Switzerland's merchant marine: who would ever think Switzerland has one of the most modern sea-faring fleets in the world? Swiss News finds out more.

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Switzerland has a long tradition of civilian navigation on its lakes and rivers. Lakes Constance, Maggiore, Lucerne and Geneva (Leman) are among the most travelled in the world, albeit largely by tourism vessels or pleasure craft. Steamers, sailboats and motorboats are a staple on many of the country's 1,500 other lakes. Swiss military boats patrol some of the country's larger lakes.

In terms of ocean-going vessels, well, aside from the fact that Switzerland's Alinghi was the first sailboat from a landlocked country to win the America's Cup in 2003. accepted wisdom has it that any significant commercial land sea-related traffic more or less stops with the famous Rhine River barges.

These barges work out of the port in Basel linking the country to ocean trade. For this reason the Rhine has been described as Switzerland's "umbilical cord with the sea".

Most people in Switzerland are surprised to learn that there are 35 (and counting) ships out there on the open seas--tankers, combi-freighters, dry cargo or bulk carriers, and container Vessels, multipurpose or not--registered in Basel and flying the Swiss flag.

Vessels with names like Lausanne and Silvaplana, Appenzell and Lugano, Curia and Turicum, San Bernardino and Matterhorn, are afloat on the high seas and circling the globe with the iconic white cross on red ground fluttering proudly!

Fleet activity is supervised by the Basel-based Swiss Maritime Navigation Office, reporting to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, in Bern.

Privately owned and managed

The Swiss merchant marine is not a unified fleet under a single owner. Management is in the bands of six companies who may operate their own vessels and/ or those of others--and not necessarily do so under a Swiss flag.

The law sets forth a number of prerequisites for a ship to be considered part of the Swiss fleet, one of which is that shipping companies who manage the ships have head offices in Switzerland.

By chance, the companies are divided equally between the Swiss-German and the Swiss-French parts of the country: in Zurich, there is Enzian Ship Management AG and Reederei Zurich AG Mega Chemicals Schiffahrt AG is headquartered in Uttwil (Canton Thurgau).

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Suisse-Atlantique Societe de Navigation Maritime SA and ABCmaritime are both located in Canton Vaud, while Massoel Meridian Ltd. works out of Geneva.

A comprehensive list of the ships featured at www.swiss-ships.ch underscores the modernity of the fleet: only a few ships were built before the year 2000, and none earlier than 1995.

Capacity is around one million tonnes, approximately 0.1 per cent of world tonnage.

Swiss cadets can get academic maritime training abroad--for example, in the UK, Germany or Holland--followed by on-board training. But only a small minority of crew members are Swiss.

History

Dr. Reto Durler, who heads the Swiss Maritime Navigation Office in Basel, told Swiss News that the Swiss merchant marine started during World War II, in 1941.

"The Rhine was blocked. Switzerland has no nature resources to speak of. So to ensure that there was no breakdown in the supply of vital resources, the Swiss government leased a merchant fleet, subcontracting most but not all of the management."

Shipments were then moved by rail from the ports of Marseilles or Genoa.

The Federal Law on Maritime Shipping under the Swiss Flag (Seeschiffahrtsgesetz) of September 23, 1953 provided the legal framework for the creation of the post-war merchant fleet and the Swiss Maritime Navigation Office.

A crucial stipulation of the legislation is that the Swiss government can use the fleet in a crisis. But, since the creation of the law, that stipulation has not been put into effect.

In 1959, the federal government introduced the service of underwriting loans (Burgschaftsrahmenkredite) taken out by management companies in regard to ships in the Swiss fleet. But according to Durler, there have been no claims so far.

The Maritime Office provides technical and legal supervision over the fleet, says Durler, In this way, the office issues licences for registered ships and checks that shipping companies comply with statutory regulations, according to the Swiss federal government website.

"It also checks whether regulations on construction, safety, equipment and environmental protection are being observed, and that technical inspections are carried out by recognised classification societies. It monitors compliance with employment regulations for the crews, and issues seaman's record books, certificates of capacity for crew members, and other ship's documents." Durler says.

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"The ships have to report to Swiss representative offices abroad (embassies and consulates) which authorise the signing-on and signing-off of crew members, and the shipping companies report the current location of the Swiss sea-going vessels to us each week." he adds.

His office also reports any legal offences committed on Swiss ships and decides appeals against disciplinary measures.

Other functions include representing Switzerland in international organisations and at conferences and preparing bills and draft ratification documents pertaining to international agreements.

At the international level. Swiss vessels are subject to the comprehensive regulatory framework provided by the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO), also created in the aftermath of the Second World War. and of which Switzerland is a member.

The Swiss Shipowners' Association

Housed at the Suisse-Atlantique Societe de Navigation Maritime SA in Renens. just outside Lausanne. the Swiss Ship-owners' Association liaises closely with the Maritime Office in Basel--"defending and promoting member interests, for example during the negotiation of international conventions," says Claude Diday, secretary of the association and CFO of Suisse-Atlantique.

The membership of the association comprises five of the six companies that manage the Swiss fleet.

"What's crucial to remember." says Diday, "is that the Swiss flag is a national flag, not a flag of convenience."

"As things presently stand under the 1953 legislation," he adds, "in time of crisis. executives of the six management companies could be mobilised and called to Bern for the duration to manage the fleet from there." Company executives would not be called to Bern though, he notes, if "the federal government were quite simply to become the client and issue its instructions with regard to use of the ships".

Durler too suggests that this simpler solution may be in the cards by way of an amendment to existing legislation.

A growth field

One sure thing is that the number of ships in the Swiss fleet is expanding: Durler sees the number going up from 33 to 35 in 2008. Maritime transport is growing--what with-globalisation and emerging markets, the exchange of goods is increasing," he says.

Michael Deslarzes. CEO of the Massoel Group, concurs. "The demand for sea transportation has increased considerably over the last years, thanks to the tremendous growth in Chinese and more generally Asian industrial production."

"These emerging, double digit growth economies need energy and raw materials to cope both with their internal growth and for production of semi-finished and finished goods for their very profitable export markets. This leads to more demand for coal. ores and many other commodities shipments."

Deslarzes also evokes the growth of secondary markets, such as South East Asia. but also the Caribbean and South America.

Greater demand is paired with growing concern for the environment, says Deslarzes. adding, "international regulations are getting stricter every day".

But he says it's possible "for all resources to be allocated to enable pollution-free and ecologically friendly management", giving by way of example such measures as "engine oil waste and general garbage being disposed of exclusively in designed facilities for treatment ashore. and using only safe and sea-friendly maintenance products on board".

For Durler. Switzerland's fleet poses little environmental risk.

"The Swiss fleet is small, efficient and modern. All the vessels are of a high technical standard and hence fully comply with international regulations [IMO] in the fields of safety, security and eco-friendliness."

In fact. the prestige of the Swiss fleet is such. he adds. that the Swiss Maritime Navigation Office has recently started receiving applications from foreign ship owners eager to fly the Swiss flag on their vessels.

To gain this right, Swiss maritime law specifies that the management companies must be headquartered in Switzerland, and their actual ultimate control must also be in Switzerland The individual owner of a ship must be Swiss, and, in the case of a company, the majority of the capital must be owned by Swiss bodies having at least two thirds of voting rights.

However Durler says that so far none of the applications has met the requirements set down by Swiss law.