Patterns of seafarer injuries

In this paper, secondary analyses derived from injury data obtained from 16 maritime administrations are presented. Evidence of issues effecting reporting which argue against the aggregation of datasets of different administrations is examined. Some important dimensions of these issues are analysed. Considering two different large maritime administrations, evidence is presented indicating that injuries are systematically under-reported in general cargo ships, compared to other types of trades and that injuries are systematically under-reported by some crew nationalities within a given maritime administration. There is a clear need to invest in studies of the social processes of shipboard injury reporting, if we are to be able to interpret seafarer injury statistics.