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«Be considerate<br />
and precise in your<br />
correspondence»<br />
Circular to masters, dated 1952<br />
“Occasionally we receive excerpts from<br />
ship logs and letters that have not been<br />
written the way they should have been”.<br />
So begins Bernt Daniel <strong>Odfjell</strong> S<strong>nr</strong>., the<br />
father of our current chairman, a circular<br />
to the <strong>Odfjell</strong> masters. The topic of<br />
the circular was to request the captains<br />
to put a real effort into writing letters<br />
and reports. The shipowner continued:<br />
“In particular in matters concerning<br />
third party damages you can hardly be<br />
careful enough with what is being written.<br />
Consequently we ask our masters to<br />
be exceedingly considerate and precise<br />
in the correspondence in general. Correspondence<br />
has to be worked with. It<br />
is an appropriate rule to prepare drafts<br />
for letters, and if it is difficult and important<br />
letters that don’t need to be<br />
sent the same day, it is often advisable<br />
to leave the draft for a day or two to<br />
have time for closer considerations”.<br />
This circular was written on October 30th<br />
1952, almost 54 years ago, and issued to<br />
all <strong>Odfjell</strong> ships. We don’t know whether<br />
or not Mr. <strong>Odfjell</strong>’s admonitions had<br />
the desired effect on the masters’ writing<br />
skills. However, it shows that some<br />
topics remain valid, and it is certain that<br />
we can all learn from his advice: keep<br />
your language clear and precise!<br />
active too. On site safety and quality<br />
inspections, weekly meetings with the<br />
constructors and constant improvement<br />
of the plan and schedule are paramount.<br />
Despite the very high temperatures and<br />
unexpected storms this summer, Bay I<br />
construction is according to plan with<br />
finishing date the end of September.<br />
Bay II is slightly behind schedule but still<br />
catching up. The terminal area now looks<br />
completely different compared to only<br />
one and half month ago. We are looking<br />
forward to the completion of our tank<br />
construction in early October.<br />
<strong>Odfjell</strong> Terminals (Jiangyin)<br />
• Joint venture with the Garson<br />
Group of Shanghai,China<br />
• Located in the Yangtze river<br />
150 km west of Shanghai<br />
• Initial capacity of 99,800 cbm<br />
from first quarter 2007<br />
• Handling of ships, barges and<br />
trucks<br />
• Additional land available for<br />
expansion<br />
ODFJELL Quarterly September 2006 9
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