Sailing through a minefield of rules

A LONG time ago, when I was cadet, we all tried to get sent to one of a fleet of small cargo ships managed by our company that carried wood pulp and paper from Canada to Britain. Given that this involved crossing the North Atlantic in 4,000 dwt vessels, this may seem a bit odd.

As is often the case however, the key to the mystery was money. These ships often spent months working around the North American coast, including US ports and, as such, were subject to US cabotage law.

To allowed to operate on these trades, all the crew were paid at much higher US rates. Not that I knew it at the time, but the ships must have been granted waivers to the so-called Jones Act which spells out cabotage in the US.