[sailaway21]

Liberian registry in and of itself means little. Some of the newest, best-built ships in the world are Liberian or Panamanian flagged. Some of the oldest, most decrepit buckets capable of turning a dollar are Liberian registered. Back in the eighties, most of Carnival's cruise ships were worn out fire-traps over thirty years old and were not well built ships when new. A better method of judging the seaworthiness of a ship is the agency's standards she was built under; ABS, DetNorskeVeritas, etc... and the age of the ship. If she was built to ABS standards she will be more likely to have Class A (nearly fireproof) bulkheads and the like. If she's less than twenty years old she'll likely not have plating issues. Twenty to twentyfive years is the economic life of a ship. At that time, wasted plating and stress cracking begin to become an annual shipyard repair item, and who says they get 'em all? Trust me, that beautiful white cruise ship built in 1963 has issues, regardless of how nice a paint job she has on her.

I've sailed in many good old well built ships. They were all in the process of sinking to one degree or another; it's just a matter of age. The obvious problems were of little concern, it was the surprises that made sleep difficult. Every day that you did not find water some place that should be nicely dry was a good day. Even better when you found water with no fuel oil mixed in with it. Find out when and where your ship was built-it's your best assurance that you're not sailing in a ship that made it's last practical voyage the one before you embarked.

Soviet build quality was such an uneven thing that I cannot, in good conscience, recommend ever sailing in something from that era, at the risk of damning what might be a fine vessel otherwise.

And yes, punching a hole in the side of a ship is quite an easy thing to do. More so on an older ship.

A note on ship ownership. I'll bet that a whole sled team of lawyers would be unable to actually determine who owned that ship in less than a year. One and two ship companies are notoriously difficult to examine as to who actually owns the company. All you ever come up with is a slew of agents and you'll never actually find a telephone number with the actual company's name attached to it. And, if you're a betting man, you can bet there's a Greek in there someplace-he may be sitting next to you at the coffee shop but you'd never know he was a ship owner.