The absence of any authority over ships sailing the high seas would lead to chaos. One of the essential adjuncts to the principle of freedom of the seas is that a ship must fly the flag of a single State and that it is subject to the jurisdiction of that State. A nation State, in exercising its sovereignty, can make the conscious economic decision not to exercise certain aspects of its authority as a flag State in order to attract tonnage that either does not, or cannot, conform to acceptable international standards.