Breaking up can be hard to do

GENERALLY speaking, if you break the law it is probably not a good idea to make a video of you doing it and then post it on YouTube. In a case reported by the seafarers' union Nautilus International in its monthly paper the Telegraph, a Dutch ship's master did exactly that and then found himself in trouble with a Netherlands shipping industry disciplinary panel.

Actually, I have a lot of sympathy for the master. The video showed him in command of a container ship as it was being "illegally" beached before demolition near Alang, India. That is to say, it was illegal under Dutch law which follows European Union (EU) directives.

The committee used the video evidence to find the master guilty of being in serious breach of his duties by taking the ship to India for disposal in contravention of national and European law. It noted that, because the master had not made a statement, it is not known on whose order he had beached the vessel. But the committee said that sight of the coastline in the YouTube video made it clear that the master should have understood that it would be left there for demolition. The master's certificate was suspended for a period of six months, but the suspension was deferred for a two-year probationary period. So it was a slap on the wrist, really. And of course the master did not just just take it into his head on a whim to drive his ship onto an Indian beach. He would have done so on orders. He would have been in a very difficult situation, even if he had realised he was breaking Dutch law, which he probably did not.