Seafaring haves and have nots

Seafaring haves and have nots

 Splash July 30, 2024

Steven Jones, founder of the Seafarers Happiness Index, discusses life onboard the growing dark fleet. 

There is of course no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the experiences of seafarers. The very reality of the human condition means that reflections differ, though the conditions we provide for humans do indeed have a real impact. 

The latest Seafarers Happiness Index results have shown a modest degree of stabilisation when it comes to the challenges, issues, problems and high spots. Up a tiny bit to 6.99 in Q2 2024, up from 6.94/10 in Q1 2024. While the rise is modest, it is good to see and continues to represent a positive after the annus horribilis of 2023.

What is emerging louder and clearer than perhaps before is the emergence of a seemingly two-tier industry. There are many seafarers blessed with good employers, who care, that share and who do indeed invest and look to make life better. Alas, what that begins to highlight is the woeful worsening other side of the tracks. 

The experiences of seafarers on the darker side are deeply concerning and in ever starker contrast to the improvements in the light. There is a diverging path ahead of us, with standards dropping, investments falling and compassion evaporating, juxtaposed against the improvements, positives and investments of good companies. 

We have seemingly arrived at a crossroads. One that has always been there, but perhaps the markings are just clearer than we have seen for many a year. The spotlight of the dark fleet has finally begun to show the cliff edge of standards which can be experienced. 

For the seafarers on the good side of the divide, then things are seemingly going okay. Sure there are still challenges, there is nothing that can’t be made even better, but the message seems to be one of a profession ticking along relatively okay. 

On these ships, there is connectivity, there are sufficient people to get the work done. Food cooked competently, a nod to social activities at Saturday night karaoke and the like. Here is a life relative nicety. Nothing too fancy, but enough to get by, and sometimes perhaps that is enough. 

Such okayness on this side of the seafaring ledger begins to stand in extreme contrast to the experiences of others. Sadly, the tales from those for whom the reality is not so bright make pretty awful reading. 

The Seafarers Happiness Index has been around long enough now for us all to probably sing song out the travails and tribulations of those at sea. Time and time again the same old problems persist – where the good have connectivity, the bad have either none, or huge costs for terrible service. 

Where the good is occasionally getting ashore, the bad is months akin to imprisonment. Good food and a cool gym contrasted with empty fridges and engine parts as free weights. Regular pay and reasonable, respectful treatment versus scams, fees and even risks of not getting paid at all. 

On the best, we see mentoring and time taken to train, share and upskill, below that there is just a learning void. There is just work, there is no sense of building experiences and improving. Just relentless demands, with the hope of departure and never of development. 

The interactions for some are positive, enjoyable even laughter-filled around BBQs sizzling with the smells of work well done. Not for the have-nots. Here only work, here only the sighs of trying to hold it together and getting through. 

It makes for pretty depressing reading when the raw response data emerges – girding psychological loins with a cup of strong Gold Blend to try and piece together the modern tales of the sea.

It would be bad enough to just read of the bad, to weave the negative narrative of miserable experiences. However, if that were the only side of the story, then it would be a case of that’s how it is. It isn’t though, is it? It does not have to be this way. 

The cascading standards and reality do not have to drop away so quickly from the good to the average, the bad and then the plain ugly. The fact that some companies do get it right must stand, somehow as a template for positive change. Alas, that just is not happening. 

As the two-speed shipping industry seems to pull apart and the gap grows, it will become ever harder to align and apply the lessons of what can go right. 

It is not just about seafarer welfare, there is a clear sense with the growth of the global dark fleet that a shadow is being cast over shipping. It feels like a pall is engulfing us. Where we used to bemoan the lowest common denominator, now there is a parallel reality far below this, the lowest of the lowest. 

Accidents, oil spills, terror attacks, and abandonments, all impacting the springboard of good that shipping was bouncing on seem to be at snapping point. Hitherto respected flag states are seemingly happily hoovering up shadow vessels, ports accepting them in and the rest of us are trying to coil the slack in the system.

The rope has been cut, the new reality is of our industry and theirs. A world apart, the haves and the are-nots.