The vessel will deliver cargo at the direction of the Charterer, who may or may not be the cargo owner. While at the berth, The Master may have a Port State inspection, an oil company vetting, or an ISM audit by a Class Society, hopefully, not all three. All of these elements interact and bear responsibility for the safe passage of the ship. The entire system has to work each time. To date, the only entities which carry legal responsibility and liability, both civil and criminal, are the shipowners and mariners.
Pilots enjoy almost no liability or responsibility.
Class societies are in negotiations with the EU on very limited financial liability but up to now have mostly avoided liability. Under OPA '90, oil cargo owners and charterers were exempted from liability. I am not suggesting that we pass laws making pilots or class societies financially liable for mistakes and throwing them in jail as we sometimes do to mariners. I know that we can make the system work better without such measurers, tempting as the alternative may sound. All elements of the chain must contribute in order to assure the safe passage of a vessel.