In yesterday’s New York Times, Rose George of Leeds, UK was an Op-Ed Contributor. In her essay, Flying the Flag, Fleeing the State, she starts off by calling many ship operators criminals and comparing them to Somali pirates: But maritime lawlessness isn’t confined to pirates. Thanks to a system of ship registration called “flags of convenience,” it is all too easy for unscrupulous ship owners to get away with criminal behavior. It is a shame that she is so free in making such inflammatory and factually inaccurate comparisons. Ms. Rose is apparently writing a book about the merchant marine. Her previous book was about sewage. (No, I am not making that up.)
In a limited sense, Ms. George has a point – too many sailors are still not treated well or fairly by their employers and some ship owners are not scrupulous in obeying environmental laws. The problem is that Ms. Rose lacks the context to understand what she is complaining about. Simply put – she misses the point.
She seems to blame all the ills of the deep sea shipping industry on “flags of convenience.” Unfortunately, the mistreatment of sailors and shoddy operations by unscrupulous owners did not begin in the 1950s with the creation of “flags of convenience,” nor is it likely to end if somehow this institution was magically abolished.
Most ships in deep sea service in the world today operate under a so-called “flag of convenience.” There are 32 independent registers considered to be “flags of convenience.” The top 11 flags of convenience account for almost 55% of the entire world fleet. Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands are the world’s three largest registries in terms of deadweight tonnage. As of 2009 ships flying the flag so these three registries alone represented more than 39% of the world’s shipbourne carrying capacity.
The best ship owners in the world operate under flags of convenience and so do the worst. Ship owners were shifting from one flag to another to escape regulations and to hire lower cost sailors long before the first flag of convenience was established in the 1950s. Most of the issues that Ms. George identifies were problems long before FOCs.
If one was to only read Ms. George’s little screed one might not understand that the shipping industry has indeed taken action against substandard registers and shoddy shipowners. Ms. George makes no reference to and may be unaware of the Port State Control instituted by the 1982 “Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control,” (the Paris MOU,) or the “Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region”, (the Tokyo MOU,) as well as the enforcement actions of the US Coast Guard and regulatory agencies of other states. Port State Control provides for the inspection of foreign ships in other national ports, in order to verify the competency of the master and officers, to check that the condition of a ship complies with the requirements of international conventions and that the vessel is manned and operated in compliance with applicable international law.
It is almost funny. One remedy recommended by Ms. George: A more immediate, if partial, solution would be for port authorities, which have the power to detain unsafe or abusive ships that dock in their harbors, to pay extra attention to ships registered under notoriously lax states, like the Comoros.
I wonder whether Ms. George considers this to be a particularly new idea. It is indeed a great idea, which is why this is exactly what has been going on for almost 30 years under Port State Control. As of 2009, fourteen of the thirty-one flags of convenience have been targeted for special enforcement by the countries of the Paris and Tokyo MOUs or U.S. Coast Guard.
Ms. George is right to point out the serious problems within international shipping. Issues of crew welfare, safety, corporate visibility and environmental accountability are problems that are currently being addressed, and yet more needs to be done. Nevertheless, to blame everything on flags of convenience, however, largely misses the point. And calling shipowners criminals and pirates doesn’t add anything useful to the conversation.
Thanks to Phil Leon for pointing out the op-ed.
Well now we shall have to wait and see if Ms. George continues writing more on her previous subject or does some ‘non-New-York-Times-style’ research on international shipping. I was interested to learn that Mongolia had a ship registry, my research showed the address is in Singapore and not just outside Washington,DC as is often the case with FOC registry’s. Of course Switzerland and Austria are landlocked country’s and have had Registry’s for many decades. Austria had a very professional Navy at one time which operated out of Adriatic Ports if I remember correctly. Both these nations are honourable registries. Ms. George should do further accurate research and write for accuracy and not for book-selling-effect. Many U.S. flag-flying vessels are ‘uninspected’ vessels which puts them on a par with FOC vessels. I have had cause to do accident investigations on board some of them and was quite shocked at what I saw and the qualifications or lack thereof of the persons manning them. So lets be careful with throwing stones at glass houses.
Good Watch.
POSTSCRIPT: For those of you who would like to learn more of the Austro-Hungarian Navy go to ‘Wikipedia’ where there is good coverage.
Good Watch.
Good point Captain. Just because a country lacks a coast line doesn’t mean that it need not have either a merchant fleet or, for that matter, a navy.
Switzerland has a deep sea merchant fleet of 37 commercial ships with a total capacity of over 1 million dead weight tons made up of bulk carriers, container ships, multi-purpose freighters and tankers operated by six shipping companies. The Swiss registry is not, however, considered an FOC by the International Transport Worker’s Federation.
Bolivia currently has the largest navy for any landlocked country with 173 vessels and 5,000 personnel.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire, if not its “k.u.k. Kriegsmarine”, also built a new, very large tank testing facility around the time of World War I. This facility produced a hydrodynamicist of sufficient scholarly ambition that he curve-fitted tests of large planks to form a new formula for friction. (Maybe he was afraid if he failed to publish something he would be drafted as a foot soldier). Furthermore, he did this while the Great War was raging! His name was Friedrich Gebers, and the USN’s Experimental Model Basin adopted his formula, which included kinematic viscosity as a variable for the first time, for its World War II-era model tests, eventually replacing it with the ATTC-1948 friction line.
The Imperial testing tank is still working. It’s in Vienna, the Imperial capital, of course.
and finally Boliva has access to the sea (again) ! http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/10/peru-bolivia-port-landlocked.html
What country will give away a parcel of land? Peru!
Now Boliva can add onto her one port: http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/BOL_Puerto_Aguirre_2914.php
BOWSPTITE: Bolivia always had access to the sea via the Port of Arica in northern Chile. A railway line ran from Bolivia along the border of Chile and Peru to a fenced in area near the Port. There was a Bolivian train station and Custom House. As Master of a ship carrying cargo for Bolivia I had to go to that Custom House and sign cargo paperwork. Then the Chilean workers discharged the ship and the cargo was taken to the Bolivian Customs area. Both the Bolivian and Chilean hospitality was outstanding!!
Good Watch.
Everyone likes waterfront property.
“Landlocked Bolivia has not become reconciled with the loss of its coast to Chile, and the Navy exists to keep the hope of recovering its coast alive by cultivating a maritime consciousness”