I nearly missed it! The 2025 Day of the Seafarer took place on 25th June when the IMO announced a new campaign ‘My Harassment- Free Ship. The chief executive of Stella Maris, the Catholic Seafarer’s mission has written a letter to the director of the IMO in support. So good for them. And just for completeness the IMO have asked for people at sea to take action. Seafarers are asked to share their stories and to be part of the movement; shipping companies are asked to strengthen their policies and onboard training and maritime organisation are asked to support and advocate for seafarers rights. 

But how have things been going for seafarers during the last year. For those who don’t quite have their finger on the pulse there is a whole new breed of seafarer who are employed to man super yachts, from the captain down to the stewards. Some of these craft are quite large and require special skills to operate them successfully. But it is not all sweetness and light for them. Over the last year the Nautilus officer’s union has recovered millions of pounds for crews who have been underpaid or abandoned. Typically the union recovered £890,000 for the crew of the Russian owned superyacht Alfa Nero in December last year. Who knew.

A super yacht at anchor off Corfu Town this summer. 

Also in the world of the superyacht we have seen the loss of the Bayesian in a squall, which resulted in the deaths of the owner and several of his guests. It was at anchor, but it is suspected that the sheer height of the mast resulted in it being capsized. The captain was arrested by the Italian marine authorities, which is apparently standard practice after any marine accident in Italian waters. I don’t know whether he is a member of Nautilus, but if he is it will be a comfort.

Today, in the aftermath of the bombing of the nuclear sites in Iran, that country is threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz, and as the news changes out there so tankers bound for the gulf are slowing down backtracking, starting in their original direction of travel or possibly something else. Now and again we are seeing images of some of then on our TV screens. I am honestly distressed by the sight of them. They are vast objects, intended to carry as much oil as possible at as low a price as possible . Do they have enough crew members with the appropriate skills to operate them? Are their crews treated with the respect due to them? 

In the current world of the employment of crew members including the masters from agencies in all parts of the world, when they are recruited and travel to join a ship what will they find when they get there. For instance, will there be so few watchkeepers that the mates are working six hours on six hours off, in short sea trades often punctuated by port visits where everyone will be working all the time and, god forbid, will they be working for a captain who has a limited grasp on sanity, because the CV he, or she, has presented to the recruiting agency has little basis in reality. Even back in the day I remember being second mate on a ship where the captain did not seem to have too close a grip on reality and as a result had to save him from putting the ship aground twice in the Singapore Strait. 

In the news we have seen a small ship run into someone’s garden in Norway, because the officer of the watch had fallen asleep. More seriously on 11th March a small Portuguese registered cargo ship Solong ran into an anchored tanker off the coast of East Yorkshire.  It seems that they had just set course from Scotland towards Europe and had been surprised to find an anchored ship in the way. Both ships had caught fire the container ship finally burning out and being towed to Aberdeen for a bit. The captain is still under arrest I think. And only the other day a 120 metre cargo ship the Wilson Nanjing, crashed into another ship while trying to leave the port of Bremen. The captain was  over the alcohol limit. Both the captains were Russians. One man was lost on the Solong. He was a filipino. 

And remember the P&O Ferries and the ‘fire and rehire’ situation. Well - it was a problem which was never easily going to be sorted out, and indeed the government is still at it. It seems that vessels of any flag which visit the UK more than 120 times a year will be subject to the minimum wage requirements just as workers onshore are.  And then there is the Worker’s Rights Bill, currently exciting Nautilus and other trades unions which hopefully will steady the helm of the ferry organisations. Britain is not the only country being faced with such problems, and we might ask, what about the vessels which visit the UK but less than 120 times a year? And while we are considering workers who are on ships regularly visiting the UK, what about the rest? Are they now working on safer ships, as suggested by the IMO in 2024, and will there be less harassment of all sorts world wide in 2025 as a result of this new resolution? I am not holding my breath.