Yacht-related questions for a fictional story

First question: Yes he can (theoretically). By the international law of the sea, the master of a ship is entilteld to confine or arrest (even shoot) any person on board, if this person is endangering the safety of the ship and / or the life of persons on board.

A person doing so, would be handed over to the authorities in the next safe harbour. But if the owner, being confined by his own captain, would not end up in jail, the captain would be for sure out of job in this harbour.

I know of 2 cases where exactly this happend.

First case was, where a ships officer (during a cruise) found the owner of the ship in the cargo room setting fire to the ship in order to sink it and collect the insurance. The owner was arrested by the captain and handed over to the authorities in the next harbour. The captain kept his job on the ship but got a new owner .

Second case was on a combined cargo / passenger ship where the owner, as a passenger on this cruise, was under heaviest alcoholic influence (delirium tremens) and stumbling around the passenger deck and firing his colt against passengers and crewmembers. He was arrested and shackled for his own and others safety. This captain also remained on his job.

Second question: The owner of a ship can relieve a captain from his command not only in the next harbour, he can do this even during a cruise, if a second fully qualified master is present on board (the first officer for example) and the minimum crew requirements are not affected. My father did that once by radio call from his office. He relieved the captain from his command and handed the ship over to the first officer. This was for pure disciplinary reasons, because we found out, that this captain and his boosun were smuggling on a pretty large scale for a pretty long time. The new captain confined the old captain and the boosun to their cabins and when the ship entered the Hamburg harbour, they were handed over to the German authorities.

The international law of the sea is pretty clear and straight forward. If the incidence is entered correctly in the ships log book and the entry signed by 2 witnesses (normally 2 officers), the captain will normally "survive" the investigation without any further trouble. But things like this do not happen very often.

It should be noted that a captain (Master) had best be extremely sure of his position if he takes such action or he could face, not only losing his job and career, but lawsuits and even criminal penalties as well. Hence how seldom it happens.

You are right as always NYCAP. I would like to be **** sure as a captain taking radical action like described above. But sometime you are just commited to do so.

Ones I had to make the decision to either turn around the ship in a storm and risk the ship to capsize by trying to rescue a man over board or continue on course and loose a man. I turned around, damaged the on deck cargo but we found the man and saved his life.

Thats why the master is the best payed man on board. He makes the final decision.

Will you please tell my wife. She disagrees with you at least once a day.

You made the right decision turning around. Human life takes precedence over all except putting other lives at unreasonable risk. I could never live with myself leaving a man behind, even if it was necessary. There would always be the thought "What if I ........", and that would kill me.

I think you'd find that the 2nd in command would generally follow the course set by the master unless the master's judgement is seriously flawed. So firing the master would not be effective, and in fact the 2nd would probably refuse the assignment so that all the responsibility remains with the master. Nobody in charge of a vessel would allow it (or the people on board) to be put in jeopardy. The only reason for the 2nd to side with the owner would be if the Master was wrong. Nothing good would come to the 2nd, no matter how it played out.

Junior Stew sneaks into room where Owner is, sobers him up, makes a deal with him. She lets him out and when they dock, he fires both captain and chief stew. But that isn't enough. Junior Stew accuses Captain and Chief Stew of trying to force her to have a threesome with them and that is given as reason owner fires them. Junior Stew now to be Chief Stew and gets owner to hire her bf as captain while she pretends to like owner. They intend to rip owner off in every way possible.

And on serious note this whole topic tells why owners and crew need to be very careful. I know captain and crew jobs can be competitive and sometimes hard to find. But better to do day work than find yourself with the wrong owner. Same for owners, careful and check references. There are great captains and great owners out there but there are horrible ones of both.

This is like no other field of work I know of. You're living with each other for long periods of time. It's like deciding on employment plus a roommate and good roomies are hard enough by themselves. As owner and captain you're putting a huge amount of trust in each other. Be careful.

Oh and if that owner is known to be bad to deal with in business or elsewhere, don't think he's going to be Mr. Sweet with you. If he had a fight with his last Captain, don't think you're going to be the one to change him. Same for owners, it's so easy to get the scuttlebutt out there. And to both: When in doubt, don't. Trust your freaking instincts even if you're not sure what it is you're not comfy with. You have bad feelings about it but do it anyway, you'll find out why you had those feelings later, the hard way.

Certainly. The captain's concern is for the safety of ship and passengers. If no real crime was committed why spend the next year going to court. Once back to shore the danger is past. However, this is very similar to a citizen's arrest. If you don't follow through (and win) you run the risk of ending up on the recieving end of a lawsuit.

I think in your story it will be anti-climatic if the owner is simply released. Maybe either he could get out on bail and seek revenge or escape captivity and continue to raise havoc before getting to port.

Dunno the story line, but perhaps you can use a bit of fictional license to gently slide your readers along? Too much, though, and it doesn't work.

good luck.. Give us the title when you've completed your piece?

I should not come on it late night when I cannot get to sleep... tends to further keep me up. Anyway, the following is a true story... no names time frame 40 years ago.

Naval ship leaves port early mourning in Rotterdam NL passage through the Channel and out across the Atlantic to port on east coast USA.

Crew member possibly stands training watch after leaving Holland... but goes missing sometime after 2:00 AM from one crew report later. Discovered missing at mourning quarters next mourning at 7:30AM after passage through Channel. First conclusion is crew member jumped ship in Rotterdam. Discussions for 2 hours and inconclusive quarters roll call record before leaving... inconclusive answers from crew mates... ship is searched about another hour. Final conclusion is crew member considered to likely left ship near time of disembarking Rotterdam... either after roll call or before... crew mates think was in engineering plant but no definite record. Sea conditions of passage rough and water temperature indicates at about 10:30Am not likely survival by time ship is searched and discussions finished. Little real consideration to man overboard as no indications from deck watches. Captain with other officers decide crew member jumped ship and in Rotterdam and report as unauthorized absence.

A year later crew member turns up in Chad... member of French Foreign Legion. Legion turns over to US Naval JAG authorities in France at FFL main base at Aubagne. Man has mentioned Naval service to friend and Legion investigates. Legion contacts Naval authorities. Man claims to have gone overboard. Naval authorities initially consider desertion charges... but decide not to charge due to inconclusive investigation at time of missing report... and other personnel problems on ship... Captain by this time has been reassigned. Man returned to ship for duty.

Night night!