About us
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The city of Split is a well-known centre of maritime and shipbuilding industry on the east coast of the Adriatic. It has developed into a very important educational centre too, with the University of Split and numerous schools of all kinds, including the Maritime School and Maritime Faculty, together with several Maritime Training Centres. In the city of Split, one could also find a number of vessel manning and operating agencies, too. There are several scientific research centres including the Oceanographic Institute, the Croatian Hydrographic Institute, and the Institute for Adriatic Plants. The City of Split is the seat of the Croatian Register of Shipping and PLOVPUT, the state company for construction and maintenance of aids to navigation in the Croatian part of the Adriatic. It is also an important cargo port and has a very busy passenger terminal, too. Split also has a coastal Meteorological Station, covering the entire Croatian coast.
The Merchant Fleet Engineer Officers Association has been founded as early as the year 1933. The Association suspended its activities during the World War II. It was the time when Split was occupied and a number of engineers sailed in the allied convoys. One of its members founded during the war the Seaman's Club in New York for Croatian members of the crew which sailed with allied merchant fleet.
After the war we, at that time youngsters, continued with the activities of our predecessors and have restarted the Association that now bears the title MARINE ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION - SPLIT. Since then, it has been active without interruption up to the present time. The Association presently has 390 members of all ranks and ages, including Honorary and Associated members. It is headed by Chairman and President of the Executive Committee, having 11 members.
The objective of the Association is to improve the status of engineers, reputation and dignity of the profession and to promote their professional education. Hence, we have established good and efficient collaboration with all the institutions dealing with the same field of activities such as schools, starting from the middle and higher education up to the Maritime Faculty, and including shipyards and shipping and maritime companies and institutions. For example, some of our members sit in the examination commission for marine engineers. These exams are held and organised by Harbour Master's Office in Split, which in our country represents the local maritime authority.
Realisation of our goals is obtained through seminars, discussion panels, lectures, presentations and visits to the sites. Another form of our activity are weekly meetings at our premises, where retired and active members who are on vacations meet and chat, discuss and exchange opinions. We consider our comradeship and social life to be extremely important.
The Association publishes twice a year its own magazine KEEPING PACE WITH TIME. The main objective of this magazine is to publish articles related to the professional issues and to give current information that might be of interest to the professionals. Of course, content of the magazine is not exclusively dedicated to the professional or maritime themes. Magazine informs the members of the Association's activities and other relevant happenings in the maritime milieu. One can occasionally find an anecdote, a travelogue or even a poem dealing with life at sea. The magazine is distributed without charge to the members and practically to anyone who might find it interesting to read. The magazine is well accepted and it is in great demand.
Besides, in 1999. we published a commemorative publication 1969-1999 in which one can find all the information about the history of the Association.
Another publication of this Association is the book DICTIONARY OF THE ACRONYMS, written by our member, Mr. Boris Abramov, issued in 2003. In this book he compiled over 4000 acronyms, terms, measuring units and symbols of all kinds, but mainly from the marine engineering and maritime fields. This book is distributed without any charge and it is widely requested.
Earlier, in November our honorary member Velimir Ozretic, B.Sc. published on his own a very successful textbook named AUXILIARY ENGINES AND DEVICES. This book was sponsored and supported by Association. This book was so much requested that, very soon, the Forth Edition will come out under presses, fully amended and updated. Our regular member Ante Pažanin, marine engineer and lecturer wrote earlier a textbook named MARINE MOTORS. Another regular member Dr. Sc. Marijo Oršulic wrote a textbook called APPLIED MECHANICS - STATICS. Our honorary member Dr. Sc. Igor Belamaric, B. Nav. Arch., a very fruitful writer recently wrote two very interesting books. One book is named ALMA MATER and another one is named SHIP & ENTROPY. Another honorary member, assistant professor M.Sc. Mirko Grljušic from FESB (Faculty of Electrical Sciences, Mechanical Engineering and Shipbuilding) wrote a textbook named INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES. Most of these books were partially sponsored by our Association.
The Association wishes to have contacts with anyone who has the promotion of the marine engineers' interests in mind. Therefore, we encourage such persons to make contacts with us via e-mail or by any other mean, without regard to their nationality, all seamen in the world are but a big family.
