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An oft quoted truism is that there is a shipping backstory to every global event. Photogenic incidents such as the groundings of the Ever Given and Costa Concordia might produce powerful images, but the past couple of years has seen Covid-induced supply chain disruptions put the focus on how much of everyday life depends on shipping and the crews that make it happen. Covid has now largely slipped off the headlines, only to be replaced by the horrors of war in the Ukraine. Outside of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding, there is as always a shipping angle. Whilst disruptions in trade and commodity shortages have been given prominence in the business media, the fact that one in seven of the world’s seafarers hail from Russia or Ukraine has gone largely unrecognised outside of the specialist press. Coming off the back of all the angst Covid-induced separation has brought these past two years, being away at sea when your family is in mortal danger and your country is being invaded is simply unimaginable for most of us. Such circumstances, together with what appears to be a rather foot-in-mouth approach to cost cutting at P&O Ferries, with 800 UK staff sacked without any consultation and replaced by lower cost contractors, has hardly seen a career at sea shown in a favourable light in recent weeks. Crew retention has never been more of a challenge The manning crisis facing shipping has been a perennial issue for years and is just one of many key issues addressed in the recently published Shipmanagement Market Report published this month by Splash. A feature on where the next generation of seafarers would be sourced threw up some interesting comments from the industry’s leaders. In summarising the approach of shipmanagers to relatively undeveloped crewing markets such as Africa, the piece summarised: “They do not need to search for a low cost workforce to achieve their commercial objectives and the primary focus shall be on quality personnel as measured through competence, certification and attitude.” It’s reassuring to see managers emphatically not embracing the ‘race to the bottom’ suggested by some who see the constant need to cut costs. Perhaps more significant was the comment of the CEO of the world’s largest shipmanager, Anglo Eastern, that they received 20,000 applicants for the close to 500 annual cadet positions at their training centre in India. So this begs the question, do we actually have a crewing crisis? The burden of recruitment and training does seem to increasingly fall on the shipmanagers and whilst the major crewing markets clearly still provide plenty of new entrants to a seafaring career, crew retention has never been more of a challenge. Naturally, you don’t want to invest in training if your cadet is going to head off for a supposedly more comfortable shoreside job at the earliest opportunity. That possibility is unfortunately the reason why recruiters seem less enthusiastic about recruiting cadets from more developed countries such as Western Europe and previous crewing powerhouses such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Sure, the total pool of recruits is potentially smaller, but there are scores of young people there who do not have a degree and who do not see a shoreside job with possibly minimal prospects as the way forward. And they want to work hard. All At Sea - A Memoir is an outstanding book which was recently published in Hong Kong by Alan Loynd, who grew up in southwest England and went to sea aged 16, forging a 40+-year career which saw him rise to master and subsequently senior positions in the salvage industry. It’s an inspiring read and has already prompted several potential cadets to step forward and look at seafaring. Here’s hoping that young people with a passion to go to sea get the chance to pursue their dream.

All at sea

Another tough month for seafarers, but there are still plenty of young people passionate about starting a career at sea. Our special correspondent hopes they get given a break.

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