mv algosoo

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Re: mv algosoo

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GuestfromEU wrote: March 10, 2023, 1:14 pm A sense of humour is great (many in the office are equally humorous), but protecting and projecting the corporate image is always paramount. Many companies prohibit employees from posting anything work related to social media...photos, mention of company name, others. While I cannot speak to the Algosoo name incident, in 2023 the times are different and right or wrong these scenarios often draw much more scrutiny than one would expect. Imagine from the shipowner's viewpoint; a ship with a defaced name sailing for thousands or more passersby to see, wondering what is the joke, then reading online to see the ship suffered a fire. Repaired or not, a fire is a serious incident and reflects poorly on the owner, their fault or otherwise (nobody ever reads how a contractor started the fire).

Cleverness aside, sometimes sailors forget they do not own the ship and do not have free rein to make these types of jokes. I have seen QHSE send out a nasty email with screenshot from social media of a post involving crew happily working on board, but without using all PPE. That is a good example of how quickly something can be observed by the public. Yes, some will say this is taking fun away but it is the times we live in. Then again I ask my wife to not draw "clean me" on my car so perhaps I am not so fun after all...
This fire happened in 1986.
GuestfromEU
Posts: 359
Joined: December 7, 2014, 10:33 am

Re: mv algosoo

Unread post by GuestfromEU »

A sense of humour is great (many in the office are equally humorous), but protecting and projecting the corporate image is always paramount. Many companies prohibit employees from posting anything work related to social media...photos, mention of company name, others. While I cannot speak to the Algosoo name incident, in 2023 the times are different and right or wrong these scenarios often draw much more scrutiny than one would expect. Imagine from the shipowner's viewpoint; a ship with a defaced name sailing for thousands or more passersby to see, wondering what is the joke, then reading online to see the ship suffered a fire. Repaired or not, a fire is a serious incident and reflects poorly on the owner, their fault or otherwise (nobody ever reads how a contractor started the fire).

Cleverness aside, sometimes sailors forget they do not own the ship and do not have free rein to make these types of jokes. I have seen QHSE send out a nasty email with screenshot from social media of a post involving crew happily working on board, but without using all PPE. That is a good example of how quickly something can be observed by the public. Yes, some will say this is taking fun away but it is the times we live in. Then again I ask my wife to not draw "clean me" on my car so perhaps I am not so fun after all...
Guest

Re: mv algosoo

Unread post by Guest »

I recall that after the fire hearing this vessel being referred to as the Algosoot in several instances at meetings of maritime historical groups by both speakers and attendees. For some reason, I disliked it being referred to by that name as if the fire was going to be the highlight of its career. I know it was widely reported that the fire caused $16 million (Canadian dollars I assume) but luckily this occurred during winter layup and there were no human casualties involved. Although the fire had ravaged the aft end, the age of the vessel warranted repairs at the time. Had this fire spread down the length of the hull or had the fire occurred about 7-10 years later, it is likely teh Algosoo would have deemed a total loss as was the St. Clair and the Roger Blough which sustained similar fires later in their careers. As for the story of the employee being fired for adding the "T" to the end of the ship's name, I have heard this story before. I don't know if it is an example of a boatnerd urban legend or not but given the nature of the accident, this is not exactly the type of situation that requires humor. To that end, Algoma would have probably been justified, especially given the public nature of the joke, to have let this person go over the incident. But who knows what the truth to this really is? Does anyone have any evidence as to how long the "T" remained on the vessel before being painted over? If it remained until the ship was undergoing repairs then I would doubt the validity of this story. If, however, it was quickly removed, which would have been easy to accomplish by just painting over the single letter then I would conclude that the company found little humor in this.
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mv algosoo

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in the march 7th photo of the algosoo fire damage you will notice someone paintef a T after the last O, probably a crew member. aparently the "people in the office notice this and fired said person. no sense of humour in head office!
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