A RARE BBC Radio 4 programme on shipping the other evening contained the 'sound picture' of a ship leaving port in which a former seafarer spoke of the washing down of the decks, which symbolised the breaking of the links with land, by getting rid of the accumulations of its dust and dirt.

These days, of course, such conduct is forbidden by law, and a ship would have to wait until it was miles out to sea before any such residues could be legally removed.

Marpol Chapter V will be rigorously enforced and anyone caught bearing a hose in a menacing manner is likely to be prosecuted.

This has become a serious matter for all manner of ships in dry bulk trading, where loading or grab discharging invariably leaves substantial quantities of cargo on the decks.

More often than not, those operating terminals are markedly unhelpful when the ship points out its legal vulnerabilities in this respect.

Careful spout loading or grab handling can greatly reduce the amount of cargo that is spilt.

In contrast, operators who could not care less leave the ship in a terrible state, often not even bothering to ease the conveyor belt when shifting the spout from one hatch to another.

With heaps of cargo residues of coal dust, ore or grains lying about a ship can find itself in legal hot water if the wind is blowing or there is heavy rain and residue is washed into the harbour.

Invariably, the instant the cargo is finished the terminal wants the ship off the berth, so the crew have little chance to sweep the decks and dispose of the cargo into the holds.

In vessels with high coamings this is often impossible, and the stevedores are not interested in cleaning up their mess.

There have even been cases of ships getting into trouble when a helicopter picking up the pilot has blown residues into the sea with its downdraught.

In another age such issues were subject to common sense. But in the 21st century fanatical adherence to anti-pollution legislation tends to leave the reasonable solution high and dry.

So, in some ports, where every excuse is taken to raise revenue through financial penalties, there will be a hardline interpretation of Marpol Chapter V.

In other more reasonable locations the rules are applied with sensitivity. Those aboard the ship, however, will find that they are inevitably on the receiving end of such interpretations.

Charter parties are often vague about such matters, but a good guide is to assume that 'the ship is always wrong and must pay'. 'Twas ever thus.

IT IS SAD to hear that ill-health has forced into retirement Alexis Gourvennec, the 'can-do' Breton who began Brittany Ferries in 1972.

With nationalised ferry companies in both France and Britain having a stranglehold on the Channel trades, and little notice being taken in far-off Paris of the troubles of Breton farmers, it was Gourvennec who galvanised local producers into starting their own shipping line with a second hand ro-ro named after a cauliflower .

Operating from a fishing port of which no one had ever heard into Plymouth, Brittany Ferries got the peerless Breton langoustines and artichokes to market at a rate growers could afford, with sailings when they were needed.

Soon there was a demand on the western Channel for passenger tonnage as the love affair between England and France's west coast got properly under way. Spain and Ireland would eventually beckon.

There may have been allegations of bumpy playing fields over the years, but no one can deny that Gourvennec's company offers the farmers, and a lot of others, a quality product.

They are survivors, too, in a trade that has rarely been easy.

A COLLISION is always going to be traumatic for those involved. For a lone yachtsman off the coast of Florida the other day, faced with a tug towing a barge, it was doubly so.

As his boat was run down by the barge he managed to scramble aboard the unmanned craft, from where he was seen by the crew of the tug at first light.

In those waters it does not pay to take chances and the poor chap, identified as a stowaway or worse, was handcuffed by the homeland defenders before he managed to establish himself as a genuine survivor.