Queen Elizabeth I when enunciating the doctrine of freedom of the high seas said ‘…the use of the sea is common to all…’. Until very recently a more appropriate phrase might almost have been ‘a free for all’ for, except for the internationally agreed Rules for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea and the demands of safe navigation to avoid stranding, the seas were free for all to sail as and how they pleased. However, rapid advances in technological development in the last decade or so, combined with changes in transport economics and national ideologies, have brought about dramatic changes in the sea transport industry—both in the size and speed of vessels and in the nature of the cargoes they carry. Inevitably the risk and seriousness of accidents has increased proportionately and in some cases become so intolerable, both socially and economically, that the public attitude towards the traditional freedom of the sea began to change and that freedom was curtailed.