The maritime industry can truly be said to be the catalyst of civilisation. Indeed it has often been said rather tongue in cheek that without the maritime industry half the world would be in darkness while the other half would starve. despite the maritime industry's somewhat flowery history, the lot of the seafarer, who is, perhaps, the most important component of the maritime industry has not always been as good. Dr. Samuel Johnson once remarked that, "no man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned." Being a seafarer has oftentimes meant danger and isolation for the seafarer and has also meant that the seafarer was "generally out of reach of any legal system which might be used to protect him".
