Originally Posted by
PerthDisco
Yes but they are no different to the 1000s of international ships such as iron ore bulk carriers, gas, oil, coal and grain ships getting goods to market. These to a large degree are modern ships (such ships are scrapped at often less than 20 years). To be fair they employ a crew of many people of all nationalities and skill sets. For some crew the accomodation and “ poor pay and conditions” may be a lot better than those of their countrymen! (Think the poor immigrant Covid shipyard workers in Singapore). A life on the ocean. Methinks also you don’t want any old bunny looking after your important expensive ship. These ships are owned by international companies of good and bad reputation who must compete for the competent trained crew. The markets are high risk and highly competitive.
So you need to separate “tax effectiveness” with “quality” as all ships cannot be insured unless built to an internationally recognised Class i.e Lloyd’s, BV, DNV etc. A ship cannot touch an Australian dock without such accreditation and many commercial charterers such as Rio or BHP will specify a ship of, say, no more than 10 years old in the charter request.
Now that’s not to say the local authorities may specify things a little differently for ships permanently operating in Australia with Australians but that’s a matter of taste largely as body sizes are different and a case of what you used to having and not having.
40 years ago there was some real rubbish on the water if you remember the Kirki on the West Coast whose bow fell off in bad weather. Those days are gone for international ships.
(I would separate sheep ships out of this as these look terrible places to work from what I’ve seen)
A mate of mine is an Engineer on a coastal ship around Australia, and we've had many discussions about conditions , and pay, for Officers and crews on these ships. Some Companies are better than others, but here we are talking about cruise ships, operating under flags of convenience, with perhaps thousands of low payed, low skilled workers, working mainly in the hotel industries. Workers in the seamanship and engineering departments for example , are higher skilled , in line with any merchant vessel crew . Speaking of Lloyds,[ and as you sound as though you have been involved in the industry I'm not going to try to tell you how to suck eggs] I'm sure you are aware they are not an insurance company.but a marketplace where insurance buyers and sellers come together. And now days are involved in much more than ocean cargo insurance . An interesting aside is how maritime insurance has changed from the days of port to port insurance, with the advent of containers it is now warehouse to warehouse , taking into account the container may travel by train, truck , or other. Slightly off topic I guess but covered perils of all risk policies include;[ the perils of the sea link is interesting]
Covered Perils. All-risk policies cover losses caused by any perils that aren't specifically excluded. Named perils policies cover losses caused by the perils listed. Covered named perils typically include fire, assailing thieves, jettisons, barratry, and "
perils of the sea." Barratry means criminal acts committed by the ship's captain or crew that injure the shipowner. Perils of the sea are events that commonly occur on the water such as storms, winds, waves, sinking, capsizing, and collision with other objects.
The point of my post is that the operation of Cruise ships around the World, not just in Australia, must face some drastic changes. The link to the investigation of the industry in the US, as regards the rights of the passengers under the law, is a must read for any one considering going on a cruise. It is important to know your rights if you have been assaulted , raped, robbed, or heaven forbid, murdered. The article relates to the US law, I'm not absolutely sure how we stand under Australian law at sea on a cruise, in regards as to who initially investigates the offence, whether it is the ships crew, or Australian police , and the issues that may result from that. Cruising can be a wonderful experience, until it hits the fan. I think Australians have been naive in our approach to cruising thus far.
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But that wasn't the best part of our visit. We took some 44 drums of fuel north to a little campsite the local fishing club used, up a long inlet. Great campsite, with fresh water from a creek plenty of shade, nice sandy beach. On the local advice we took the smally boat [ tinnie] fishing. Had hand lines, with spoon lures. The fish followed the lure , and when we caught one, we tied the line off, and the school just followed the boat. Then it was a matter of ' which one do you want?'. From memory, Trevally. Or Queenfish. Never seen any thing like it, except for one time coming back from Gove, transiting a bay north of Darwin, with schools of fish boiling the surface of the water , the only clear water was around the hull of the patrol boat as it moved through. One of the troops had a hand line, and having no lure, attached an toothbrush to a hook, and caught fish. [ Memo to self- buy a roof top tinnie to go with the new 4x4 after the lotto win] I wish.
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