News / The Loadstar Explains: Abandoned ships – and abandoned crews

Photo: © Erik De Graaf | Dreamstime.com

From time to time, it is tempting to fantasise about a world with fewer laws, no institutions, no ‘red tape’. But for the merchant seafarer, this is a daily reality. IMO treaties give guidance on how people and their employers should behave – but in the in-between world of international waters, beyond borders and flags, it is theoretical at best.

Working and sleeping on a platform blasted by wind and tossed by waves, seafarers must also contend ...