Avec Ghislaine et Peter à table, lors d'un dîner-croisière sur le Danube.
V.J. International was created by Ghislaine and Peter Vaughan-James in April 1993 upon the opening of the European Single Market.
The company has three distinct activities. Translation, shipping and consultancy.
Ghislaine who is French, spent a year working in the USA. Trained in Banking and Finance, she took over a long established translation agency several years ago and has many large industrial companies as her clients. They use us for translations in over 20 languages.
Peter is the fourth generation of seamen in his family. He is a qualified Chartered Shipbroker and was a Member of London’s Baltic Exchange. He frequently deals with ship arrests and does a lot of general maritime consultancy work. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
Since 1990, Peter has been an Official Translator and Maritime Advisor to the French Courts, Naturally, he does a lot of legal and maritime specialist translation. The Court recently asked him if he would serve for a further five-year period.
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OUR ACTIVITIES
Our clients are internationally known in the food business. We also have international clients that are « majors » in agriculture, the automobile industry and in precision mechanics.
Recently, we have been asked to work on a lot of commercial web sites for clients.
We have well known lawyers that use us for the translation of commercial contracts, marine insurance claims, litigation concerning « Experts » and also smaller firms who use us for family matters.
Naturally, we can arrange for documents to be formally « Certified Translations».
We also have a multitude of British expatriates who need documents translated officially – births deaths and marriages, house purchases and sales, or setting themselves up in business.
We are small, but can usually react very quickly, and understand the client’s need for fast, accurate, quality translations.
We are both frequently called upon by the Courts.
Peter has been called upon in cases of international business fraud, in France and other matters.
MARITIME WORK
In 2013 and 2014 we were asked to carry out the translation of Brussels proposed legislation concerning European Ports.
Peter works closely with a client from Saint-Nazaire who charters workboats for civil engineering offshore.
One of our clients in the shipbuilding business is active in building high-speed supply-vessels for use in the offshore oil fields. We translated the 100 pages specification for one in use in the Gulf of Guinea.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Since 1990, Peter has been an official translator and Maritime Advisor to the French Courts, He has been a member of the Committee of the Company of Experts appointed to the Angers Appeal Court Jurisdiction for many years.
In 2005 he became a Member of the National Committee of the French Association of Court Appointed Experts and looked after European Collaboration. He served for 4 years..
Peter is a qualified member and “Fellow” of the “Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers” which celebrated its 100th year in 2011. We give an annual prize to the top French, Spanish or Portuguese student in the exams (see our Prize Winners).
He was a Member of the Baltic Exchange, which was founded in London in 1744. Half the ships in the world bought or sold, or chartered in any year usually have at least one member of the Baltic involved. Peter was Chairman of their Panel of Experts. (See below).
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and was Member of the Association of Average Adjusters, which was formed in 1869 and deals with shipping insurance claims.
The “Propeller Clubs (Shipping Clubs) have about 10,000 members around the world.
Peter has been Vice-President of the Port of Nantes- Saint-Nazaire “Propeller Club” for over 10 years. In September 2015 he was elected to the Board of the European Propeller Clubs.
Neil Medlyn, Baltic Member and Luxembourg Propeller Club Chairman on the left, Mike Robson the new Chairman of the Baltic Experts Panel on the right and Peter.