Sorry I fell asleep!
Firstly let me just say /u/persica I work with Bulkers and without flag of convenience and cheap labour none of the companies would survive unfortunately. A lot of them are even struggling to survive today as it is. I know it's sad for all the Western Seamen and most of them are being pushed out of something they love, but at the same time it is also giving great opportunity to people in need from much poorer nations and they in turn give most of that money back to their village to support their families. Same reply goes for /u/bob-at-sea I would not at all be doing this to have a full big brother 24/7 watchover of the crew. It's not my job to keep watch on them nor to tell them what to do and how to do their job, that is the responsibility of the Captain/Master. That would be some ultimate micromanagement shit and seriously I don't even have time to micromanage our small commercial team in the offices bringing in the deals, nor would I want to. I'm just as said passionate about the sea and the operations without actually having to be on the ship myself. Bob also, it would just be a webcam pointing out from the bridge forwards. You are not encroaching on their lives 24/7 because there isn't that much work to be done on the deck of a bulker while the vessel is out at sea. Anyway as /u/mikey4021 points out I think the cost of uplink would destroy any aspirations I have of doing same. But I will look into it.
So /u/eatingcake /u/animalcrackers1 /u/grexo /u/calamity701 /u/baronvonbardvaark
I'll tell you about my favorite that I can remember.
It was back in 2007 and it was like the world economy, the peak of the bulker shipping market. The ships I work with were getting about USD60'000 per day as hire. Today they are getting about USD6'000 per day.
A Greek Owned vessel which had Greek Master, officers, engineer and Filipino Crew had been chartered for one of our deals. The vessel carried coal from a port in Indonesia called Jorong to a port in the Philippines called Villanueva. This vessel had a canary on board, which the chief engineer kept with him in the engine room. This of course is no longer necessary nor was it in 2007 due to today's technology, so this bird while serving a purpose was more so like the chief engineers pet. You can imagine how a person feels about something like this little yellow bird while spending endless days out at sea without seeing anyone apart from those on board. You would definitely grow attached.
Whenever the weather was smooth or the vessel was anchored/berthed in port they would leave the Canary on deck to get some fresh air and daylight etc.
So the vessel had arrived at Villanueva, and the first person to come on board the vessel was the agent to complete some of the formalities before the port workers/stevedores come on board. Well the Canary went missing after that.
All hell broke loose. The ship was shutdown and Master refused to let anyone back on board unless the canary was returned. Eventually the agent came back on board and tried to explain he hadn't had a delightful poultry lunch that day but the chief engineer didn't believe him and broke his nose.
The Captain and the chief engineer were arrested but released the next day. The vessel sat idle for 3.5 days without discharging and the Owner of the company completely sided with the master and crew and had no qualms about the vessel being off hire for 3.5 days at USD60'000 per day!!!
The head charterer stuck in the middle with his cargo locked up on the ship had to intervene eventually and the ship was discharged and sailed. I think they arranged for a new canary at another port of call.
That was a story about what I suspect was the world's most expensive canary at USD210'000. Tweet that!