MARTIN RUSHMERE LOS ANGELES: The international maritime community is becoming increasingly worried over the trend in the United States towards criminal prosecutions for what other countries treat as industrial accidents and civil offences. In the latest incident Wolfgang Schroeder, the German master of the container ship Zim Mexico III, spent more than four months in jail in Alabama after the bow thruster on his container ship broke down while manoeuvering in the Mobile River harbour. The ship struck a crane, killing a worker. Observers likened the accident to a motor vehicle’s brakes failing on a freeway. Prosecutors reckoned differently and convinced a jury that the thruster had failed before, and the captain was criminally negligent. Schroeder was detained immediately after the trial, before sentencing, as it was claimed he would flee the country. International maritime organisations protested at both the judgment and the immediate detention and petitions of support poured in, emphasising that Schroeder had 30 years respected and unblemished service. He faced the possibility of 21 months in jail but at the sentencing the judge said he had spent enough time in jail already and released him. His German employer Rickmers has paid $375 000 as a plea agreement. The twist in the tale is that Schroeder will probably be forbidden to re-enter the country as he has a criminal record. This case is one of the most visible examples of criminal treatment of not only commercial mishaps but of failures to follow environmental regulations. In the last year there have been a number of cases of officers and crew of foreign ships being sent to Federal prisons. The most common offence is the treatment of bilge water. The usual trick is the use of a “magic pipe” to avoid using the processing plant on the ship, which takes time and money. Another offence is failing to report or document oil leaks. Investigations into even the most minor of these are cumbersome and time-consuming, with the spectre of criminal charges in the background. Legal watchdogs and civil rights groups have long been warning about the crossover of commercial and criminal law. They attribute the reasons partly to personal ambition by public prosecutors wanting to attract the attention of private law firms by showing how many criminal cases they have won. But also it is seen as another example of the litigious nature of a society where fines and penalties are greater if an act can be proved to be criminal rather than civil.
