I have updated this article. Please see:
WANTED: A new code of conduct for seafarers
I am tempted to write a code of conduct for seafarers – something akin to Bushidõ, the code for the samurai of old Japan (pictured above). The shipping industry talks incessantly of seafarers’ rights and has made a fetish of it. How often does one hear about the duties of seamen and the values they need to cultivate?
I am for protecting the rights of those who toil at sea. Even so, I am appalled at the many cases of seafarers whose actions besmirch the merchant marine profession. Consider the seafarer who files for disability benefits, only to work again after being declared permanently disabled and awarded a huge sum.
Or the seafarer who pays to secure a training certificate without undergoing any real training; who acts unfairly toward other seamen; who is disloyal to his spouse whilst overseas; who squanders money on booze; who, in various other ways, brings dishonour to himself and his profession.
Boy scouts have the Scout Promise; doctors, the Hippocratic Oath; and journalists, the Journalist’s Creed. Why shouldn’t seafarers have their own code that will stress such precepts as righteousness, benevolence and self-control? We don’t mean a legal document like ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, but a creed that lays down a path to self-realisation, a way of life.
Such a code could be universally adopted by maritime schools, seafarers’ unions and concerned professional organisations. There’s just one problem. In the crassly commercial world of shipping, where everyone is chasing after moola, how many will spare a thought for codes of conduct and codes of honour?
Read more: Duty before right in the shipping sector
The overwhelmingly commercial aspect of going to sea is and probably always has been obvious. And it’s true that even today some companies look at their crews the same way they look at fuel costs or other consumables – as nothing more than an expense, and certainly not as people. This is unlikely to change, even if mariners were to adopt such a Code.
But a “seafarer’s code” could have power to elevate our own approach to our profession – indeed, to encourage us to view it as a “profession”, a way of life – with resulting pride and satisfaction for us as mariners. It could be a way to define ourselves, instead of letting manning agents or exploitative companies make us feel as less than we are. And there is power in that!
How would one go about advancing this idea? I think it would be well worth the effort.
Thanks very much for your insight, Reid. I agree that a “seafarer’s code” would be a way for seafarers to define themselves. But it could do much more. By helping seafarers establish their identity as a class with nobility, it could encourage the maritime world to see them in a new light and treat them with greater respect. True, seafarers have been commodified but what better way to counter this than for them to demonstrate, through their own actions, that they are better humans than those who mistreat or take advantage of them?
One of these days I just might buckle down to write such a code. 🙂