Whining about the paucity of new maritime recruits shows results: A headache and no medicine.
By Ryan Skinner (email)
The President of Travelers' Ocean Marine Division Richard DeSimone sounds the kind of alarm one might expect a marine insurance group to sound. I quote: If something isn't done about seafarer recruiting, and that quick, we in the insurance business are going to be neck deep in pooh, soon. OK, I rephrased a little.
He's got reason to be scared pantless. Marine insurers are walking along a tightrope as they try to remain commercially competitive (read: cheap, in a very transparent market) while the people with ultimate control over their fates (seafarers) are getting increasingly scarce. If I were liable for damages to a ship up to some hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd want the pick of the litter running the boat. Shipping's not attracting the pick of the litter.
...Which is why it's so disturbing that the ideas, the imagination, the brainstorming, to attract new seafarers is so wooden. DeSimone, bless his heart, gives us an answer non-answer. "The work is challenging and the hours can be tough, but for many a life at sea can be a dream fulfilled."
What?
I rephrase DeSimone's comment: The days are so long you'll be risking your life in a semi-catatonic state by the end of your "shift". The cabins are smaller than New York City dorm rooms. The work is back-breaking. No, literally. You'll probably die, OK? Oh, yeah, and you'll probably be treated like scum by officers, and that's only if you're not actually raped. Want to be an officer? Great. When you screw up (and you will, mister!), you're going to jail in Kampuchea. Even if you wreck the ship off Chile. Why? Because! Is your dream fulfilled?
I exaggerate. Granted. But I've at least got my eyes open. Ideas like:
- improve the image of shipping
- urge seafarers to promote careers in shipping
- improve work conditions for seafarers
- support training efforts
- urge more women to consider working as seafarers
are stillborn. I'm not saying they'd be great things, and worth pursuing. But they're empty visions. Hasn't "improve work conditions for seafarers" been on the agenda since before the day of Queequeg? He probably got more sleep than today's working mariner.
No, there's a lot of waxing philosophic on the extent of the problem, and very little in the way of new thinking about solutions.
Why not think radically anew about shipping stints? Why not put together packages whereby a seafarer could work 6 weeks a year for 10 years? Let people fit a stint into a bigger picture.
Why not think about combining onboard activities? There's a lot of people desperate to disengage temporarily from their everyday to get time to complete a dedicated task. I'm thinking coders. Perhaps these kinds of people could combine this endeavour with occasional stints at sea.
Why not put together a unique kind of international citizenship deal for career seafarers? Give them unique rights in the globalized marketplace.
Why not give seafarers special rights and rewards to specialize in specific things related, or unrelated, to their maritime endeavour?
Why not make a bigger effort to make stars out of some of the most unique persons working at sea today, and describe how they manage to combine seafaring with a modern, complex lifestyle?
I know. I know. There's a million reasons why these ideas wouldn't work, which is probably the biggest problem. It seems the people working to answer this question couldn't inspire a chicken to cross the road. Zero imagination.
Most Sky makes the point.
http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/5370
Good list of ideas.
Posted by: BrianSJ | November 27, 2010 at 01:28 PM