Check out your localcruise ship line…or check your local paper for the latest ship landings/departures (if you live in a port city). You will be astounded…chances are, most of the ships will be of Liberian Registry!
How isit that an impoverished, west african country , which has been in a state of civil war (for the past 20-odd years) has such a huge merchant fleet?
I can’t imagine that the Liberian Navy (or what passes for it) has much capability to inspect the ships of its vast merchant fleet…why is this scam allowed to go on?
For thoseof you in the merchant marine…areLiberian ships all that safe? Or do they register ANYTHING (including wrecks that are likely to sink?)
It’s the ‘flag of convenience’ scam. All ocean going ships have to be registered somewhere and Liberia along with Panama have the most lax standards and lowest fees. They might be Greek owned, Korean made and crewed by Bangladeshis but ships will almost always be registered in one of the two countries bove. I think it’s one of Liberia’s biggest foreign currency earners.
What exactly is the “scam”? You pay your registration fees and you get your registration papers. So what if their laws do not require safety inspections? Why do you think shipowners register there?
Well, for one thing, if I register my ship in America, American cops can’t come aboard without a warrant. They have to go get the FEDS to do it.
Liberia also does not have standards for doo-doo. You could practically register your rowboat there as an oil tanker, if you kept a gas can aboard.
In short, Liberia is famous for registering any marine vessel any way you want, so long as you pay up front.
Currently, this is what I do for a living, inspect foreign flag ships calling on the port for the US Coast Guard. It’s called “Port State Control”, and most western type nations have an active and aggressive port state control program. A few things about the program that will answer some of your questions.
PSCO’s (port state control officers) will board and inspect foreign flag ships to ensure that they are in compliance with not only the port state laws and regs, but also international regs and conventions, such as SOLAS, MARPOL, LOADLINE, etc. If the ship is found to be in compliance, no problem, they may conduct their business and move on. If not, then the port state has many options (read: Hammers) at their disposal.
It’s true that flags of convienence dominate the waterways here and abroad, but they’re not the threat they could be be, due in large part to active psc programs. Currently, I beleive Liberia holds most of the worlds shipping tonnage, followed by Panama and I think the Bahamas, with Vanuatu not far behind.
If a ship of Liberian registry calls on my port, and the ship is substandard, we consider it to be a hazard to port. Not only will they not be allowed to conduct cargo ops, they won’t be able to leave until they are in substantial compliance with the regs and laws. For cases where we detain the ship (big hammer), the flagstate will become involved. No big deal for Liberia, because they operate out of New York, anyway. How’s that for convenience! Flagstate reps are based all over the world, so it isn’t the Liberian navy doing the checking. Usually, however, it’s the “Class Society” that handles this stuff.
Class societies are like insurance companies, and ships are classed to handle this stuff. It’s actually the class society that does the most surveys on the ships, and if they keep certificating substandard ships, then they become dirtbag class societies, and that’s bad for their business, so they they’ll generally try to do their job.
Shipping safety is basically it’s own industry; there’s alot to it that most people don’t see. If a substandard ship calling on the port sinks due to negligence, then the “safety net” had failed. It not only means that we in port state control have failed, it also means that the ship’s master and crew have failed, as have the class society, the flagstate administration, the IMO, the ship owners (we didn’t even discuss them) and the ship charterers (we didn’t dicuss them either, but they may soon have a bigger stake in this than they want).
Does this clear up some things for you?
Thanks for an interesting and informative post, Chandeleur!
This really doesn’t have anything to do with it. Cops won’t go aboard a Liberian ship without us or Customs either.
The reason there is very little US shipping is due to the disparity with our laws and regs as compared to the rest of the world, and the diparity in the pay, and contracting prices. It’s a whole lot cheaper and efficient to get a ship built in Korea, crew it with Phillipinos and flag it in Panama, than to build it here, crew it with USMM and undergo US inspections.
Plus, this may surprise some folks, but in the worlds PSC programs, the US is very close to going “on the list”. That is, US merchant shipping doesn’t exactly set the example, and is close to being targeted by port states for having a high detention ratio.
Damn Liberians! Why don’t they just go back where they came from…
More than you ever wanted to know, I’m sure, but here’s the current list of targeted flag states that we use to identify shipping that needs our attention more so than others. We receive an updated list every month. Flag states get on this list based on the ratio of detentions/port calls, and all states with an active PSC program maintain such a list. Liberia is not on the list. Also on the list, are the class societies and the targeted owners and operators which figure into who needs a boarding and who doesn’t.
So, to make an analogy, Liberia is to shipping as the Cayman Islands are to banking ?
“So, to make an analogy, Liberia is to shipping as the Cayman Islands are to banking ?”
-Or, the state of Deleware is to corportate charters.
Um, could some please explain to me why BOLIVIA is on that list? If you can’t see why this confuses me, I implore you to take a look at your nearest global map. . . …
Because there is nothing anywhere that says a landlocked state can’t have shipping. Where a ship is flagged is more of a business decision than anything else; it’s not as if they’re actually built there or anything.
Still, that just seems wrong somehow. Like buying a snowmobile that was built in Kuwait.
Boliva wasn’t always landlocked. They lost their coast in a long running war with Chile. Here is a good site for Bolivan history (click on the ‘War of the Pacific’ link).
In fact, Bolivia still has a ‘Navy’, and they receive money from the US for their anti-drug efforts.
Plus, Bolivians still wish to get at least a strip of Atacama land back from Chile, perhaps by purchase, or through the World Court.
Does Trieste (Italy) still serve as a port for the landlocked nations of central Europe? I remember reading once that the Czechs once had a flagship or two out of Trieste, basically so they could claim some presence on the sea.