ABSTRACT
Maritime transport has been assessed as a high-risk industry both in terms of frequency of accidents and potential for catastrophic consequences. This chapter gives an overview of the world fleet compositions and characterization of accidents during the past decades. It is a positive trend that annual number of ship losses has been reduced dramatically since 2010. Ships are subject to different accident forms like grounding, collision, fire/explosion, and foundering to mention a few. General cargo ships and fishing vessels stand for more than 50% of the losses. The frequency of oil spills from ship accidents has also gone significantly down. The environmental pollution has also been reduced due to the fact that the spill size has become smaller. The world fleet today is around 100,000 vessels. Measured by deadweight capacity bulk carriers and oil tankers are the most important types, but in numbers general cargo ships is the largest category. Four major countries of ship registration stand for almost 50% of the value of the world fleet. Expressed by number, the fleet is spread on a large number of countries. A ship is also a working place for the crew, and they are therefore exposed to occupational accidents. The individual risk is high and ten times higher than that for workers in the EU.
