The amount of rust created is INSANE
The guys who get paid the most, are also the easiest to replace with computers?
Robot ships crewed with human sailors sounds a bit dystopian.
The Navigator used to be a position, and sometimes still nominally is, but it's now an officer position for management reasons and not because of a high degree of specialized skill.
I know that this is just an inevitable/necessary part of a functioning market, but it somehow it also seems a little bit sad that this kind of human intellectual horsepower is spent on things like this. I could say the same thing about the smart people who spend their time doing things such as making social media more addictive.
Lots of PhDs end up in high paid jobs not because that's particularly what they want to do, but because they literally can't find a job in academia. The fact that finance and tech pay well is just a bonus.
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/crews-are-abandoned-on-...
This is one reason maritime unions are so militant: they have to be, because the respect for rule of law is historically so scant in the shipping business.
"coffin ships" were a thing long before B. Traven wrote about it in 1926. The plimsoll line was invented because of the problems of lading and safety in the mid 19th century
When a ship exists for its insurance payout, then it's truly become data.
