Captains of large merchant vessels are salaried or even quasi-gig employees. Indirect operational control is based at the company hq, which is generally in a di

Captains of large merchant vessels are salaried or even quasi-gig employees. Indirect operational control is based at the company hq, which is generally in a different country than the port. This leads hq to order their captains to do unsafe or illegal things to maximize short term profit. I recall an article on hn about a captain who was fired for sailing around a tropical storm instead of straight through it, costing the company a few extra days. Rules targeting captains (essentially disposable middle management) will be ineffective for this reason. They should instead target the ship itself (capital asset).