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They’re not random, they’re called “flags of convenience” since the ship is subject to the laws of the country where it is registered, including labor laws and safety standards. Panama and Liberia are common flags for merchant ships because they make it cheap to register, exempt the ship from some taxes, and hire foreign labor.

Thanks!

This is a bit like saying "isn't it completely standard for cars to have random meaningless characters on their number plates"?

The rules for ships are a bit different for rules for cars.

There's a number of countries (some of them land-locked) that sell flags of convenience, but in that particular case, it's possible that didn't happen.

As completely standard as it is for companies choose to register in Delaware.

What's a problem is companies that claim to be registered in Delaware when Delaware records show no such registration.

Hint: they’re not random

Random to third parties, yet not random to the nation in question nor the crew of the ship....