Seamanship in the Age of Automation: Reduced Practical Wisdom? Observations from Fieldwork on Automated Car Ferries in Norway

Abstract This study contributes to the debate on the role of humans in highly automated maritime environments by exploring whether increased automation entails the extraction of seamanship from the maritime sector. Traditionally, seafaring practice has been the observable outcome of seamanship: an idealistic competence norm close to the seafarers’ identity. One element of seamanship is to solve known and unknown problems through ethical and practical deliberations and improvisations. Based on fieldwork on state-of-the-art automated car ferries in Norway, I demonstrate how seafarers (continue to) adapt to a highly automated environment. Seafarers informally learned the necessary basis for the automation practices. I discuss the relationship between seamanship and practical wisdom, and problematise the safety implications of increasingly automated and digitalised systems. The paper concludes with potential strategies for retaining professional practical wisdom, despite the advent of autonomy.