Most people will find it hard to imagine a maritime cadet being tied to a rope as in the circa-1848 watercolour drawing (pictured above) attributed to Afro-Peruviain painter Francisco (Pancho) Fierro. The indigenous slave depicted is balancing a plate on his head as...
I remember reading the paperback edition of Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis when I was only 13 years old. My interest in psychology has never left me. As a maritime writer and commentator, I try whenever possible to relate certain issues to the mind —...
To be honest, I have never celebrated the ‘Day of the Seafarer’ as the whole shipping world does every 25th of June. I have always felt that the event is fraudulent, an anomaly. I explained why in June 2018 in my blog post, A refusal to observe ‘Day of the Seafarer’:...
Seafarers have had the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) fighting for their rights since its founding in 1896. ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, aims to advance the same rights. And lest anyone forget, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
Wage earners throughout the Third World are very often exploited and abused: miners, farmhands, factory workers, janitors, security guards, waiters, etc. What makes seafarers unique is that they earn in US dollars and are generally better off than ordinary land-based...
The problem with buzzwords is that they tend to oversimplify and in effect give a false picture of reality. The latest to hit the shipping world — wellness training — is particularly problematic. The phrase is bandied about by seafarer charities and the maritime press...
The UK-based Sailors' Society has harnessed social media to clamor for the amendment of ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, to make wellness training mandatory for seafarers. So why not do the same to counter the whole silly idea? As a follow-up to Marine Café...
There is the hell of theology, whose gate (pictured above) was illustrated by the 19th-century French artist, Gustave Doré, for Dante's The Divine Comedy. There is also a secular hell — a place, situation or experience that is extremely unpleasant or difficult....
Filipino mariners risk life and limb whilst working at sea. In the meantime, many crewing agents in Manila merrily help themselves to the dollars they send home every month. These white-collar thieves do not feel guilty in the least. They seem as contented as the...
Who would dare criticise the International Maritime Organization (IMO)? It is a leviathan — immense, powerful and rich. To assail its actions, one would have to be as intrepid as Musashi, the legendary Japanese swordsman shown battling a whale in Utagawa Kuniyoshi's...
The shipping world is so rich and complex that no writer, if he is inquisitive enough, should want for something new to talk about. However, there is one theme I keep going back to aside from marine art: the rights and welfare of merchant sailors. In Manila's crewing...
The International Labor Organization's (ILO) database of abandoned crews makes for some interesting reading. However, it paints a rather incomplete picture. What hardships and anguish do mariners suffer when they are left by shipowners to fend for themselves, unpaid...