This morning we visited Bernhardt Shulte (BSM) and Columbia Group. Both these companies manage many ships and crews aboard third-party ships. We learned a lot about ship management through these two companies, something I found interesting is that ship management isn’t just about managing the actual ships and their routes, but also the crew aboard the ship and even their mental health. Columbia Group has a department that is dedicated to the task of tracking ships and relaying to ship captains about information regarding their route or other ship information. Through BSM we learned that ship crewmen go through a three-month training program before they are placed on a vessel, for the training programs they provide there is no need to have previous experience with sea vessels unless someone is taking an advance level course. We also learned that the most important person on the ship is the head chef since the crew would not be able to function without food, they also work to accommodate everyone’s dietary restrictions onboard the ship.