This unique book rethinks and rewrites the previous edition. It
categorises simply the nine interactive legal duties of the shipmaster,
analysing and relating them to laws and conventions within a single
volume.
Cartner on the International Law of the Shipmaster contends that
command depends on decision-making, and that shipmasters are not
provided sufficient, timely, relevant, and pertinent information for
command decisions. The book proposes voyage planning follow the
spacecraft model of the USA's National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, providing readers with a metric for command. It
constructively criticises the conventions and management and is aimed at
reducing catastrophes by focusing on the hitherto elusive human factor
in the shipmaster. Cartner proposes that command at sea be its own
profession and discipline with those called to it specifically trained
in its intricacies; he argues that current ships are not designed to be
command-worthy or security-worthy and that management should reorder its
relationships with shipmasters as tactical managers afloat. The insights
the book provides are an invaluable aid to decision making for the
modern civil commander and anyone association with this pivotal and
essential profession.
This book is a necessary reference and guide for shipmasters,
technologists, naval architects, regulators, underwriters, students,
practitioners and courts of maritime law and command worldwide.
