"Richard Casady" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Apr 2009 11:20:19 -0700, "Pittman Pirate"
wrote:

If you read closely the descriptions of these crews, they are
multinational
and one wonders how they all even communicate. They are probably the
futigives and derelicts of various nations. The main crew are skilled
people. The rest are just oilers and deckhands.

The biggested freighter ever made has a crew of thirteen. The Emma
Maersk. The standard language of shipping is English. Oilers and
deckhands get scarce when the ship has a crew of fewer than 20. Modern
ships are so highly automated that there is nobody on deck or in the
engine room at night. This is not a new trend. A century ago they
built huge schooners in order to get by with smaller crews than
necessary for a square rigged ship. The seven masted schooner Thomas
Lawson had a crew of 18 plus a steam winch.

Casady

Still, news clips like" the crew consisted of Ukraines, Canadians, Kenyans,
Philipinos, Danes, One guy from Southie, and one guy from South LA" are not
uncommon.