Thursday, April 16, 2009

U.S. Flag Ships cost vs benefit

Cost

You pay more in taxes and employee costs.

Benefits

1) You get an English speaking well trained staff.
2) Your ship is eligible to carry USAID cargo
3) If you get hijacked, the U.S. Navy comes to your rescue.

Most ships fly what is called a "flag of convenience" from some country which doesn't have a Navy, but basically only an office to issue documentation for the ships.

As I mentioned back in December - pay attention people!

Most ships sail under a "flag of convenience", countries where it is cheap to form a corporation, but which of course do not have a Navy. Generally Marshall Islands, Panama, (use to be Liberia but I think that has changed)


You would think people would research these things before they open their mouths.

This today in a CNN article.

In our view, what France and the U.S. has done is exactly the right thing for a flag state to do, and if all flag states were to take that kind of robust action against the pirates we would not have the problems of Somali piracy to the extent that we have today," said Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, director of the piracy reporting center at the International Maritime Bureau.


Right. How many warships ships from Liberia, Panama, or even Greece for that matter are patrolling the oceans?

And this guy is the director of the piracy reporting center?

Must have been a politician before this job.

You would think someone involved in international shipping would know better.

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