Another amusing faux pas

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:26:27 -0500, Bob DeMattia <bob.bosra@demattia.net> said:

> Although the ships are of foreign registry, they are not completely
> free of safety regulations.  Our ship was registered in the Bahamas,
> but all the safety equipment and procedures on board follow US Coast
> Guard regulations.  This would be needed in order for the ship to
> sail and dock in US waters and ports.

Some cruise ships are U.S.-flag vessels, even those owned by the same
company as the big "flag of convenience" cruise brands.  Under
U.S. law, a foreign-flag vessel may not make consecutive calls at
U.S. ports, so a cruise operator who wanted to call at both Juneau and
Anchorage, for example, would have to use a U.S.-registered ship,
whereas the Boston-Nassau cruises that run in the summer can be
Bahamian, Panamanian, Liberian, Norwegian, or indeed any other
country's vessels.  The choice of flag matters for more than just
safety inspection: for the owner of the vessel, the flag country may
offer benefits in terms of legal protection, insurance regulations,
and so on.  It seems to me that I've heard rather less (at least in
broadcast advertising) of cruise lines using Panama and Liberia; I
suspect that the financial benefits of choosing those flags were
outweighed by potential customers being scared off by the third-world
flag of convenience.

-GAWollman