Role models for an industry.

Publication: Europe Intelligence Wire

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Financial Times Ltd.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: Michael Grey

Viewpoint

I was reading the obituary of Alec Dickson the other day. He died at the age of 85 in Scotland, nearly 70 years after he had gone to sea with the legendary Paddy Hendersons of Glasgow as a 16-year-old apprentice.

But Captain Dickson had not been content to work for a somewhat rough and ready Clydeside outfit where fresh water was rationed and the food barely palatable.

After a distinguished war driving destroyers he 'migrated' into Shell Tankers, perhaps perceiving that this sector of the shipping industry was where the real progress was hitherto to be made.

He went on to be a director of Shell Marine, head of their marine operations and pretty well in charge of everything that floated in the oil company and closely involved in marine safety and pollution prevention.

When I was labouring ashore in the UK Chamber of Shipping in the 1960s he struck me as a hugely clever, well-informed person, and typical of the polished operational people oil companies seemed able to produce. He was pleasant too, which was not an abiding characteristic in the marine industry ashore in that era.

Looking back to that period, there was a whole army of these impressive figures who seemed to be making the rules of the game as the carriage of...

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