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Comment by jandrese | Hacker News Reader

I think his job was basically security guard for the property. Also, if the ship were to come unmoored and collide with another vessel they would need someone to blame.

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But why can't he quit? If the owning company didn't assign another guard that's their fault, not the guard. Imagine if a chauffeur was forever assigned to a car because it broke on a disabled parking place. It would just get towed and the bill or court order sent to the actual owner and the chauffeur can quit.

100% blame on Egypt here for a stupid rule ignoring consequences.

Mentally imagining the situation you described with a chauffeur is hilarious - which only underlines the absurdity of this poor guy's situation.

Preventing unmooring probably requires to repaint/reoil the moor every few months to prevent rust. I wonder whether 1 person is enough to take care of the remaining maintenance of a wreck: electrical boards, meals, rats... Crews are also constantly repainting the hull while at sea, this is why it still takes 20 crew on top of a captain to man a ship.

I'm sure he had no supplies for basic maintenence, but the law still requires someone to hold accountable so it would be him.

It would be interesting if this did happen and the court found him guilty of dereliction of duty for not conjuring replacement parts out of thin air. Would he be sent to a land prison or back to the prison of the ship?

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