Splash247: Respect the guts that power global trade

Captain Akee Sharma, CEO and founder at Sailor’s Cart, takes umbrage with president Trump’s call this week for ships to have the “guts” to cross the Strait of Hormuz.

I’ve stayed quiet on geopolitics for a long time because in a better part of the world that I live in, the government and people know how to work, cooperate, and progress.

But this week I saw Mr Trump’s media comment that ships should have the “guts” to cross the Strait of Hormuz and I couldn’t stay silent.

Seafarers don’t need to prove courage by sailing into preventable danger. 

They’ve already been proving it quietly for years.

Mr President, seafarers don’t need guts. They live on guts.

Guts is:

– leaving your child for months and watching life happen through a screen

 – missing weddings, birthdays, and the “once in a lifetime” moments 

– being away when someone you love is buried 

– living in a metal box in the middle of the ocean so the rest of the world can live comfortably 

– riding out 20-degree rolls at sea because the job still has to be done 

And what is that job moving?

Your iPhone. Your smartwatch. Your fuel. Your food. Your clothes. 

The normal life people around the world take for granted.

One ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal disrupted the global supply chain for weeks. 

So just imagine what happens if all the seafarers collectively decide: enough and refuse to sail.

So before anyone questions the “guts” of ships and the people onboard them, pause and recognise the individuals who contribute to global life without seeking anything in return, other than their safe return to their waiting families.

Seafarers are not pawns.  They are not disposable.  And they should never be asked to gamble their lives for soundbites, headlines, or short-term solutions.

If controlling the price of oil and other commodities is truly the priority, then protecting shipping lanes and the people who operate them must be a shared responsibility and governments need coordinated action to ensure safe passage for merchant ships.

Because the truth is simple. The world doesn’t run on speeches. It runs on ships.

No shipping. No shopping.