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Thursday 15 December 2011

Fatigue at Sea - a Master's point of view



In response to the earlier article on the subject, which can be found here:-
http://matescabin.blogspot.com/2010/11/fatigue-at-sea-lllloooong-post.html


The Master in this case is in his 50s, owns and operates family as well as own businesses ashore INCLUDING a software company, is extremely competent and known as the best SAILING Master in the company he works in on gas carriers, is thoroughly computer literate, and comes out to sea because he enjoys it, always did.


When this man, at such an early age, wants to hang up his boots in disgust now, even though he is absolutely fit, one wonders - what's really happening out there on ships?


Here are his words, in context with my previous article on the subject:-


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With reference to the essay on fatigue by Veeresh Malik:-


All above factors are inherent. Only counter measure has been stipulation of rest & work (R/W) hour duration by  (STCW). This is only a monitoring mode and does not address the root cause of fatigue. Also, be frank, this record of R/W is easily fudged or maintained to satisfy the monitors. There are multiple electronic and satellite based ways to keep track of this if required - even taxi and bus drivers now utilise these.


To attack, this word used specifically because it is killing the industry, the root cause:-


A) Safe manning:- This certificate is taken by owners and operators in collusion with the authorities as the only requirement to meet statutory manning needs. Once issued, it is seldom, if ever, reviewed by the flag state, and hardly ever by the port state, which eventually is the ultimate sufferer in case of an episode or damage.

1) This certificate is issued on basis of a ship being new and all systems and automation being in perfect operation. It does not consider the obvious effects of the age of the vessel where by ageing the original designed systems have degenerated, additional workloads due to excessive maintainance becomes a fact of life, and increase in excessive breakdown maintainance makes for massive issues which cannot even be described since often they involve the "chewing gum and baling wire" kind of "jugaad".

2) This certificate does not consider trading patterns and port turnaround times. By rights, a safe manning certificate should take this into account for different trade patterns, just like load lines. As a matter of fact, one wonders what Plimsoll's fate would have been if he had been around today, probably not survived the shipowner's lobbies! 

3) Workloads increase in adverse weather conditions like storms, ice navigation, restricted area navigation, STS operations etc. This has become even worse with climate change. Here again, what are the realities are well known, but where are the solutions that take these into account?

4) Manning level is maintained and certified at bare minimum for owners to save manning cost. That is a known fact.  When owners talk about safety margin in every aspect, then why can't the required safe manning also be increased to take this consideration to maintain a little higher level of manning? What, after all, are we talking about, 3-5 more people per ship?



Leaving this judgement to ship-managers and ship's staff (who are under the mercy of owners) surely leads to operating a vessel under manned for intended voyages. Fudging of work and rest records is then a natural follow-through to satisfy the monitors (PSC, FSIS, Class etcetc.)

In a scenario where a master opines that:-



(1) The vessel though meeting safe manning requirements of certificate is under manned for the intended voyage and delays voyage to meet requirement, (2) And then delays sailing due crew not sufficiently rested . . . then who will stand behind the Master's decision when it is in conflict with owners interest, rather ensure his continued employment? This also can be extended to a crew member who refuses to work beyond the rest work hour requirement.

SOLUTIONS

*1. Raising safe manning levels as safety margin basis age, condition, voyage of vessel as well as data gathered by automatic means. If retro-fitting of lifeboat capacity and accommodation is not possible, then conditions of class to apply.
*2. Immunity to Master who excercises his overriding authourity in meeting rest work hour periods requirement for Indian flag vessels as well as foreign flag operating under Indian DGS RPS Regulations.

*3. Penalty on owner or operators for flouting work rest hour periods. waiver or additional loading of insurance cover in above cases.
*4. Provision by regulators to receive formal as well as anonymous complaints about overwork on ships.

*5. Taking this forward to vessels calling Indian ports, as is increasingly happening in developed countries also.


B) Reduce factors increasing workloads:-

The industry seems to be believe only in inspection , monitoring n data generation as means of ensuring safety which in turn has increased workloads and information overloads. This in itself is self cancelling. To give an example:-  when a tanker/gas carrier calls port, these are the least level of activities:-

1. Customs, Immigration, Health  formalities. even today in times of computers and paperless technologies at least 1 ream and more is wasted generating papers required and equal amount of time (Most companies have passed on this load to Master / Other officers after making radio officer redundant after the introduction of GMDSS)

2. Port safety inspection

3. PSC or FSI, Coast Guard Inspection

4. Internal or external audit

5. Vetting/SIRE inspection. (On average, owners require to maintain 3 valid vettings (validity 6 months) some maintain more than six) no two SIRE inspection or 2,3,4 can be concurrent this inspection.

6. Company shore staff, Inspection, General Inspection, etc most companies have not less  than once every 6 month.

7. Class Surveys.

8. Various extensive other logistic activities like store, crew change,customs rummaging , repairs, etc etc.




All this takes places concurrent to critical cargo operation where most staff is keeping six on six off watches. Ships staff is over stressed and overworked prior arrival, in port preparing and undergoing these activities. (I challenge any one to meet R/W norms in above scenario.)


So, fact remains, vessels enter and vessels sail out with crew fatigue.



Earlier ports calls were rejuvenating.  By a way that seafarers could step ashore. have a change of food, atmosphere etc. Today we dread coming to port, and that is the simple truth, even if we get shore-leave we are treated as not just easy prey but also as criminals.

C) Information overload:-



ISM has added additional burden of paper work at sea. Number of checklists, procedures, records are being generated. Who ever says that ISM does not mean excess paper work is being very economical with the truth. At every audit a new checklist and a new procedure is added without evaluating its neccesity. There is no questioning or enquiry to audit observations. Checklist content has swelled up beyond practicality or rationale. Common seamanship practices have been lost and have become only items of checklist.


If a duty officer has to really comply to adhere and fill these up sincerely, she or he wont have time to look out of bridge front. 90% of checklists are filled up post operation to satisfy the auditors. If that is to be the case, then the office may as well send trainee managers to sail after doing basic STCW and get short-term CDC as purser, so that simultaneously they understand what life on the ships they may manage is really about.


New generation of quality managers ashore with minimal or no practical experience at sea are adding more and more to this garbage. Same people will ring-up to find out what time-zone the ship or port is in, what is the distance between ports or even simple questions to which answers are there in their own computers or files or books behind their tables.


And then there is the overload due to paperwork. To give an example with operational SVDR, ECDIS,e/r dataloger, digital echosounder with 30 days memory, we still maintain manual sounding log, gps log, e/rm movements etcetcetc. Even bus conductors where still left, or drivers, have better equipment, often hand-held. These documents are required as documentry evidence that officer is monitoring positions, soundings, engine movements, weather, everything. Additionaly we have new checklists as coastal navigation, CL tss, watch t/o checklist, ocean passage checklist . . . passage plan is written as thesis copy-pasted often without understanding. Important info is buried under this garbage. In open sea, middle of Pacific you have wheel over position marked and written in passage plan for 15 degrees course alteration.

Do these not contribute to fatigue at sea?



So, will somebody come forward to audit this information overload? And not just somebody who has been ashore forever. We require comptent Masters and Chief Engineers, not just those with Certificates of Competency, with recent seagoing experience (atleast 12 months in the last 5 years) to  trim this mess created by novices becoming quality manager by virtue of being good with Excell or Word and having done a 100% passing rate auditors course on time-pass basis.

D) LACK OF RECREATIONAL FACILITIES ONBOARD:-

There is no regulation to ensure recreation for seafarers on board. How many ships have a gymnasium onboard? A laser projector coasts peanuts now, but how many ships have a good auditorium for the complement? How many ships are fitted with omni directional tv dish antenna? How many owners give free access to emails, or have internet onboard? if at all given what are address and size limitations?

New ships are being launched with lesser and lesser amineties. this lack of recreational facility adds to fatigue, and is amongst the most important because the ship is the seafarers work place as well as home.

e) Alcohol

I have not yet seen any concrete data as to accidents related to alcohol abuse at sea. We
hear about stray incidences like EXXON VALDEZ, where Master though having claimed  to be consuming beer was not actually conning the ship at the time of the grounding. He was in the radio room, communicating with charterers and owners. 



Alcohol world over is considered to be a validated social medium. Not being under influence of alcohol when taking a responsible job is understandable. But why he should he be deprived of it when he has leisure time? It is uderstandable for pilots who maximum remain in the air for 12 hours. Offshore rig staff work on 15 days on 15 days off. A seafarern on an average today sails for 6 continuous months. Depriving him of this relief as leisure is adding to the fatigue
levels.



This has entirely destroyed social life onboard. Those who have to drink will manage to do so, in secret and alone, and that is worse. There use to be exchange of jokes, light moments and healthy interaction in onboard bars. It used to be a place to share happiness and sorrow. 


Today  we see grim faces only in alleyways, with no social contacts with fellow shipmates.

Depriving seamen of alcohol has been a major contributing factor to fatigue at sea. There can be norms for controliing abuse but to enforce 0 alcohol ploicy is not right. Surprisingly, no seafarer organisation has objected to this practice of 0 alcohol even at the cocktail parties thrown after discussing these issues at the many seminars on the subject.



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Finally, fatigue is one part , but creating unbearable conditions for seafarers on ship is the larger one. They both go hand in hand. This is dissuading good talent to come out to sea. The quality
of youth coming out to sea is falling. In 70's there used to be competition and only cream got to see sea. Today we are getting the residue. Worst to note is the pride of being a seamen is being lost. 


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11 comments:

  1. dear veeresh,

    very little attention is paid to the seafarer’s point of view, regarding BURN OUT at sea.

    people ashore who rule us don’t even know the meaning of this term—

    punch into google search BURNED OUT VERSUS STRESSED OUT- VADAKAYIL

    I declined to accept my company’s seminar invitation two months ago.

    In the previous seminar the SQE guy was telling a huge audience of 4 stripers and 3 stripers how to FUDGE the rest hours software programme –by inserting Masters and Chief Engineer’s names,in the blanks bars.

    This was the last straw , and so I got up and told him off , which created quite a stir “ You have gone too far out on the limb. You don’t have the foggiest of idea what it takes to run a parcel chemical tanker. And on my ship I do NOT allow my chief engineer to keep watches!”

    as long as the master on board a ship is scared to address the fatigue problem, due to lack of courage in his own convictions –things will pretty much be the same, never mind the MLC-2006.

    like you said, good bonding and friendships at sea in our younger days , came out of sharing a beer on board— despite very little cultural differences..

    We have tea parties now.

    brgds
    capt ajit vadakayil
    ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. dear veeresh,

    very little attention is paid to the seafarer’s point of view, regarding BURN OUT at sea.

    people ashore who rule us don’t even know the meaning of this term—

    punch into google search BURNED OUT VERSUS STRESSED OUT- VADAKAYIL

    I declined to accept my company’s seminar invitation two months ago.

    In the previous seminar the SQE guy was telling a huge audience of 4 stripers and 3 stripers how to FUDGE the rest hours software programme –by inserting Masters and Chief Engineer’s names,in the blank bars.

    This was the last straw , and so I got up and told him off , which created quite a stir “ You have gone too far out on the limb. You don’t have the foggiest of idea what it takes to run a parcel chemical tanker. And on my ship I do NOT allow my chief engineer to keep watches!”

    as long as the master on board a ship is scared to address the fatigue problem, due to lack of courage in his own convictions –things will pretty much be the same, never mind the MLC-2006.

    like you said, good bonding and friendships at sea in our younger days in SCI came out of sharing a beer on board—despite very little cultural differences..

    We have tea parties now.

    brgds
    capt ajit vadakayil
    ..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Comment received directly:-

    Let all the around seafarers take a one year sabbatical! They can afford it! Till they get their proper working conditions and beer or whatever! You think shore people officers politicians and others who are supposed to run the f'ing country do NOT drink?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another comment received pointed out that two more reasons for fatigue onboard were not included:-

    1) Piracy and attack, now a global problem, not just Horn of Africa/Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean.

    2) Fatigue while on leave due to multiple courses, especially for those from non-metro cities.

    This shall be addressed soon, thank you for pointing it out. Also, it is symbolic of what this profession has become, that apart from a few, most people have to write in requesting identity be protected.

    What have those who are supposed to be caretakers of this profession, supposed to make things better than they were when they took over, done? Have they been trustees or fence that eats the crop?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Safe Manning certificate is issued only considering manning requirements for "Safe Navigation" of the vessel. It does not take into consideration that seamen have other operational & maintenance duties and the associated workload.

    As Capt. Malik points out, operational and maintenance depend on the age, condition of the vessel and the type of trade she is in.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Anonymous at 0854/17dec'11 . . . thank you for your update, exactly my point too. rgds/VM (ps: Just for the record, I'm not a Captain, never got down for my Masters, but can't seem to edit your response without deleting it . . .)

    ReplyDelete
  7. True and False.

    I myself have gone through this many times. And we can solve this problem. However, whenever we tried to consolidate data, we faced the problem from the ship itself. We have been able to get the makers and many authorities to work out the problems from makers. Similarly, if we consolidate data of ship's working schedule, I am sure we can make the IMO to take note of this. For this, the work load of the ship should be consolidated and projected properly. It happens that people do complain about extra work load, but unablt to present it and then the whole case fizzles out. We have been able to get extra watch-keeping officers and maintenance personal by propely presenting the work-load - not just the rest hours sheets. Of course this happens in major shipping companies. But if all are able to project the correct scenarios, I am sure IMO will take note of it. If just complaining without preparing the project report, then it will be taken has whinning by crew - because in every sphere of life "people complain of more work and less pay"

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Anonymous at 11:28/18dec'11:- thank you for your very valid point of view, which deserves to be high-lighted. The solution could be to have independent time-work study observors onboard who could collect and collate and present the raw data in the form required. However, having said that, how does anybody scientifically measure and present the data on fatigue due to issues like lack of facilities in the accomodation, piracy, excess communication and most of all - the new point brought out by somebody that the maximum stress related fatigue is brought about by this whole thing of being a contract to contract sub-contractor onboard answering to multiple often conflicting demands of owner, manager, charterer, port law flag law and personal issues?

    Need to figure that out,too.

    Regards/VM

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear VM,

    The fatigue - performance related data has been scientifically tested everywhere.

    Regarding facilities in accomodation is generally crew related - example, one nationality crew put it to wall clock in cabin. However, basic ameninties has to be provided and PSCs and vetting guys are including the same in their inspections. Ofcourse, we can't demand a 60" 3D TV onboard. (We had problem of ice-cream to be 95 gms instead of 100 gms and crew were unhappy - thus leading to stress to C/O and 2/E) :). Excess communication is a problem onboard and ashore - we tackled on ship by being precise and combining many items together. However, with the advent of email, it has become a nuisance - as everybody wants immediate reply. Email itself is not a problem - ships make 2 or 3 connections a day. But the amount of repeated information required is a nuisance. Delegation helps a little here. However, to calculate - this can be put to company as below:
    - Noon Message, generally calculation is more or less same for each item. However typing - 4 minutes for charterers, 5 minutes for managers, 12 minutes for sub-charterers for a similar kind of message - total 21 minutes. (One company realised this and have tried to sort this out - don't know the current status).

    I will give an example of cosolidating data - Singapore is one of the most tiring ports - you have been keeping piracy watches, then stores, bunkers, etc with short port stay takes it toll. Also crew wants to go ashore for shopping. What we did was that we worked out the whole work and the man-hours required to complete with jobs which can overlap. And then man-hours of each crew allocated. This clearly showed the picture to management. They either postpones some of the jobs or sometimes additional crew was provided if the run was short or ports frequent.

    The problem comes - when crew has complained, but when asked what is their job and how much time they have been spending on it and how - nobody wanted to answer that. We did it like this - breakdown at sea, everytime C/E is called from E/R to bridge to update, will delay the repairs by 1/2 hr ~1 hr. The company agreed and instead, C/E will update the master over phone from E/R and master will communicate to office. Worked well. The space here is not sufficient for putting all details.
    rgds/rks

    Another point of fatigue comes from attendance to any problem by shore workshop. I, as C/E always tried to keep the shore attendance to minimum - we worked out the solutions onboard. The result was that company was happy and so were cerw onboard.

    Also, we worked with delegation - mostly, either C/E pushes the work to somebody junior or takes the full load himself. With the work-plan and manu-hours calculated, this helped us to reduce our workload and also we were able to convince company that everybody is doing their part on ship.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Regarding, conflicting demands, you are right. This issue has been brought to IMO. However, like many cases, the regulatations are more or less controlled by big countries. If crew get united and do bring it to the notice of all, things move - but very slowly (snalis pace).

    Owners, managers and charterers can be handled by putting their demands to managers. Or telling the owners and charterers about the feasibility. Dealing with human is the most difficult part - with each persona ego, emotions being at diffirent level. As one master put about passenger ships - this is the only cargo which have lot of complaints :) This kind of stress is there in all sphere of life.

    The bottom line is simple - if ship staff don't fight for themselves, nobody will. I was given a nickname (can't put it here) owners for fighting for all this :), but they still liked me because their ships ran safer and economically and all these troubles were documented well.
    rgds/rks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. There are different ways in which we can prevent, lessen, or alleviate the problem of fatigue. The problem goes down to implementing these regulations and policies and strictly enforcing them. Thank you for posting!

    ReplyDelete