Spotlight on: Brookes Bell in the US

Since 1903, Brookes Bell has been the leading multi-disciplinary technical and scientific consultancy serving the marine and energy sectors, worldwide.

Last year, we announced the addition of the US based marine consultancy 3D Marine – a company specialising in all aspects of marine transportation, offering vessel and cargo surveys, casualty, personal injury and marine engineering consultancy - as part of the company’s global growth strategy.  One year on, we are pleased to announce that Martin Twomey has now been appointed Director of Brookes Bell USA and will be leading and growing our US operations. 

Martin is a Chartered Marine Engineer with a First-Class Certificate of Competency, having spent 18 years at sea before moving ashore to work in ship management. He worked for four years with a major German shipowner before joining Brookes Bell in 2018 and has sailed on LPG tankers, containers, bulk and reefer vessels.  He has additional qualifications in marine surveying, naval architecture, drydock planning and management, oil, gas and petrochemical shipping and was based in Shanghai, China before moving to Houston, USA in January.

Martin’s appointment heads up a growing expert team across the continent.  At the end of last year Captain David Ireland was appointed as a Principal Master Mariner, based in San Francisco.  An experienced marine consultant and master mariner with a 28-year long career in the tanker industry, he has been listed as a member of the Lloyd’s Special Casualty Representative (SCR) Panel since 2016.

Brookes Bell now has operations in Houston, Miami, New York and San Francisco which have been further boosted with senior appointments to the region. William Leschaeve, senior naval architect and SCR is now based in New York, and Captain Eric Crabtree, former salvage master is based in Houston. Matthew Fenton who holds an unlimited Chief Engineer's Certificate of Competence for Steam, Motor and Gas Turbine vessels comes from a significant marine underwriting background has moved to be based in San Francisco.  Dr Luis Guarin, a Naval Architect with almost 20 years of consultancy experience in ship design, risk assessment as well as research and development has moved to our Miami office.  Luis will be developing Brookes Bell’s Quantitative Risk Assessment capabilities, which is becoming an increasingly prominent tool in casualty management.

The addition of these experts to our US operations will allow us to work more closely with our clients across the Americas providing cost effective casualty support, forensic analysis, digital simulation and expert witness services in marine salvage as well as brown water salvage.

Martin Twomey says: “I am delighted to move to the US to head up our work here, we have a strong and highly skilled team from 3D Marine, and these new appointments will allow us to provide expert support for a much greater range of complex projects.  The last year has been about consolidation and looking ahead we are now excited to be planning significant growth across the region.

“Our multi-disciplinary 360-degree approach enables us to offer unrivalled expertise in master mariner services, marine engineering, naval architecture, cargo science, salvage & wreck removal, fire investigation, fuel & liquid cargoes, metallurgy and paint & coatings.  All of which is delivered through a single point of contact, which is just one of the key reasons P&I clubs, shipowners, charterers, underwriters and law firms around the world choose Brookes Bell when they need independent and impartial expert support.”

Anthony York added: “We investigate, troubleshoot and independently advise on a broad range of marine and energy matters.  Our reputation for being the ‘go-to’ firm for casualty investigation, forensic analysis, technical dispute resolution and expert witness work is built on our innovation, our ground-breaking digital simulation software and the addition to our services of a state-of-the-art laboratory providing independent detailed forensic investigation and analysis across fuels, paint & coatings, metallurgy and NDT.

“As the needs of the maritime world have developed, so have the services that Brookes Bell offers, and as befits a global industry, we have now offices across Europe, Asia Pacific and America. This is the just the latest step in our long-term strategy to offer outstanding multi-disciplinary expertise to our customers wherever they are.”