International, multinational, transnational: this is normal in shipping, an industry whose complexity would impress offshore bankers. Crews of five or more nationalities are standard, and 60 per cent of ships now fly a flag of a country that is not that of their owner. These days, the average ship in British ports is unlikely to have either a British flag or a British crew. The only thing you can predict with certainty about it is that its sailors will be from poor countries, and exhausted. Occasionally, they will also be unpaid, or worse, which is where Tommy Molloy comes in.