain why some Nordic shipping companies became world leaders while others failed to respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of globalization. The authors analyse political and institutional patterns alongside the various corporate responses to the many upheavals of global shipping.

Increasingly, cruise operators are utilising information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve service-effectiveness and process efficiency, both on- and off-board. Therefore, it is worth initiating a discussion on the potential and challenges ICTs entail for both cruise operators' back-offices and for cruisers' consumption experiences. This book documents the proceedings of the 1st e-Cruising Conference (Bremerhaven, Germany), which was aimed at discussing the possibilities and applicability of ICTs and mobile services in various aspects of cruise operations. Following a rigorous double-blind review, the best papers were chosen to be incorporated in this volume.

T HIS VOL U M E has been written to describe the business side of a commercial enterprise whose field is the entire civilized world. Historically, the theory and knowledge of shipping management, as distinguished from the practical skills of seaman ship, have been transmitted from one generation to the next by word of mouth. Little has been put on paper, primarily because the finest exponents of the art of steamship management have been too busy with their day-to-day concerns to do so. The "working level" personnel often are superbly competent, but rarely qualify as liter ary craftsmen. It has been my aim, in preparing this analysis of the principles of the "business" of commercial shipping, to describe that which trans pires in the various divisions of a shipowning and operating organi zation. Insofar as possible, the procedures followed in the offices have been described and explained, as well as the underlying prin ciples of management by which their decisions are reached. In the process of learning the principles and practices that are set forth in these pages, I have spent ajoy-filled lifetime in associa tion with ships. It has been my good fortune to work in large and small American steamship offices, to operate a major cargo termi nal, to participate in establishing and putting into effect the policies of a world-girdling American steamship organization, and to teach young men these principles learned from experience as well as from precept."

The importance of international liner shipping needs little emphasizing. A large majority of international trade moves by sea, and the liner shipping share in total freight revenue exceeds one-half. Notwithstanding, people in general know surprisingly little about the basic facts of the liner shipping industry, and, in particular, about the economics ofliner shipping. Perhaps because it is an international industry, where shipping lines flying many different flags participate, it has tended to fall in between national accounts of domestic industries. Even transport economists have, generally speaking, treated liner shipping rather 'stepmotherly'; besides the work of Bennathan and Walters (1969), a relatively small group of specialized maritime economists, including A. Stromme-Svendsen, T. Thorburn, S. Sturmey, R. Goss, and B. M. Deakin, have in the post-war period made important contributions to the subject, but so far no coherent and reasonably comprehensive treatise of liner shipping economics has appeared. The first purpose of the present volume is therefore obvious: to provide just that. The book is divided in three parts: Part I The liner shipping industry; Part II Liner service optimization; Part III Economic evaluation of the conference system. Needless to say, all three parts concur to fulfill the first purpose of providing a complete book of liner shipping economics. In Part II a more or less separate, second, purpose has been to develop analytical tools for liner service optimization. Thereby we use different approaches.

In 1968 a Soviet G-class submarine mysteriously exploded and sank to the bottom of the Pacific. With Cold War secrecy and speed, U.S. military intelligence raced to find a way to raise the sub. In the new preface to this edition of "The Jennifer Project," which was first published in 1977, author Clyde Burleson discusses some of the sources he could not reveal twenty years ago and provides an interesting swords-to-plowshares update.
In one of the more remarkable episodes of high-tech espionage and engineering of the Cold War, the effort to raise the Soviet sub, code-named the "Jennifer Project," assembled a cast of players that included top military brass, the CIA, and the eccentric millionaire and inventor Howard Hughes.
The Project was a monumental effort to create a tool that could reach three miles below the ocean's surface and pull the sub from primordial muck--in secret. Financed and built by Hughes and Global Marine under contract with the CIA, the ship created to pluck the sub from the ooze was a technological marvel. Two football fields in length and twenty-three stories high, the "Hughes Glomar Explorer" held in its hull a six-"million"-pound submersible "claw" for picking up sections of the submarine.
The project cost the U.S. government hundreds of millions of dollars, but the intelligence community was betting that, if successful, reclamation of the Soviet submarine would mean accessing invaluable military knowledge as the two superpowers neared negotiations in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks. "The Jennifer Project" revisits a fascinating period of high-level intrigue and invention that has remained unknown to many Americans.

This is the first comprehensive encyclopedia on the history of the vast and varied ways human beings have used the world's waterways for business, protection, and recreation. Seas and Waterways of the World: An Encyclopedia of History, Uses, and Issues offers a comprehensive introduction to humanity's historical reliance on the world's seas and waterways and how that reliance continues to evolve. Over the course of two volumes, this extraordinary resource describes the world's major nautical features, the wide variety of uses for those waterways, and a number of essential issues arising from water-borne commerce. The encyclopedia marks the emergence of the aquarium, cruise, energy, fishing, insurance, mining, trade, transportation, recreation, and sport industries, and includes entries on harbors, ports, and coastal development that play a part in the economics of commercial water use. Also included is coverage of a number of significant themes such as the rise and fall of the Erie Canal as the gateway to the Midwest, and the declining popularity of the Panama Canal.

Driven by rising oil demand and active initiatives, including recent Chinese naval escort of merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden, Asia has become an important player in international energy security, as well as maritime security. The timely volume examines China's and Japan's efforts for securing energy supplies overseas and maritime energy transport, their cooperation and rivalry as well as the implications for Asia up to recent years. It also examines the growing shipping traffic in the Straits of Malacca and security of sea lanes in Asia. Viewing energy and maritime security as global public goods, the volume surveys and proposes multilateral initiatives for provisioning these goods.

Captain Arthur Mathison was a merchant seaman from 1932 to 1977. He sailed with a number of British shipping companies, but he spent many years with Bolton Steamship Company of London and R.S. Dalgliesh Limited of Newcastle upon Tyne. He set sail from many of the main British ports - London, Glasgow, Hull, Cardiff, Newport, Newcastle, Middlesborough and Liverpool, plus a number of lesser locations like Workington, and he has tales from most of them. He started his career as an able-bodied seaman and desk boy on steamships, and finished it as master of ocean going motor vessels. In his own words he describes the hard times endured by pre-war merchant seaman during the Great Depression, and the subsequent challenges of the Second World War. He spent many years in the tramp steamer trade, travelling to all the continents of the world, including a great deal of time trading between Australia and New Zealand. In these pages you will find first hand stories of freak waves, convoys, on-board violence, red light districts, drunken crew members, near misses, dubious bunkering and much more. The book is a personal testament to an age of seafaring that has now vanished.

A comprehensive book on shipping derivatives and risk management which covers the theoretical and practical aspects of financial risk in shipping. The book provides a thorough overview of the practice of risk management in shipping with the use of theoretical examples and real-life applications.

U. S. energy needs rest heavily on ship-based imports. Tankers bring 55 percent of the nation's crude oil supply, as well as liquefied gases and refined products like jet fuel. This supply chain is potentially vulnerable in many places here and abroad, as borne out by several successful overseas attacks on ships and facilities. This book addresses (1) the types of threats to tankers and the potential consequences of a successful attack, (2) measures taken to protect tankers and challenges federal agencies face in making these actions effective, and (3) plans in place for responding to a successful attack and potential challenges stakeholders face in responding. The review spans several foreign and domestic ports, and multiple steps to analyze data and gather opinions from agencies and stakeholders. This is an excerpted and edited version of a GAO Report.

The Integrated Deepwater Systems (IDS) program, or Deepwater program for short, is a $24-billion, 25-year project to replace and modernise the Coast Guard's ageing fleet of deepwater-capable ships and aircraft. It is the largest and most complex acquisition effort in Coast Guard history, encompassing 91 new cutters, 124 new small surface craft, and 244 new or converted aeroplanes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Deepwater program has received a total of about $4.4 billion through FY2007, including about $1.14 billion in FY2007. For FY2008, the Coast Guard requested $836.9 million in new appropriations and the rescission of $48.8 million in prior-year appropriations for the program, for a net total request of $788.1 million. This new book presents an in-depth analysis of the program and its significance.

The container port industry in Asia represents adynamic aspect of the international transport and logistics scene. This book applies an overarching theme of 'Development, Competition and Cooperation' to a wide range of individual container ports in Asia. Major trends are identified and concrete examples provide new insights into the nature of relationships between the main ports in the region. The contents provide a great deal of new analysis that contributes to theoretical and conceptual debates on the nature of port competition. More generally, it will aid understanding of port development strategies within the context of Asian trade and economic growth.

This book is about an industry that has been entirely neglected by social scientists - the maritime car carrier industry. This industry is already globalized, probably more than any other with the possible exception of finance, which attracts a great deal more attention. The book examines the maritime car carrier industry in respect to changes in cost structure and dynamics; in ownership, freight, labour and other markets; in technological innovation and ship design; and in relation to car manufacturers, ship management companies and crewing agents.

In this classic work George Hourani deals with the history of the sea trade of the Arabs in the Indian Ocean from its obscure origins many centuries before Christ to the time of its full extension to China and East Africa in the ninth and tenth centuries. The book comprises a brief but masterly historical account that has never been superseded. The author gives attention not only to geography, meteorology, and the details of travel, but also to the ships themselves, including a discussion of the origin of stitched planking and of the lateen fore-and-aft sails. Piracy in the Indian Ocean, day-to-day life at sea, the establishment of ancient lighthouses and the production of early maritime guides, handbooks, and port directories are all described in fascinating detail. "Arab Seafaring" will appeal to anyone interested in Arab life or the history of navigation. For this expanded edition, John Carswell has added a new introduction, a bibliography, and notes that add material from recent archaeological research.

What is being done to counter threats of maritime terrorism and how effective are the safeguards? The author presents evidence that Al-Qaeda aims to disrupt the seaborne trading system, the backbone of the model global economy, and would use a crude nuclear explosive device or radiological bomb to do so if it could obtain one and position it to go off in a port-city, shipping strait or waterway that plays a key role in international trade. Improving maritime trade is especially important for the US and Canada, member states of the EU, Australia and New Zealand and for China, Japan and South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and other East Asian economies that have extensive direct seaborne trade. It is doubly vital for places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Rotterdam that are not only very large global seaports but also giant giant container transshipment hubs. This book discusses some major threats to seaborne trade and its land links in the global supply chain, their potential impact and the new security measures in place or pending for ships, ports and cargo containers, and recommendations for preventing or handling a catastrophic terrorist attack designed to disrupt world trade.

Efficient measurement plays a vital role in any sort of production but there is a dearth of both applications and in-depth research relating to the container port industry. This book analyzes the relationship between ownership, competition and port efficiency by applying traditional theories in industrial organization and examining them empirically. It is the first to conduct comprehensive comparisons of alternative approaches to efficiency measurement for the industry. This original work makes an important contribution to the establishment of central government policy on port investment, policy and governance.

Atlantic Kingdom pays tribute to the Americans who challenged Cunard, the shipping company that held a monopoly on North Atlantic trade routes in the nineteenth century. In an era when civilisation first grappled with large-scale technology and creative industries promised a new standard of living, competition for control over maritime trade was fierce. Cornelius Vanderbilt and P. T. Barnum were among those who battled like mythical gods for control of their domains. These titans of the Atlantic left behind them a wreckage of human lives, lost ships, and squandered fortunes in their failed bids for supremacy of the seas. This book is a clear, succinct, lively, and sure-handed evocation of American maritime enterprise at its zenith.

The present volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on the economic history of the seaports of Antwerp and Rotterdam (1870-2000). This venue was held at Antwerp on 10-11 May 2001 and was hosted by the Antwerp Port Authority. This international conference aimed at confronting the development of both ports. In the course of the last century and a half, economic growth in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam has been staggering. Maritime economic historians, economists and geographers alike have investigated the development of both ports extensively, but separately. So far, only a limited number of attempts have been made to analyse Rotterdam-Antwerp port history from a comparative perspective. The papers presented at the conference provide a challenging starting point to - certain how and why both ports reacted differently to virtually the same economic and political stimuli. By bringing together both historians, economists and lawyers with different fields of interest, we have attempted to put the history of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in a broader international and comparative perspective.

Nelson French joined the Orient Line as an Assistant Purser when he was released from the Army in 1947. He was appointed Purser in 1954 and thereafter served in every ship of the Orient fleet. He was involved in the commissioning and the Maiden Voyage of the last great Orient Liner, ORIANA. On leaving the sea, Nelson French became a Bursar at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. He retired in 1981 and now lives in Oxfordshire.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, schooner trade was a well-developed system of maritime transport for commodities such as grain, lumber, and iron. The schooner trade was as critical to the development of the Great Lakes region as covered wagons were to the Far West and paddle wheel steamers were to the South. Schooners sailed the Great Lakes in large numbers and played a formative role in the shaping of pioneer life throughout the region. The schooners that traveled the Lake Michigan basin succeeded in bringing a range of shoreline communities and four separate states into one coherent region. Although schooners successfully competed with steam vessels for more than a half-century, wooden sailing ships could not match the scale of the giant steel bulk carriers that began to emerge from shipyards in the twentieth century. The Mary A. Gregory -- one of the last schooners left in 1926 -- was torched, sunk, and buried in Lake Michigan. Schooner Passage is a history of these magnificent sailing vessels and their role in maritime trade along Lake Michigan.

Theodore J. Karamanski shares with the reader the stories of the men and women who sailed on the schooners, their labor issues and strikes, the role of the schooner in the maritime economy along the Lake Michigan basin, and the factors that led to the eventual demise of that economy in the early twentieth century. Karamanski has put together historical accounts from newspaper dippings, historical society archives, and government documents to provide one of the few available histories of schooners.

Schooner Passage will interest scholars and students of Great Lakes and American history as well as the generalreader interested in nineteenth-century western expansion.