This unique book rethinks and rewrites the previous edition. It categorises simply the nine interactive legal duties of the shipmaster, analysing and relating them to laws and conventions within a single volume.

Cartner on the International Law of the Shipmaster contends that command depends on decision-making, and that shipmasters are not provided sufficient, timely, relevant, and pertinent information for command decisions. The book proposes voyage planning follow the spacecraft model of the USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, providing readers with a metric for command. It constructively criticises the conventions and management and is aimed at reducing catastrophes by focusing on the hitherto elusive human factor in the shipmaster. Cartner proposes that command at sea be its own profession and discipline with those called to it specifically trained in its intricacies; he argues that current ships are not designed to be command-worthy or security-worthy and that management should reorder its relationships with shipmasters as tactical managers afloat. The insights the book provides are an invaluable aid to decision making for the modern civil commander and anyone association with this pivotal and essential profession.

This book is a necessary reference and guide for shipmasters, technologists, naval architects, regulators, underwriters, students, practitioners and courts of maritime law and command worldwide.

John A C Cartner is uniquely qualified to write on the new command at sea. He is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, U.S.A; has commanded vessels in the foreign trades; and continues to hold the master mariner's certificate; is a Chartered Engineer (naval architecture); and F.R.I.N.A.and F.S.N.A.M.E. He has magisterial degrees in finance and international law; his doctoral training was in quantitative methods of research. He has served as CEO of three companies. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association and the Law Society of England and Wales and has published widely in maritime and military matters and most recently a book on human rights as well as another on defending against pirates. He has received humanitarian awards for his work in defending shipmasters. He is a widely-viewed commentator on MaritimeTV.com.