Virgin Voyages supremo Richard Branson tweeted about a mysterious event in London this week that promised an epic night for "rebels, rogues, eccentrics and pioneers".

The tycoon said eagle-eyed locals should be on the lookout for posters reading "Sailors Wanted!"

These could then be used as tickets for an "exclusive, invite-only event that will never again take place on land" called Scarlet Night.

TradeWinds did not manage to get its hands on one of these posters.

Could the event be a high-risk recruitment drive for the company's first cruiseship, Scarlet Lady?

We're not sure rebels and rogues sounds like an ideal crew but we're all for diversity here.

And it beats press-ganging.

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A Houston-area Congressman has raised a new, if nonsensical, talking point in support of the US Jones Act.

In a tweet last week, Republican Representative Brian Babin insinuated that the century-old legislation is the only thing keeping Chinese ships out of US inland waterways.

The missive included a Photoshopped picture of the Seaspan-owned, 8,500-teu CSCL Africa (built 2005) in the Mississippi River near St Louis while flying a massive Chinese flag from the bridge.

The Jones Act has come under fire from some quarters, with opponents accusing the law of raising prices for US consumers, congesting major highways and harming the environment.

Usually, supporters argue the Jones Act’s national security value and its support for US jobs, as it requires ships transporting goods between US ports to be US-built, crewed, flagged and owned.

But the legislation does not prevent foreign-flagged ships from calling on US ports or traversing the country’s inland or coastal waterways.

Further, the CSCL Africa is Hong Kong-flagged, not Chinese, while Seaspan is a New York-traded company based in Hong Kong.

And a ship of the CSCL Africa’s size would not fit that far up the Mississippi River.

In a statement – in which he insinuated TradeWinds of working against the Jones Act in the interests of foreign powers – Babin said the image was “quite obviously satirical” and depicts a “hypothetical example”.

“The fact remains that the Jones Act has been in place for nearly a century now and has successfully protected the rights of American sailors and brought strength and certainty to maritime commerce here in America,” he said.