Forever room for error?

With safety always a key concern, Christopher Hill considers how the concept of ‘idiot-proofing’ the shipping industry, even with a first-rate mélange of education, experience and technology, is perhaps a little naive in a world full of humans.

I ATTENDED, as I try to do each year, the Cadwallader Memorial lecture held in the Lloyds building in mid-September and arranged by London’s Shipping Law Centre. The theme was the vision for the shipping industry throughout this just-commenced century, coupled with the paramount importance of main taining safety at sea and how to achieve this to a standard of near-perfection (there being no such thing as absolute perfection amongst us mortals).