Foreign Controversy

This article focuses on the "flag of convenience" issue as a result of crash of the Bright Field , a ship owned by a Chinese company, manned by a Chinese crew, under the direction of an American pilot, sailing under the Liberian Flag, going down the Mississippi River with a cargo of US crops bound for Japan.

"The Bright Field operates as a "flag of convenience vessel" - a maritime category often involving a mixed bag of nationalities and a complex layer of international laws. Through the years, the practice has sparked controversy and bitterness and caused a line to be drawn along the shore between U.S. ship owners and the mariners who operate this country's dwindling merchant marine fleet."

"A flag-of-convenience vessel is a ship controlled by owners in one nation who register their vessels in a smaller foreign country and operate under its flag. The practice exits primarily because flag-of convenience countries are cash-hungry emerging nations that charge lower taxes and ship-registry fees than industrialized countries, including the United States."

Some say they are a cover to avoid taxes, allow the hiring cheaper foreign labor, get by with poorer training standards, and get by with marine safety standards that fall below the Coast Guard's stringent requirements.

Most vessels calling on the Lower Mississippi are foreign flagged vessels, one person estimated that 90 to 95 percent were foreign flagged.

The article provides data on the number of U.S. flagged ships in the merchant marine fleet since 1970 as well as the number of billets (one job on a ship is a "billet", laws restrict crews to 6 months at sea so one billet actually employs about 2.1 persons). The data indicates a decline in the number of U.S. ships from 843 in 1970 to 319 in 1996 and a decline in the number of billets on those ships from 40,248 to 8,603 over the same period.

The paper visited with some industry experts who felt that the U.S. Seamen were the among best trained. "But on ship safety, many experts say some flag-of convenience vessels are well-maintained, while others aren't. "

"The Bright Field is registered with the Liberian Maritime Office in Reston, Va., which has registered about 2,000 convenience ships since 1948. Efforts to reach administrators there for comment on the Bright Field incident were unsuccessful. But Brinson (J. Ron Brinson, president of the Port of New Orleans) said he was impressed with what he saw on the Bright Field even after it plowed into the Riverwalk. 'They were in the wrong location when little problems became big problems,' Brinson said, 'But initial reports are that maintenance was good and the crew was well-trained.'"

The article goes on to discuss "classification societies", organizations that inspect ships registered around the world. The Bright Field's classification was issued after inspections by Det Norske Veritas, a Norwegian classification society. In the U.S. many inspections are performed by the American Bureau of Shipping.

A representative of the California Maritime Institute (Mr. Sears) said, "U.S. flagged vessels are obviously in better shape because they fall under the Coast Guard's stricter inspection requirements but you're a Pollyana if you think ships that has been classified as unseaworthy end up as scrap. They just go somewhere else and keep on sailing."

Mr. Davis at the Marine Engineers Union said accidents similar to the Bright Field are far more common that many people believe. 'They happen all the time," he said, "You just never hear about them, because they don't smash into a high-population area like the Riverwalk. But if you want safety, you've got to pay for it. Ships are simple entities, until something goes wrong."

The article included a graphic titled "Familiar Flags Along the River" that referenced data from the New Orleans Board of Trade for November 1 to 30, 1996. It said, 'Merchant ships flying the flags of 50 nations sailed into ports of the lower Mississippi in November" and then went on to list the top registries.

Liberia    77
Panama     75
Bahamas    49
Cyprus     47
Malta      24

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