The South Korean government’s decision to search for the wreck of the Stellar Daisy and its black box should be encouraged, as there is a chance it could help us understand why the ship suffered catastrophic structural failure.

The wreck of the 266,000-dwt bulker, which was converted from a 1993-built VLCC in 2008, has been lying off the coast of Uruguay for more than 18 months at a depth of 3,000 metres.