Seafarers Way

Cargo & Dangerous Goods: What the Ship Carries Can Change Everything

Cargo is easy to underestimate.

Most of the time, it sits quietly behind steel bulkheads or inside sealed containers. It doesn’t look dangerous. It doesn’t make noise. And it often feels like “someone else’s responsibility.”

Until it shifts.
Until it reacts.
Until it heats up.
Until it burns.

In Episode 9 of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel explores SOLAS Chapters VI and VII — Cargoes and Dangerous Goods — and reveals why cargo is one of the most underestimated t...

Surveys & Certification: When the Paper Says Safe… but the Sea Decides

Certificates feel reassuring.
They’re stamped, signed, and valid — proof that a ship has been inspected, approved, and declared fit to sail.

But here is the uncomfortable truth:
a certificate does not guarantee safety.
It only proves that, at a specific moment in time, someone believed the ship met the standard.

In this reflective episode of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel explores SOLAS Chapter I — Surveys and Certification — and reveals why this “quiet” chapter is one of the most important safegu...

Fire at Sea (Deep Dive): What Fire Does to the Mind

Fire at sea is not just a physical emergency.
It is a psychological one.

In Episode 7 of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel returns to SOLAS Chapter II-2 — Fire Safety — but from a deeper, more human perspective. This episode goes beyond equipment and procedures to explore what fire does to the mind, and why fear, confusion, and loss of clarity have been at the center of so many maritime fire tragedies.

Fire behaves differently at sea. Ships are enclosed steel environments where heat h...

Construction, Stability & Watertight Integrity: When the Sea Enters the Ship

There is a moment every seafarer hopes never comes — the moment when water enters the ship where it should not be.

In Episode 6 of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel explores SOLAS Chapter II-1: Construction, Stability, and Watertight Integrity — one of the most critical, and often misunderstood, pillars of maritime safety. This episode is not about formulas or drawings. It is about time, discipline, and the thin line between survivability and disaster.

Flooding is different from other emergencies. Fire gives you a chance to fight...

Safety of Navigation: Every Mile Is a Decision

Navigation accidents rarely begin with alarms.

They begin quietly — with confidence, routine, and assumptions that feel harmless in the moment.

In this episode of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel takes listeners into the real meaning of SOLAS Chapter V: Safety of Navigation. Not as a technical lecture, but as a conversation about judgment, awareness, and the small decisions that silently shape every voyage.

This episode explores why navigation is uniquely dangerous at sea. Fire and flooding announce themselves. Navigation mistakes don’t. The ship k...

Modern SOLAS is not a relic of maritime history.
It is alive — revised, amended, and strengthened every time the sea exposes a weakness we failed to see before.

In this segment, we step away from dates and documents and look at what SOLAS has become today: a living agreement between nations, companies, and seafarers that safety must never stop evolving. As ships grew larger, routes became busier, and technology more complex, SOLAS adapted — adding new chapters, new requirements, and new expectations.

Modern SOLAS reflects hard truths learned from tragedy: that fire spreads faster in encl...

The Moment You Call for Help

At sea, isolation is real.
And sometimes, the only thing standing between disaster and survival… is a voice.

In this deeply emotional episode of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel explores SOLAS Chapter IV — Radio Communications — through the human side of distress calls, watchkeeping, and the unseen network that listens when everything else is failing.

This episode is not about buttons and frequencies.
It’s about what it feels like to press the distress button knowing your voice might carry fear, hope, and responsibility all at once.

When Staying Onboard Is No Longer an Option

There is a moment every seafarer hopes never comes — the moment when the ship that has protected you can no longer do so.

In Episode 3 of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel speaks honestly and calmly about abandon ship — not as a dramatic scene from a movie, but as a deeply human decision made under pressure, fear, and responsibility.

This episode asks you to imagine waking in the middle of the night to alarms, shouting, and a vessel already listing. Not during a drill. Not during traini...

Why Fire Is Every Seafarer’s Fear

Fire at sea is different.
It doesn’t knock.
It doesn’t give warnings you can prepare for.
It starts quietly — often when most of the ship is asleep — and then it spreads with a speed that turns routine into chaos.

In this episode of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel takes you into the reality of fire onboard a vessel — not as a checklist, not as a drill, but as an experience every seafarer fears and respects.

This is not a technical lecture about extingui...

This episode is a preparation for Episode 1, which will dive deep into every Chapter of SOLAS.

Why these RULES exist.

From the Titanic disaster to the formation of the first SOLAS convention.

This is not merely memorizing the regulations, but understanding them. Regulations that exist to protect us in the memories of those lives that have been sacrificed.