Ted,
The next big crisis in the shipping industry is that of competence. This is ironic because the industry is regulated more than ever before and simply to stay at sea today you seem to have to complete 101 different courses, yet they all mean little.
Nobody is willing to admit that STCW is inherently flawed and not fit for purpose, it has been that way right from inception in 1978 and has progressively been watered down with STCW 95 and 2010.

BTW, I do not blame the young sailors,, I blame the IMO to water it more and more down, in that respect one should also not forget the IMO is only the implementation arm of it,s members. Those are of course the seafaring nations of this world or those which have at least ships registers.
The young sailors came aboard, bested the tests in schools and are therefore fit to sail. Unfortunately the reality tells me a different story. I do not talk about gaining experience, I talk about not knowing or not having lerned simple things. No foundation, No further development, next thing you see them making later as Officers and Masters terrible mistakes with far reaching consequences to well being of ship and crews

You're quite right Ted. I'm happy that I'll be out of it all soon enough!

@ James
Seeing nowadays young sailors how clueless they joining vessels one needs such things. It gives Masters/Owners the protection in that respect that if a accident happened they can say we did all we could.
The main problem is simple that nowadays STCW is so watered down that virtually any taxi driver (no offense pls) can start as decks hand, just follow the signs. Even fire extinguishers are marked nowadays as such !!! Otherwise most may be don,t know what it is, not implying that they would know for what it is !!!!

Interesting that the 'official' SOLAS walkway isn't painted green/non skid. I know with some companies now that if you walk outside the designated walkways it is treated as a safety violation!
Just another way to treat professional seamen as children I suppose.

Thanks..
rgds

This series has given us a nice view of her interiors.

Thanks Antonio,rgds.

I liked angle , genial.
Rgds.