Global Leaders in Marine Assurance & Risk Management

ASKET the worlds leading Maritime Security Brokerage and Merlin Global come together to support operations managers and CSOs with time and cost saving services with regards to Marine Assurance & Risk Management – August 2020

Emma Mitchell, Director ASKET Ltd

It is with great pleasure that we can announce our partnership with Merlin Global a leading light in Ships Operations and Risk Management support.

Merlin Global is a specialist consultancy supporting Ship Owners, Managers and Operators with a variety of specialist consultancy and Ship Management services, .

From their offices in the UK they will be bringing their knowledge of Merchant Marine Operations to augment ASKETs specialist Security Broking, Compliance and Operations team’s.

The experienced Merlin Global Team will be adding considerable value by partnering with ASKET, expanding our holistic approach to Security and Risk services in support of our Shipping Partners. By building stronger relationships and developing market leading capability to support ASKET Brokers, Operations, Auditing, and Compliance in Europe, Africa and Asia, our combined service proposition is truly unrivalled!

Merlin Global Maritime

Marine Assurance & Vetting

Their team of professional mariners have a proven track record in commercial and technical management. They advise on vetting and quality matters to help ensure clients get the best out of their ships. As well as providing vetting support to owners and Charterers, including SIRE review and planning, Merlin are able to arrange Port Captains accordingly.

Marine Risk

Their team of experienced Maritime Operations Officers, have many years of commercial and technical experience. They produce tailored packages to monitor client fleets, produce Risk Assessments and voyage planning within High Risk Areas (West Africa, Indian Ocean and Libya). Using state of the art tools to provide Due Diligence needed to trade safely in the worlds hot spots, Merlin help organisations make the right commercial and safe decisions.

Maritime Security

In co-ordination with ASKET working with Blue Chip Private Maritime Security Companies (PMSC's) in order to provide the most cost effective and operationally successful solution to operating your vessels safely in the worlds High Risk Areas, our Maritime Operations Officers will manage the operation from appointment to smooth embarking and disembarking of the AST or SEV as necessary.

Merlin Global Director, David Lockwood commented

“This is an exciting time to combine the expertise of ASKET and Merlin Global, in being able to provide a one stop shop to Owners, Operators and Charterers who are focused on Quality Operations across the regions.

Merlin Global, with a team of experienced Master mariners and Merchant Marine professionals, is delighted to be working with ASKET.”

Captain David Lockwood is a Master Mariner

David is a self-driven professional with 25 years’ experience in the industry including sea time on tankers, training ships, dive support vessels as well yachts and smaller craft. This experience included 10 years working as shore based operations superintendent including Panamax tanker Operations and Fleet Management, concluding with leading a global team as CSO, DPA and vetting manager for a leading global operator of over 80 deep-sea tankers. In that role he was dealing with major class, flag and P&I societies as well as various oil major vetting and clearance departments.

In 2020 he identified a gap in the industry for a quality driven manager to provide support to ship operators in the marine assurance, marine risk, and maritime security sectors making use of his unique experience of technical and commercial operations to help his fellow shipping professionals.

David is a member of the Nautical Institute and has served on the Intertanko vetting committee.

Captain David Lockwood and Emma Biggs - Merlin Global and ASKET Ltd Supporting Risk Managers at Sea and in Port

ASKET Ltd was established in 2013 to work with and for the shipping industry. Our vision was to set up an independent brokerage and be able to support a shipping industry being hammered by high costs of time, insurance, armed guards and escort vessels.

The ASKET team help clients save significant amounts of money and time, by directly supporting CSO’s and QHSE teams with the vetting, selection and monitoring of high quality security services, providing a one stop shop for all security requirements, and helping to speed up and simplify the decision making process.

Our focus is on enhancing quality, driving compliance and efficiency in the Maritime Security space, through sharing high quality information and by executing our unique maritime security broking process which, is free to our Shipping Partners. The more the shipping industry engage our free services the more we are able to reinvest into our free resources and services and the more the industry will benefit.

ASKET is the leader in this field and we believe the only true independent broker working directly for the Shipping Industry. We work with some of the world’s largest (and also smallest) ship owning and ship management companies and have been described as being ‘a breath of fresh air’ by many satisfied clients.

To find out more please visit https://www.asket.co.uk/ or https://merlin-global-maritime.co.uk/

ASKET Ltd

Emma Mitchell Biggs - Director Business & Compliance

+44 7507 777 204 I emma.mitchell@asket.co.uk

Merlin Global

Captain David Lockwood - Director -

ASKET free resources including West Africa Security Escort Vessel data base, Maritime Security App, Global BMP Quiz and lessons learned from an attack in the HRA can be found at: https://www.asket.co.uk/