They constitute a profession that is not known for complaining, but just getting on with the task in hand, which is mostly about making sure the ships they command, and all on board them, operate safely.
Their role is an ancient and traditional one, but increasingly overlaid with a multiplicity of international, national, and local regulations, which constrain their every decision, invariably including severe criminal sanctions for non-compliance.
Command of a ship represents the peak of their professional career, but when you learn of the problems that routinely confront them, you might wonder why they bother.
Something of the collective frustration of shipmasters might be ascertained from an open letter their representative organisation, the International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations (IFSMA), has sent to governments, international organisations and the maritime industry in fact to anyone who might possibly listen.
Devised at IFSMA’s recent meeting in the Faroe Islands, it sets out a range of global threats, trends and risks to shipping and its seafarers, very much from a command perspective, but which it has identified as particularly worrying today.
It summarises the problems that stem from the surge in global instability, with its consequences ranging from disruptions to outright violence and attacks on merchant ships.
In an era when everyone seems to be raging about their 'human rights', shipmasters seem often to be excluded from this universal privilege.
It notes that piracy and attacks on shipping have not gone away and have in fact been renewed in various locations, while a whole range of uncertainties have emerged with the multifarious sanctions and trade restrictions, which are always confusing but leave the masters of ships uniquely exposed to arrest and detention.
It also joins a list of worried organisations that have spelt out the sheer unfairness of the reprehensible modern trend of criminalising the actions of shipmasters and senior officers in connection with sanctioned regimes or incidents completely beyond their control.
Nothing new about this perhaps, but it seems to have got infinitely worse, with criminal prosecutions and savage sentences for masters whose ships have been used by drug smugglers or have committed cargo violations.
Extended detention without trial is often the norm, with no pretence at the maintenance of international legal standards. There may have been IMO/ILO guidelines on “fair treatment” of seafarers suspected of committing a crime, but they do not seem to have registered with the authorities in many places.
IFSMA notes somewhat regretfully that, “measures to fight against criminalisation are often debated, but very little is seen to make any impact.”
It is also something of a measure of the shipmasters’ frustration that in an era when everyone seems to be raging about their “human rights”, shipmasters seem often to be excluded from this universal privilege.
In addition to operating at high levels of stress, facing the above mentioned threats, everyone – port authorities, shipping and management companies, charterers and just about everyone who can – gives them a hard time. It may not lead to the very best decision-making and crew welfare and safety.
In short, shipmasters see themselves as on the front line in an increasing list of challenges. They may be recognised as “key workers” for political purposes, but otherwise they are treated rather badly by those who question their decisions, stamp aboard their ships looking for trouble, and employ their excellent communications to pressurise them 24/7.
Places pretending to be reasonable systems of justice seem to feel that seafarers merit an exception to normal rules of judicial behaviour.
IFSMA calls on the recipients of their letter to act on these serious and sincere concerns and provide shipmasters with an appropriate level of protection against these threats. The issue of criminalisation, in particular they believe, merits urgent action as too many senior officers are being horribly treated.
Anyone who reads the maritime media will recall any number of instances of sheer injustice, with officers caught up in everything from navigational incidents to environmental problems, from alleged smuggling to sanctions difficulties, being hung out to dry.
Sometimes these injustices are no more than one might expect in awful regimes, but often, places pretending to be reasonable systems of justice seem to feel that seafarers merit an exception to normal rules of judicial behaviour.
Some might suggest that very often, the process of inquiry into a marine accident involves a criminal trial (itself hopelessly unfair) and others cite “command responsibility” – meaning that everything that goes on aboard ship is under the master’s control. Where is the justice in that?
Will IFSMA’s open letter provoke any meaningful action among those to whom it is directed? It certainly deserves to be taken seriously as the discontent among a hugely important group of people, doing an essential job, is obviously very great.
And just in passing, I noticed that the master of the containership X-Press Pearl, which sank off Sri Lanka after her cargo detonated and caught fire, remains in that country, unable to return home, four years after the incident.