[cyberferret]

I wondered about that too. What if they all decided to simply abandon ship and head for land, leaving a ship to flounder and possibly become a hazard to other vessels or cause an environmental problem when it crashes into a reef or similar?

[GavinMcG]

The officers, at the very least, would be criminally liable.

[foobarian]

But suppose they ran out of food. And suppose there was no shuttle from the ship due to owner going bankrupt. I think they could probably call a mayday signal and get rescued by some other vessel.

[PeterisP]

They can and will obtain supplies and food at no cost (essentially, with the ship and cargo as collateral) but they can't really abandon it.

Do note that calling mayday gives the rescuing vessel significant rights to the ship and cargo. If your ship is not at risk of sinking, that would be a really expensive way to solve a comparably minor problem, ordering a daily helicopter delivery from the closest McDonalds would be much cheaper.

[butbroski]

What happens to the ship isn't really the crew's problem.

Eating? Paying rent? These are the crew's problem. You can't seriously expect them to prioritize the employer that isn't paying/feeding them over their own well-being.

[PeterisP]

It is their problem; they will get paid in full by staying on ship (no matter what happens to their employer) but will forfeit that pay by abandoning the ship, and for the officers, there is the abovementioned criminal liability if the abandoned ship causes any harm (e.g. by leaking chemicals from cargo).

[jpatokal]

Not following you here: who exactly is going to pay them if their employer is bankrupt, which is the case here?

[josscrowcroft]

> calling mayday gives the rescuing vessel significant rights to the ship and cargo

What do you mean by this? Is there a legal case for a rescuing vessel to commandeer the ship and cargo somehow?

[amazon_not]

I believe so. See marine law of salvage.

[chii]

how can it be criminal when it's not you who instigated the issue in the first place? It should be criminal on the upper management imho.

[zrail]

There's nothing a captain can do about a bankrupt company. There is definitely a lot a captain can do about a ship that they've been given exclusive control over. That's part of being a captain: your sole responsibility is to get the ship where it's supposed to go without running into things or sinking or injuring the crew.

[josscrowcroft]

I recall one major case (the Costa Concordia) in which the captain abandoned the sinking ship, survived, and later faced prosecution.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16611371