John Guy, author and maritime advisor, gives his opinion on life at sea and back home:
 
We used to joke when we went back to sea after leave that we knew it was time to go because coming down to breakfast we had found our seaman's book beside the plate. 

The BBC has just broadcast a Thinking Allowed program which highlights the work of Professor Helen Sampson, Director of the Seafarers International Research Centre at Cardiff University. It seems she has won a sociology prize for finding out that seafarers' wives get fed up of them being at home for too long.

There may be a bit more to her research than that, written up in her winning tome International seafarers and transnationalism in the twenty-first century. What struck me though was the degree of muddled thinking which surrounds seafaring.

The judges who read the work said they were struck by the ghastly nature of seafaring, and Professor Sampson makes a song and dance about noise and vibration on ships she has sailed on. One of her colleagues is quoted talking about flagging out and a race to the bottom.

They are good examples of the feel-sorry-for-seafarers industry which has grown up and which fuels this boloney. It is true there are bad ships and bad owners, but there always have been. The worst ship I ever sailed on, totally unsafe and crewed and managed by madmen, was British flag and owned by a well-known Scottish shipowner. There are also good ships and good owners who pay well under all sorts of flags and a lot of seafarers who are very happy with their lives.

Those seafarers are often quite happy to see the back of their wives and get back to sea. Out there you can't hear out of touch academics whingeing about how tough your life is.

John Guy served on merchant ships and warships for sixteen years before becoming a ship inspector and then a journalist. He advises companies and organizations working in the global shipping industry on media and crisis management. His latest novel is The Golden Tide.

After traveling across the Atlantic on a ship outfitted with millions of dollars' worth of state-of-the-art equipment, the Seafarers aboard the MV Cape Ray spent April in Europe preparing to receive and destroy Syrian chemical weapons.

Docked in Rota, Spain, since February, the Cape Ray was set to travel to the Italian port of Gioia Tauro to receive the chemical weapons from Danish and Norwegian cargo ships. From there, the vessel will take the weapons to international waters in the Mediterranean for destruction.

According to news reports, destruction of the weapons could begin as early as this month (May).

As previously reported, the Keystone-operated, SIU-crewed containership left Portsmouth, Va., in January. Its crew includes 36 civilian mariners, more than 60 U.S. Army chemical weapons specialists, a security team and representatives from U.S. European command. Members of the Machinists union were on board, too.

The Cape Ray's deployment followed an international agreement in August to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. That agreement came about after the Syrian government allegedly used the weapons against its own people last year.

Following the deployment, the crew of the Cape Ray received praise from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other high-ranking Defense Department (DOD) officials. Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities in April, a pair of top defense representatives commended the job being done by the crew of the Cape Ray.

"When the international community failed to identify a nation willing to host destruction operations for the most dangerous chemicals, a full-court press was employed to develop a ship-based destruction option only 60 days from the word 'go,'" said Kenneth Myers, director of the DOD's Defense Threat Reduction Agency. "I am proud to say that the Motor Vessel Cape Ray, the ship that houses two field-deployable hydrolysis systems, stands ready to begin destruction of a large portion of these chemical weapons once they are taken out of Syria."

Rebecca Hersman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for countering weapons of mass destruction, also touted the Cape Ray's importance when addressing the subcommittee.

"This maritime Ready Reserve Force vessel ... is manned by the finest experts from our operational and technical communities," she said. "This unprecedented international effort demonstrates the ability of DOD, other U.S. departments and agencies, and our international partners to develop innovative solutions to complex problems."

Those statements followed a press release from Hagel praising the crew of the Cape Ray for "accomplish(ing) something no one has tried" and helping to make the world safer."

According to the United Nations, Syria faced an April 27 deadline to remove all chemical agents from the country. The deadline to have those weapons destroyed is June 30.

The SIU crew aboard the Cape Ray as of mid-April included: Bosun William Lima, ABs Walter Ott, Jonathan Davis, George Phillips, Mark Brownell and Jerry Sobieraj, QEEs Kevin Quinlan and Mark Maduro, QE4 Jason Billingsley, Oiler Andre Mitchell, GVA Dionta Winstead, Steward/ Baker Edward Banks, Chief Cooks Mike Adorno, Helen Mitchell, Emanuel Spain and Sandra Vann, and SAs Cornelius Taylor, Arica Shaw, Kevin Arroyo and Emanuel Spain.

(CNN) -- Former U.S. Rep. James "Jim" Oberstar, who represented Minnesota's 8th congressional district for over a quarter century, has died. Oberstar was 79.

Oberstar was elected in 1974 as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, known as DFL, and held his seat from 1975 to 2011. He was elected among one of the largest classes of freshman Democrats in the House after the Watergate scandal broke in 1974.

President Barack Obama praised Oberstar for his commitment to the people of Minnesota.

"Jim cared deeply about the people of Minnesota, devoting his 36 years of service to improving America's infrastructure, creating opportunity for hardworking Minnesotans, and building a strong economy for future generations of Americans," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

President Bill Clinton remembered Minnesota's longest-serving Congressman as a tireless public servant.

"Jim was a devoted friend and supporter of the Haitian people. I relied on him for advice on Haiti first as President and again after the terrible Haitian earthquake in 2010," Clinton said in a statement.

Oberstar was the state's longest-serving member of Congress. He became chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in 2006. In a close race, he lost to Republican challenger Chip Cravaack in the Republican House takeover in 2010.  

"Jim Oberstar knew everything there was to know about our nation's infrastructure, and fought tirelessly to rebuild and renew it," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.

"... His passing is heartbreaking news for his friends and former colleagues from both sides of the aisle. It was an honor and a privilege to work alongside him, and we only hope it is a comfort to his wife Jean, his children and his grandchildren that so many share in their loss at this sad time."  

Minnesota officials are mourning Oberstar's loss.

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said that the state lost a true Minnesota legend. Gov. Mark Dayton called him a "true champion" for Minnesota. Sen. Amy Klobuchar tweeted he was a "man of true purpose and grit."

Oberstar is survived by his wife, four children and eight grandchildren.