My POET,

I have some concerns about your analogy that we, and here I presume you mean the longs here, are in a Titanic disaster situation and proceeding as passengers blind in our confidence in the integrity of the ship we are sailing in and the Captain and Crew managing it.

The principle cause of the Titanic Disaster was the decision of the Captain to proceed at full speed despite being warned of the potential for pack ice and ice bergs on his course. The great circle route he took was the fastest but he could have gone further south where there was less ice risk but a longer route. We should note that other ships in the vicinity had taken heed of the warning and had slowed down, but the Captain took the risk, a disastrous one as it turned out. Why take such a risk? - he did so because he was under pressure by the White Funnel owners and their shareholders to win the Atlantic blue ribbon event by being the fastest passenger ship crossing the Atlantic. Doing so on the Titanic’s Maiden Voyage would have been a massive coup for the company.

What you and the other glums ask of management is that they forgo their greater knowledge of the current risks and opportunities for POET, ice warnings et al, in favour of fulfilling shareholder thirst for knowledge, or as I call it, spoon feeding and potentially driving this ship at speedinto dangerous and risky waters. I don’t know why you, or the other glums for that matter, have not read or have chosen to ignore the company’s warnings that come about MS achievement, nothing but nothing has been, or can be promised on MS achievement, neither can we hold the ad hoc comments of Management to account or as contractual. I therefore don’t think you have presented a shred of evidence that the MS are in danger or that management are acting inappropriately.

Others here continuously provide you with every reason to be confident that the ship is on course, no one can promise we are not heading into some danger but life or the Venture Capital Market we have invested in, is just like that.

Your post and others like it make me totally fed up with asinine attitude where you are blind to potential and opportunity and posess greater insight of impending doom. Your deliberate negativity appears for the greater part to be self-serving and not for the benefit of the majority of posters here, you provide little in the form of DD, your arrogance in assuming you know better than many more able others here or that you have a greater hold on reality is stultifying. Can you really justify that we are blind to reality and heading for disaster.

The time has come for you to jump ship in the knowledge of impending disaster you see coming and take your chances in the icy waters of the Atlantic, not that I really think you will jump for a minute, that not you aim.

As for me I am perfectly happy and will proceed in blissful ignorance to the first class champagne bar and if we hit the unseen iceberg I will happily go down toasting my good friends and singing a few verses of ‘ for those in peril on the sea’ on my ukulele. At least I had hope and faith and some Charity but not for you today I’m afraid.

SULA

PS: for those interested; had the Captain of the Titanic maintained his course, done everything he could to slow his ship but strike the iceberg head on, he would have pierced one or two watertight holds and not the seven that the actual glancing blow caused through trying to manoeuvre around the said iceberg, which resulted in the ship effectively side swiping the underwater section of the berg. He could have saved the ship.

The Moral is if in doubt slow down proceed steadily with all eyes open