About Martin's Marine Engineering Page - www.dieselduck.net

What you will find find on this website

Chances are you are here because you are interested commercial ship, structures and the professionals who operate them. On this site, you will find information about Marine Engineering, and the Marine Industry as a whole.

As I have gone through the steps of becoming a certificated engineer, I had many questions and observations. Over time, I realized that I wasn't alone with those questions and observations, so I though I would commit to "paper" and share them with my peer, to seek their interaction and consensus or just to inform them.

I strive to keep Martin's Marine Engineering Page - www.dieselduck.net interesting for seasoned professionals, but my main target audience is the student, young engineer or general public curious about our trade. Should you have any technical or professional questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability, or direct you to where you might find an answer.

I strive to make sure the information presented here is accurate, should you find something which is questionable, let me know. Having said that, I remind you that I am human and prone to errors, therefore I make no guarantees that the information provided is "100% the truth". Don't hesitate to contact me, just remember that I am a sailor and I am away from home for months on end, but I reply to all my emails, sometimes it late.

 

Who's responsible for this site?

For the most part, me, Martin Leduc. I live with my spouse and our three kids in the port city of Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, on Canada's West Coast.

I began building this website in 1999, the final year of my four year Marine Engineering Apprenticeship, at the time, I was sailing on various vessels with the BC Government Ferry Fleet. I then sailed as an Engineer / Assistant Engineer with the Canadian Coast Guard for three years, and in 2003-4, I worked for Disney Cruise Line. Until I joined Smit Marine Canada in March 2007, I worked as a Second Engineer with Royal Caribbean International. I am currently Chief Engineer on a tug pushing a petroleum tank barge on the Great Lakes and St Lawrence. To find out more about me, check out my resume or my Linked In profile.

These pages are maintained by me. Maintaining them are my hobby, and they generate very minimal revenue. It is my hope that one day, this site can experience an increase in the scope of information, quality, and quantity yet be self sufficient. That is why I solicit advertisers and donations.

I put together the site, but many people over the years have contributed a great deal of items and comments (BTW - Thank You!), and that is why its the success it has been. You can see where I get some of my inspiration and find out who has helped here.

A very Serious Me at work, on the Vision of the Seas, in Alaska, 2004

 

Why Dieselduck ?

I don't get that question too often anymore, but you may be curious. Diesel Duck kinda fits who I am.

I spent eight years in large school in the US, for some reason people were always referred to by their last name, I think it was meant to be "Mr. Leduc", but it really ended up being "Leduc". Well, being French Canadian and in Kansas, it was only a matter of seconds before someone mispronounce my name to Lettuce, Leeduck, Le doook and the likes. The most common became "La Duck", so, why fight it.

I always had a propensity towards anything that moved and especially big heavy diesel powered movers. Later in my early adulthood and in mechanic school, most people thought I was taking baths in diesel because, I was always tinkering on engine and reeked of the stuff. Truth be told, the wife always loved it (yeah - were both pretty strange people). So the two of us stuck together nicely as did the nick name, and I figured it was a shorter to register as URL than www.martinsmarineengineeringpage.com - and www.mmep.com was already taken, so there is the full story.

A few years later, I happen to glance to the navigational chart of the southern BC coast, when I saw the Duck Lake next to Martin Lake, so I guess its just fits nicely and is meant to be...

 

Future plans

My primary objective remains to increase the content quantity and quality. www.dieselduck.net aims to be the most extensive, accessible collection of practical and realistic information for Marine Engineering professionals on the internet.

With three kids and a busy career and household, my lack of time is always this website's biggest enemy. For the last ten years I have managed to keep it up, but overall the pace of development has had to slow down a bit.

I don't actively solicit funding streams, but it would be nice if the site could generate revenue, so it may be self sustaining, in order to fulfill the stated aims of the site. If you are interested in the "sustaining" part, email me your ideas.

 

There is no end to the sky and the water.
 - Albert Camus

 

Technical stuff

This web site was originally designed using Microsoft Front Page. I now maintain it using MS Expression Web, and custom programing.

 

Other information

• The site's Privacy & Copyright Policy can be found on our "Fine Print" page
• Information on advertising with Martin's Marine Engineering Page - www.dieselduck.net can be found here.

• Comments, Suggestions & Contact Information, click here

 

Milestones

To see what's happened - all the updates since coming online, you can click here for the ones 2012 and beyond, and click here for those between 1999 and 2011.

I've posted some of the site's milestones here. A record of visitor traffic, site looks, our history in general, and other neat things that have happened over the years.