Slippery When Wet

Fiction by MarEx Editor Joseph Keefe from the summer 1998 MarEx print edition featuring Tidewater’s William O’Malley on the cover. The lengthy piece is as valid today as it was when it first was published in 1998. We bring it back online by popular demand.

Joseph Keefe’s first (and so far only) foray into fiction genre centers around the brilliant but untested commodities trader, Randall Wingate, and his subsequent baptism under fire as he dips his toes into the world of trading “wet” barrels in the real world. The story touches upon multiple events that occur before, after and during the fixture of a single parcel of crude oil. Follow along and relive Randall Wingate’s nightmare on the voyage of the VLCC “PRIDESTAR.” Almost eleven years after first being released, the piece is brought on line in its original format from that early edition of THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE.

Keefe spent more than five years at sea, the greater majority of which was on oil and chemical tankers and then followed that service with more than fifteen years in the marine consulting game ashore, providing – among other things – petroleum loss control, ship vetting, loss claim investigations, flag state safety surveys and a myriad of other related tasks. He was a partner at International Marine Consultants (IMC) from 1996 to 2000. His perspective in the business, looking from all phases of marine transportation, provided the basis for this work of fiction. A sequel and follow-up work of fiction is planned. Stay tuned to MarEx for additional details.

“Slippery When Wet” is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary: the settings and characters are fictitious and not intended to represent specific places or living persons. This work of fiction may not reproduced or rebroadcast without the express written consent of THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE and the author.