At the close of the 20th century, the maritime world was shocked by 2 major shipping casualties, the loss of the Maltese tanker ‘Erika’ and the grounding of the Norwegian high-speed-craft ‘Sleipner’. The first  resulted in extensive oil pollution of the marine environment and the second caused the tragic loss of many lives. Two key areas of concern in today’s shipping operations, lack of maintenance and poor operational standards, may well have contributed to these serious incidents.