Although shipping today is theoretically in the most “regulated” and controlled period of its history, maritime accidents at sea continue to increase. The paperwork multiplies, the procedures swell, but seamanship — that unwritten piece of experience that keeps the ship safe — is being lost. And while some look the other way, the numbers show the truth.
In 2024, more than 2,300 incidents at sea concerning commercial shipping were recorded worldwide, an increase of around 17% in less than a decade. And yet, at the same time, shipping achieved the highest compliance rates ever recorded.
Training hours around Bridge Resource Management have increased by 40% since 2015, and yet, accidents are still mainly due to navigation errors stemming from the human factor. According to EMSA, 71% of maritime accidents are still attributed to the “human factor”. The numbers don’t make sense. How is it that we are more compliant than ever, better trained, more controlled than ever, and yet we are less safe?
I think something is wrong. Something that is hidden “under the rug” and is artificially concealed by the system itself. The system has already failed and no one wants to admit their mistake.
The decline of seamanship contributes to maritime accidents
Seamanship, once the foundation of the maritime profession, is being silently eroded by people who have no relation to the maritime profession. It is left behind by useless regulations and procedures. The bridge has been transformed from a space of judgment, experience, and seamanship, into an “office” where officers, like other puppets, simply record events, report them, and deal with paperwork. Working without seamanship. This is, unfortunately, how most people on a ship are now.
You go up to the bridge and ask: “What’s the weather saying?”. With the officer raising his head and saying: “The weather is good, Captain.” As if the Captain is asking about the weather right now… As if he doesn’t see it himself right now. There isn’t even the thought that the Captain is asking for the weather forecast and what they are going to face in the coming days. Maritime accidents are directly connected to weather conditions.
And while technology has given us real-time accuracy, it has ultimately deprived us of perception. ECDIS, predictive weather algorithms, voyage data recorders, all designed for our safety, made us forget how to read the world beyond the screen. You see people glued to the radar and ECDIS, who rarely lift their heads to look outside.
In 2023, over half of the accident incidents due to navigation errors involved officers who relied exclusively on electronic instruments. Automation and technology turned seafarers into observers, and checklists replaced conversation on the bridge.
Once, seamanship was intuition, cultivated through experience and the art of navigation. Given and initiated by the people themselves. Today, we wait for confirmation. We have confused knowledge with compliance and regulations.
In theory we are safer with so much paperwork that has entered our lives, but in practice we are more vulnerable than ever.
Checklists do not by themselves cause accidents, and often they help, but they cannot replace human judgment. During navigation in areas with increased traffic, decisions will often need to be made within a few minutes, even seconds. When something unexpected happens, no one at that moment will search to find what the books and the company’s safety management system say. They will have to act immediately and correctly.
When judgment and, by extension, experience is replaced by procedures and checklists, then it is mathematically certain that this will lead to dangerous paths. Ships do not travel with papers, but with knowledge, the art of seamanship, experience, and seamanship. Papers may be a prerequisite for a ship to operate and be chartered today, but they should not — on the altar of justifying a few thousand jobs ashore — put safety at risk.
Every form we fill out, every inspection we pass, every simulator we complete, means nothing if we cannot sense the situation, “hear” the wind, process every sound, perceive that after good weather, bad weather will inevitably come.
True seamanship is not a certificate nor a performance indicator. It is a state of readiness, humility, and responsibility. It is what distinguishes the real seafarer from the mere operator. What distinguishes the real seafarer from the one who thinks he is a seafarer.
All this is lost not because we stopped caring, but because we gave more space than we should have to the “system”.
Either we will restore the art of seamanship and seamanship to our lives, or we will be forced to leave the naval profession. The time has come to reinvest in the science of shipping. To become real seafarers. Naval accidents existed, exist and will continue to exist in the future. They must, however, be minimized. To be ready when we are called to face such a situation.
And let us remember, at the end of the day, that no checklist and no procedure will save the ship at the critical moment. People, however, will do it.
