Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2024)

had to pay for our own food.

For each column I write, MREN has agreed to make a small donation to an

This should not be regarded as com- organization of my choice. For this column I choose Liberty Nautical Education munal living; it remains an economic

Center, LiNE, https://www.libertynautical.org/home a group volunteers proposition and, as such, might be wor- that focuses on introducing kids to the nautical life through through ? rst-class, thy of investigation by shipping compa- hands-on, maritime educational programs.

nies with large ? eets to break our pres- ent only partial successful “one size ? ts all” crew approach. The creation of a family based crewing structure on one or more of their vessels could increase crew retention and recruiting. It certain- ly would be an interesting subject for a socio economic study. The company could poll their crew personnel to see if there is interest for that approach and go from there. My gut tells me the econom- ics could be mutually quite attractive.

Maybe ship crewing does not have to be zero sum, and maybe better designs are out there.

Courtesy Rik van Hemmen www.marinelink.com 11

MR #12 (1-17).indd 11 12/6/2024 11:01:57 AM