I was involved with a woman who had family connections within the cruise ship industry.Her step father being a director of one of those lines mentioned that the financial types (beancounters) have been going to considerable lengths to reduce cruise ship captain pay. He related several accounts where the line had cut the pay of long term captains and essentially goaded them into quitting. Then the new captains would be much younger and were usually supplied out of a "fast track" career path "puppy mill" of sorts. Almost invariably these fast trackers were from Italy or Greece and were not of the long term credentials of their predecessors.When I asked why this was so important he answered that to the new generation of managers one captain is as good as another, "they are all fungible"...