As a maritime or energy professional, are you chasing slogans or following the cargo? Twenty-five years ago, the industry was told gas was the only future, yet oil never exited the system. Today, petrochemicals drive over half of oil demand growth, and the "Green Transition" itself is proving to be petrochemical-intensive. We analyze the 2026 market snapshot, from the aging VLCC fleet to the contango structure driving current freight reality. This episode is a logistical argument for the persistence of crude in a world shifting from "just-in-time" supply to "just-in-case" security.https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/02/02/gas-was-the-future-vlcc-spot-rates-say-otherwise/

In this episode, we dive deep into a disturbing trend within the shipping industry: the rising number of deaths and disappearances among young seafarers. While many of these cases are officially recorded as "suicides" or "unexplained," a closer look reveals a complex machinery of despair driven by systemic failures in leadership and training.We discuss the findings from the article "The Silence That Follows a Cadet’s Death at Sea" published on The DeepDraft.

The episode explores:• The Data Gap: The lack of a transparent, global database for seafarer fatalities and how this ambiguity obscures accountability.• The Reality vs. The Dream: How the "postcard" image of the Merchant Navy clashes with the brutal reality of isolation, harassment, and unsafe work environments.• The Leadership Gap: Why traditional "shouting" and "humiliation" methods are failing the new generation, and why mentorship & not just training is the key to safety.

• The Case Studies: A look at the September 2025 tragedies involving the Front Princess off Sri Lanka and the Blue Star Chios in Greece.• Pathways Forward: Actionable steps for the industry, including anonymous reporting channels, mandatory transparent investigations, and shore-side welfare check-ins.Resource Mentioned: For a full analysis of this topic, read the original article:•

Article: https://thedeepdraft.com/2025/10/09/the-silence-that-follows-a-cadets-death-at-sea/

Website: https://thedeepdraft.com/

If SCAMIN confuses your bridge team, you are not alone.The issue is bigger than most people realise.

https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/01/09/scamin-in-ecdis-why-always-off-vs-phase-based-still-divides-navigators/

Donald Trump’s remark about Greenland triggered instant ridicule. Most reactions framed it as a real-estate impulse or political theatre.

From a navigator’s perspective, it pointed to something far more basic.

Navigation is built on spherical geometry. Distance on a globe does not behave the way flat maps teach us. Great-circle routes bend toward higher latitudes, polar projections compress proximity, and regions near the Arctic sit far closer to global routes than common intuition suggests. Mariners and aviators work with this reality daily. It is not abstract. It governs fuel, time, weather exposure, and risk.

The problem is not the remark itself. The problem is the map most people carry in their heads.

Mercator projections preserve bearings, which makes them excellent for steering, but they distort scale and distance at high latitudes. That distortion trains intuition. When someone points out Arctic proximity, it sounds absurd only because the underlying geometry has been hidden in plain sight for centuries.

This article examines Greenland through that navigational lens. It is not about ownership, diplomacy, or ideology. It is about charts, routes, and geometry, and why a statement that sounded laughable in public discourse was spatially grounded in the way navigators actually see the world..

https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/01/28/why-navigators-understood-trumps-greenland-remark/