Marine Consultant & Manager, Nautical Survey Department
Paul Davidson is a Marine Consultant and Manager of the Nautical Survey Department based in our Cardiff office.
Paul is a Master Mariner with a BTEC in Nautical Science. He joined MTD in January 2020, having spent the previous 11 years working for another leading firm of marine consultants.
Paul’s sea-going career spanned 16 years where he started as a deck boy and worked his way up to chief officer (at sea) and barge master (offshore). He has sailed on a variety of vessels including container ships, multiservice vessels, passenger ferries, freight Ro-Ro’s, crane barge, anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTS), semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) and cruise vessels. Before becoming a marine surveyor, Paul spent almost four years as a surveyor with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and, prior to that, close to five years as Fleet Marine Superintendent with Charles Willie Shipping.
Paul’s main surveying and consultancy experience is in the field of collision investigations; ECDIS playback analysis; VDR analysis; grounding investigations; liquefaction of solid bulk cargoes; self-heating coal; carriage, handling and damage to dry bulk cargoes; container securing system failures and collapse of stacks; towing, including double towage of dumb barges; hold cleaning disputes; ship management; ISM Safety Management System assessment; unsafe port disputes; charter party disputes including speed and consumption performance claims, and routing disputes; cargo damage; hull fouling and paint condition; personal injury; piracy issues; stowaways; and offshore vessels and oil rigs. Paul has prepared technical reports for, and has given expert witness testimony at arbitrations and court cases in the United Kingdom. This has included providing expert witness evidence on behalf of The Crown, in particular in relation to navigational issues of sea-going Vessels in a major alleged drug smuggling operation. He has also prepared technical reports for court cases in Hong Kong (collision) and Australia (expert witness appointed on behalf of the Federal Government of Australia).