Alert! for NAFC Library

The Nautical Institute has donated a copy of its new book 'Alert!' to the NAFC Marine Centre UHI library.

Captain Errol Smith, Chairman of the Shetland branch of the Nautical Institute visited the centre on Tuesday to present a copy of the book to some of the Centre's merchant navy officer cadets.

The book is a compendium of the first 40 issues of the 'Alert!' bulletin, published by the Nautical Institute over the last 14 years with the support of Lloyd's Register. The bulletin was launched in 2003 to raise awareness of the human element in shipping, and covers a wide range of topics from competencies and communication to design and maintenance.

To ensure that the next generation of seafarers and ship designers can benefit from the substantial body of knowledge and information accumulated in the bulletins, the Nautical Institute and Lloyd's Register Foundation have joined together to produce the 'Alert!' compendium, with one to be donated to every maritime college in the world.

NAFC's Head of Merchant Navy Cadet Programme, Laura Burden, welcomed the addition of the 'Alert!' compendium to the NAFC library, commenting that, "There is a growing recognition of the importance of the human element in the shipping industry and this book will be an important resource for the future ship's officers that we are training through NAFC's Merchant Navy Officer Cadet Programme."

Laura also expressed her surprise at spotting a picture of herself in the book, accompanying a piece that she had written for the 'Alert!' bulletin as a cadet.

The Nautical Institute's Alert! bulletins are available also available online at: http://www.he-alert.org/

Applications are now being accepted for the NAFC Marine Centre's Merchant Navy Officer Cadet Programme to start in September.