Western Europe seems to be attempting to deal with the maritime problems of the 1980s by using concepts of the 1880s. This is one of the concluding comments of Charles W. Koburger, Jr., in this book. There is an air of frustration surrounding many of the strongly held views of Captain Koburger but this is not surprising. Clearly a practical man, with 33 years’ service in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, he has observed maritime disasters causing fatalities and extensive pollution. Many were avoidable and he argues that effective vessel traffic systems (VTS) make a key contribution to reducing accidents at sea.

A VTS is a form of traffic management in a given body of water. It aims to increase the level of safety in its zone, perhaps to allow an increase in traffic throughput and to protect better the marine environment. To achieve these, there are typically a number of key features common to the schemes. These comprise surveillance of the area, some form of traffic separation, a system of reporting vessel movements, a traffic centre and some means of enforcement. A number of the schemes are well known even to non-experts, such as the Channel Navigation Information Service. This covers one of the busiest stretches of water