Stowaways

Recently I read an article by the New York Times about stowing away on ships. The article revolved around one of George Kallimasias' ships.
The nation’s major shipping families have a reputation for noblesse oblige — many of the island’s soccer fields, schools and hospitals bear plaques with their names. Mr. Kallimasias, though, is decidedly invisible. Mr. Kallimasias’s seaside house in Chios sits behind a 15-foot wall. When he drives around, he is typically accompanied by bodyguards, according to a former employee and associates in Athens. There have been tens of cases filed against him for debt, but only one has succeeded.

In the 1980s, when one of Mr. Kallimasias’s companies failed to repay a loan of more than $11 million to the National Bank of Greece, members of the Greek Parliament investigated. They found one ship of his worth seizing, but it caught fire at sea and sank, in what was believed to be a deliberate act to collect insurance on it, according to legal documents provided to The Times by a Parliament member. Dinos Anargyrou, a former Kallimasias supplier and litigant, recounted how the courts were unable to seize Mr. Kallimasias’ assets in 2013 for another unpaid debt. At the last minute, his company moved its corporate address from a two-story luxury building in an upscale section of Athens to a 100-square-foot vacant apartment in an aging downtown high-rise.

The conditions on the ship were horrible. The captain changed the ship's log to say that wages had been paid, even though they hadn't. He kicked off sailors in random places for no reason. He neglected even the ship, saying that repairs had been made, when in actuality they weren't. Through all of this, the ship is safe from harm. Why? Because it flies the flag of the Bahamas. That means only patrol ships from the Bahamas can do anything against it, according to maritime law. Meanwhile, it stays on the other side of the world.

As you can see, life as a sailor or just life on the oceans is very unsafe and has a lot of criminals.