With the news cycle moving on from trade wars and tariffs to an escalating conflict in the Middle East, the maritime industry continues to go about its work of keeping global trade moving. In amongst all the politics remain the tens of thousands of seafarers on whom the world depends, but whose living conditions onboard are so often neglected. The launch of OffshoreShipAdvisor.com, billed as the seafarer’s equivalent to Tripadvisor, has been greeted positively by the industry, but will it eliminate the rogue operators who give the occupation of seafaring a bad reputation? Anonymous review sites are full of pitfalls-the threat of a bad review unless a restaurant bill is reduced or waived is one of the scourges of Tripadvisor, but is not going to carry much weight with a rogue shipowner hiding behind his shipmanager and who probably never actually sees the conditions onboard. Without doubt, ‘naming and shaming’ might help bring some of these rogues to account and be more effective than the graffiti scrawled on some manning agents’ washroom walls, imploring applicants not to sign up for some of the less reputable companies. Splash has given some hard hitting coverage over the past decade to the issue of crew living conditions. The photograph accompanying the recent piece of the launch of OffshoreShipAdvisor.com of a ship’s bathroom in an appalling state is, in truth, not the norm, but the bland and unwelcoming design of many crew quarters is hardly conducive to generating a passion for spending months at sea. In 2020, as the world was wrestling with covid and the life of the seafarer became even more challenging, Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) launched its Life at Sea programme, an initiative designed to improve the long-term physical and mental well-being of seafarers. On launching the programme, Eastern Pacific owner Idan Ofer made the memorable comment: “We are as responsible for the physical and mental well-being of seafarers as we are for industry decarbonisation.” He went on to say: “These reimagined accommodations will provide added benefits to our ship staff, making their time at sea an enjoyable experience.” Enjoyable experience? Not words one normally associates with the lot of the seafarer, but the industry must invest further in the living environment of their crew if they are to get that enjoyment in their work, which is such a vital component in ensuring crew retention. If the crew is provided with a living and working environment they take pride in and enjoy, they will put in an even greater effort to maintain it and want to return for another contract. The result: crew retention and enhanced value of the asset-everyone’s a winner. This is not philanthropy, it’s good business. Not all owners have the scope, resources or vision to undertake a programme on the scale of what EPS is doing. The unfortunate fact is that what is required under legislation such as the Maritime Labour Convention becomes the lowest common denominator with no requirement or incentive to improve on what are the basic regulatory requirements, ensuring those basics will generally remain the norm. Review websites may raise awareness of these issue, but a concerted effort by owners, naval architects and shipbuilders and a realisation that decent crew living space is an investment and not a cost has to be the way forward. TagsSplash Extra June 2025