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Tuesday 9 March 2010
THE 250th anniversary of any organisation is ample cause to celebrate, if for sheer longevity alone. But choosing just how to mark the occasion can lead to some difficult decisions involving approach and taste. Should you accentuate the venerable or the modern? Should your entertainment be rarefied, or a jubilant, foot-stomping celebration?
Lloyd’s Register gave the best of both approaches in its gala event on Friday at London’s Grosvenor House hotel. The evening included a warm speech from David Moorhouse, who has steered the charitable organisation from his appointment in 1999, first as chief executive and chairman and then, from 2007, as non-executive chairman. Moorhouse almost casually alluded to his departure from the safety management group in a speech surveying the class society’s history, which had its origins at Lloyd’s Coffee House in London in 1760.
International Maritime Organization secretary-general Efthimios Mitropoulos then addressed a crowd of 1,200 with an appreciation of the class society’s contribution to shipping and global trade, beginning as it did at a time when press gangs were still roaming London’s streets and the introduction of iron hulls on ships was more than 60 years away.
After lauding Lloyd’s Register’s mission of safety — its motto is ‘Life Matters’ — he presented Moorhouse and Lloyd’s Register with a maritime painting of the only time the cruiseships Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2 ever sailed past each other in proximity at Southampton. It was painted by Robert Lloyd in 2005 — and that the painter bore the Lloyd’s name was purely coincidental, apparently.
That was the staid part. Things loosened up when Faryl Smith, a 17-year-old wunderkind who made the finals on Britain’s Got Talent, belted through inspiring renditions of Amazing Grace, Danny Boy and other chestnuts, backed up by a string quartet and a full soundboard of orchestral effects that would do the West End proud.
Flashier showmanship arrived in the form of Bond, an all-female combo with a funky take on the classic quartet using electric violins, a viola and a cello. Dressed in cocktail get-ups that were part Sex in the City and part Flash Gordon, they brought the evening to a head with renditions that ranged from Aram Katchaturian to the hora dance song.
As the evening closed, Moorhouse quipped: “Whoever said that classification societies are old fashioned?”
Waiting game
WHILE still on the topic of registers, there will be further inspections of Hellenic Register, according to the Brussels rumour mill.
The Greek classification society, banned from new business under a European Union diktat, is fighting to re-establish its name after accusations its quality systems were seriously lacking.
The fact that the European Maritime Safety Agency is still on the case means the game is not yet over. Will Hellenic avoid derecognition?
In Brussels, there are those who say an ideal solution would be a takeover by a larger society. Lloyd’s Register was said to have had a look last year, though since then we have heard nothing.
