A good start, but why stop there?
Why as an American taxpayer am I paying anything for crappy FOC ships coming around and running aground in front of my house or sinking someplace? I think any American SAR should go to American flagged vessels only. Wait…why am I even paying for that. If some company wants to buy a ship and cruise it around to make money, how about they fund their own SAR. They aren’t paying me, why do I give a crap what happens to them? XYZ shipping company can have an XYZ helicopter and an XYZX tug and save themselves. No one made them have a ship,. it isn’t a law you have to buy one.
Meanwhile in the real world there are some actual people that obey the law of the sea and help others, no matter how dumb they are. I was delivering a boat back from maintenance on day cold enough to have ice on the deck when I got a call from a tanker. They decided to ignore your theory and were investigating what appeared to be a person on a capsized boat. They couldn’t get close due to draft and enlisted me to help. I was far off and we ended up getting the USCG and a fast fireboat from a local fire company out. The victim was a 16 year-old who was drunk the night before and somehow launched a Hobby Cat into a freezing gale and didn’t get far before he capsized. How we wasn’t already dead at dawn I have no idea, but despite trying his best for the Darwin Award he got home safe and sound to live another day and hopefully learned something. Numerous people went out of their way because of one drunk idiot and they will again for the next one.
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