By Josh Hutchinson, CEO of ARX Maritime Ever since their inception back in the 1920s, Flags of Convenience (FoC) have been a subject of no small amount of controversy. The practice originally began during prohibition, when American cruise ships would fly under the Panamanian flag in order to be able to serve alcohol to passengers and thus escape the stringent US … [Read more...]
Flags of Inconvenience: Noose Tightens Around Iranian Shipping
By Jonathan Saul, Parisa Hafezi and Marianna Parraga LONDON/DUBAI/PANAMA CITY, July 26 (Reuters) - Somewhere on its journey from the waters off Iran, around Africa's southern tip and into the Mediterranean, the Grace 1 oil tanker lost the flag under which it sailed and ceased to be registered to Panama. Iran later claimed it as its own. The ship carrying 2 million barrels of … [Read more...]