Changes since 1960

British seamen and their health have been the subject, or perhaps, given the lack of many identifiable seamen's voices, the object of the preceding chapters. This lack of seamen's voices is significant, as ill health is by its nature personal and those who claim to speak on behalf of seamen will usually be doing it to make a political point rather than fully expressing the hopes and concerns of the individuals directly affected. In parallel those representing business interests will seek to rationalise away any suggestion that cost-cutting is the main reason for any shortcomings in seafarer health provisions and will present them in terms of lack of proof of need, or their impracticability in the maritime environment. Historians writing from the perspectives of labour and social history have written little about merchant seamen and their health risks, but have identified the problems of stereotyping and of individual exploitation in other aspects of work at sea and for health risks in other sectors of employment. They have noted that these can result in the imposition of constraints on seafarers and workers in the supposed interests of safety or to reduce the liability of employers. Such constraints and stereotyping can be real and a significant cause of discrimination, but some of the trends in scholarship in this area also ignore the economic dimension and the long-used axiom that for the maritime sector: ‘Cargo is the mother of wages’.