Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of West Florida, 2008. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 0 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, December 1994. / Thesis advisor(s): William R. Gates, Louis Kalmar. "December 1994." Bibliography: p. 113-121. Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1999. / Includes abstract. "March 1999." Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis seeks to identify factors affecting the probability of selection of a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) to Executive Officer (XO) in the U.S. Navy. Selections to XO are made by a board that meets annually. Because a candidate is considered for selection in up to three consecutive boards, the possible outcomes in this process are selection to XO in one of three annual boards, failure to be selected to XO in the third board, or attrition from the process between boards. Using data on the board's selections over a three-year period (2002-2004) a hazards-based logistic regression model is developed to estimate the probabilities associated with a candidate's disposition based on his or her career profile. The model confirms that a candidate's recent fitness and evaluation report (FITREP) is the single-most-important factor affecting selection. Additionally, officers who have completed a tour in Washington D.C. or at the Bureau of Naval Personnel have higher probabilities of selection than do those who have completed other shore tours. But when an officer receives a poor FITREP, the probability of selection is low, regardless of other factors. A nonparametric statistical analysis is used to confirm these findings.

This dissertation investigates the online travel writing of Swedish cruising sailors. The aim is to analyze how crews in online travelogues describe ongoing experiences, and to show how the journeys, the stories and the storytelling are mutually related to one another. As journeys are both the plots of the stories and the contexts for the storytelling, the travelogues in question challenge established narrative definitions. The analysis combines Amy Shuman’s folkloristic research on immediate storytelling with historian Reinhart Kosellecks’ perspectives on time as situated and subjective. Storytelling is thereby understood as a contextual and variable practice: conditioned, enabled and limited by the writers’ current position and point of view, and by a series of practical, technological, narrative and social factors. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork online and offline. The material primarily consists of four crews’ blogs and web pages, written texts, photographs, and readers’ comments. Interviews were conducted with the main informants and an additional fifteen crews in Sweden and in the harbours of Horta and Las Palmas. As the analysis show, the sailors’ write and publish updates from ever-changing positions in time and space, thereby depicting their journeys as a practical and cognitive process. These stories are to a great extent motivated by and directed towards the future, as sailors long for warmer destinations and worry about upcoming passages. The sailors write for a real-time audience partly consisting of families and friends, who anxiously wait for new updates. Writing is therefore sometimes perceived as a work-like task, and the sailors must develop strategies in order to write entertaining and exciting stories without further troubling their readers. The study’s result indicate that online storytelling can be understood as a process, which cannot be separated from the described events, nor from its everyday contexts. Stories, storytelling and experiences are understood as integrated with each other, since the storytelling as a practice become an established part of the everyday life during journeys.

Resume My thesis, entitled "Czechoslovak Ocean Shipping" introduces basic information about the existence of this company. The emphasis is not only on the historical development of the corporation but mainly on the complex survey of the firm and its cooperative work with the People's Republic of China. In addition, this paper includes various types of cultural reference to seamans' lives and their different habits, traditions and legends. This thesis is divided into three thematic units, each of which contains some particular chapters and detailed subheadings. In the first part, a brief history is outlined and an establishment with the upcoming termination of the company. The history is based mainly on the businesslike progress of the firm, not on the historical background between the Czechoslovak Republic and the People's Republic of China, or the economical and political situations in both of these countries. Basic information is given which is necessary to create a complete picture of the whole corporation. In the next section, technical and descriptive information about the commercial cargo ships is detailed. Furthermore, also included are the compulsory education, assesments and duties of the Czechoslovak sailors. The final part consists of navy habits and traditions which have been developed by...

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / This thesis delineates factors affecting the retention decisions of female Surface Warfare Officers. The data were obtained from in-depth interviews conducted with 12 female senior officers and 15 female junior officers. The transcripts from the interviews revealed 19 general themes. Based on the research, the data regarding the decisions that female officers make to either stay in the Navy or leave leads to four broad categories: economic factors, Navy taste factors., leadership factors, and family issues. The most common negative factors influencing female junior officers to leave the Navy are quality of life issues, lack of confidence in senior leadership, and family concerns. The main reasons the female senior officers stayed in the Navy were job satisfaction, their love for being out at sea and ship driving, and their commitment to taking advantage of the opportunities offered to them and forging a path for the women who followed. This thesis concludes with recommendations for further research and policy changes to assist personnel officials in understanding the retention decisions of female Surface Warfare Officers and potentially increasing the retention rate of the female officers. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Wu, Liang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-179). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii / CONTENTS --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER I: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK --- p.3 / RESEARCH METHODS --- p.12 / THESIS STRUCTURE --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER II: --- ON BOARD THE CONTAINER SHIP IN THE SEA OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE --- p.18 / THE NEW ECONOMIC SEA --- p.19 / NEOLIBERALISM AND FLEXIBLE ACCUMULATION --- p.22 / FLAGS OF CONVENIENCE --- p.25 / MIXED NATIONALITY CREWING --- p.30 / THE NEW TECHNOLOGICAL SEA --- p.32 / SHIPBOARD STRUCTURES --- p.35 / A DAY AT SEA --- p.42 / CHAPTER SUMMARY --- p.47 / Chapter CHAPTER III: --- THE CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS OF SEAMANSHIP --- p.49 / THE SAILOR： ROMANTICIZATION AND DISENCHANTMENT --- p.50 / MAKING A LIVING FOR HOME： THE FILIPINO EXAMPLE --- p.56 / THE VARIETY OF MEANINGS OF SEAMANSHIP --- p.63 / PROMOTION AND DROPPING OUT --- p.66 / FEMALE SEAFARERS AND THEIR SEAFARING STORIES --- p.71 / CHAPTER SUMMARY --- p.74 / Chapter CHAPTER IV: --- THE CONTAINERIZATION OF SEAFARERS --- p.76 / TRANSFORMATION OF THE SEASCAPE AND PORTSCAPE --- p.77 / PORTS AWAY FROM THE SHORE --- p.82 / FROM DAYS TO BUSY HOURS --- p.87 / "THE GUARDS, THE VICTIMS AND THE TERRORISTS" --- p.93 / TO MAKE A PHONE CALL --- p.98 / TELECOMMUNICATIONS AT SEA --- p.100 / SOCIAL COSTS FOR FAMILIES --- p.103 / CONTROLS ON WORKING BODIES --- p.105 / OUT THERE ON O N E ' S OWN --- p.110 / A PRISON WITH NICE FACILITIES --- p.113 / CHAPTER SUMMARY --- p.119 / Chapter CHAPTER V: --- ALL IN THE SAME SEA --- p.121 / REPRESENTATION AND WAGE DIFFERENTIATION BY NATIONALITY --- p.122 / ENGLISH AS THE COMMON INDUSTRIAL LANGUAGE --- p.128 / "HIERARCHY, PUNISHMENT AND OBEDIENCE" --- p.131 / "ETHNIC STEREOTYPES, DIVISION AND UNITY" --- p.137 / THE FAMILIAR STRANGERS --- p.143 / DINING AND OTHER SCARCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL INTERACTIONS --- p.147 / END OF CONTRACTUAL FRIENDSHIPS --- p.154 / CHAPTER SUMMARY --- p.156 / Chapter CHAPTER VI: --- CONCLUSION --- p.159 / THE CONTAINER SHIP AND SEAFARERS --- p.159 / SAILING FORWARD --- p.166 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.172 / APPENDIX --- p.180 / LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --- p.182 / GLOSSARY --- p.184

The Bahamian archipelago covers over 5,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean at the northwestern edge of the Caribbean Sea. In the Age of Sail, from the late 15th to early 20th centuries, these islands were on major sailing routes between the Caribbean, Central America, and Europe. Bahamians developed life-ways using their islands’ location to their advantage. Archaeological evidence of the significance of shipping activity is quite lacking. This research aimed to help fill the void by documenting examples of ship graffiti throughout the Bahamas. Examples of ship graffiti were documented with photographs and tracings. The Bahamian examples all date to the 19th and 20th centuries, 100 years later than other examples from the Caribbean and North America. They are also unique in being incised into the stone surfaces of building walls, caves, stones on a hillside, even on a slate fragment. It is possible that ship graffiti were also engraved on wooden surfaces but these have not survived in the archaeological record. Images depict locally-built vessels such as sloops and schooners as well as larger, ocean-going vessels. Ship graffiti are at sites associated mainly with people of African heritage, another possible social grouping being persons of lower economic status. Graffiti details consistently indicate that the artists were familiar with ship construction and rigging. This analysis of ship graffiti gives some understanding of the significance of ships and shipping in the Bahamian economy.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2004. / Title from title screen (viewed July 28, 2004). "June 2004." Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-60).