At least 37 lives have been lost in a series of major ship casualties over the festive period, all seemingly involving well-known and long-running safety problems.
The incidents are leading to calls for a full safety review of existing ship types and a fundamental rethink on ship design.
The largest loss of life came with the loss of the Gearbulk-controlled, 56,000-dwt bulker Bulk Jupiter (built 2006), which sank in the South China Sea, leaving all but one of the crew of 19 missing.
