The israelis And russians do it better

More about piracy here.

http://moneylife.in/article/piracy-on-the-high-seas-how-do-israel-and-russia-combat-this-menace/14705.html


Piracy on the high seas: How do Israel and Russia combat this menace?
March 14, 2011 03:19 PM |
Veeresh Malik

A number of foreign flagships have their own armed personnel on board, they call them “seamen”, and organise documents for them from the flag state. But India has made it extremely difficult for armed personnel to sail on board Indian merchant  flagships

In the world of shipping, flags and nationalities often have interchangeable meaning, and it is not unusual for ship-owners and ship-operators to not just burn the candle on both ends, but also cut the candle up into small pieces, burn it at every end, and then burn it lengthwise too.

The history of almost every major shipping company is littered with evidence and anecdotes of what could best be called "extreme free enterprise"-slave trade, narcotics, arms, sanctions, colonial ambitions-nothing is or was impossible.

A roll-call of some of the major shipping interests around today, especially the 'Old Money' sorts from Western and Middle Europe, will show how as recently as during World War II, fleets were literally divided up to serve on both sides. That's nothing new. Somebody has to win, it made sense to cover all bets-this is also called hedging.

Some day soon, we shall also discuss derivates in the same context.

And of course, yesterday's gunrunners making their futures in and around Africa and Asia are today's corporate darlings, with shipping histories conveniently ignoring the truths. The only loyalty is towards turning over a faster profit, at any cost, especially when new flags can be rented by the hour.

Mongolia's maritime ambitions are the latest example, where anything goes.

So, in a way, why blame the poor Somalians-after all, if they were wearing suits tailored from bespoke outlets and could just knot their ties better than they do their lungis, they would not really look very different-and the flag would not really matter. Every European nation worth its colonial history has a few dozen flags lying spare here and there in the rest of the world-so what if they had to let go a Hong Kong or Singapore?

Here a fact: reading up on the small nation-states that still owe allegiance to the victors of the World War II, ostensibly fought on the basis of "freedom for all", is indeed extremely revealing. Thing is, there are so many of these little-little countries, mostly islands here and there, that it is quite a long read.

But it helps to understand shipping, and to figure out why shipping companies love them, too. It may be a bit difficult to memorise and sing so many new National Anthems, but hey, they can always buy a CD. Here's another fact: newer the country, easier the Flag of Convenience, and often prettier the flag.

But there are always exceptions. For some people, for some flags, never forget. And the Israelis stand very, very tall in this. In fact, their flags are the tallest in the world. Today, their ships sail past the pirate areas of the Indian Ocean, without challenge. A friend who was a Master on one of their Zim Line ships relates an episode of how while other ships would creep past in full black-out conditions, they would barrel through the piracy areas with all lights on and with floodlights shining on the funnel as well as name and port of registry. Every time. Nobody knows if the pirates out there can read Hebrew, so the name is also painted on in English.

Into this world we bring our gentle and loyal readers a small touch, a faint whisper of a part of a chapter in a huge book actually, of the amazing real-life story of the Ofer Brothers. Apart from owning the Israeli shipping behemoth, Zim, the Ofers are also known to own and control Tanker Pacific (one of the largest oil-tanker operators in the world) as well as a few other shipping interests-including the companies that owned the St James Park and the Asian Glory, that were hijacked and released in 2009.

One version is here:

http://www.oferg.com/Aboutus/History/tabid/125/Default.aspx

Another version is here:

http://www.oferg.com/Aboutus/History/tabid/125/Default.aspx

And here too, the third version, where you will notice that our old friends-the banks and the insurance companies-make their now usual grand appearance, as private investors too.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/the-shakshuka-system-a-view-from-2009-1.271235

But this report is about piracy and Israelis. For that, please and kindly look carefully at the timeline below:

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This is a statement issued by the operators after the release of their ship, the St James Park, mid-May 2009. "The company does not wish to jeopardise the safety of crew members held on its second hijacked vessel the Asian Glory or other vessels and crews that are still being held by Somali pirates in the area," Zodiac said in a statement. (The vessel St James Park, with a British flag, was hijacked on 28 December 2008 and released on 14 May 2009, with Indian, Pakistani and Bulgarian crew).

This is the statement issued by the operators after the release of their ship, the MV Asian Glory in mid-June 2009-"Zodiac said in a statement on its website that all crewmembers were well, but declined to provide further details." (MV Asian Glory, with a British flag, was hijacked in early January 2009 and released in mid-June 2009-its crew consisted of Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Indians and Romanians.)

But there has been no statement issued by the owners or operators, as yet, pertaining to the hijack and release of their ship the MV Arctic Sea, from the North Sea, in highly-controlled Western Europe waters. On voyage from Finland to Algeria with "timber", but suspected to have been carrying weapons likely destined for certain Arab interests. (MV Arctic Sea, Malta flag, primarily Canadian owned-beneficial owners unclear-was hijacked in late July 2009 and "found" in mid-August 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean).

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The buzz in the maritime world in India and elsewhere has been loud and clear after this-Ofer's ships will simply not be touched again. In fact, any Israeli interests will not be touched again in the Indian Ocean piracy areas. Buzz also has it that on the waterfront in Puntland and the rest of the Horn of Africa, word is out that you don't mess with the Star of David, or those whom they protect.

So you now have MSC, (Med Shipping of Geneva, Switzerland, another shipping company with a history of its own, operating from that great maritime nation, Switzerland) the largest operators of cruise ships, openly declaring that their "security staff" was and is Israeli.

Here's another episode: April 2009, the MSC Melody with a "large number of passengers onboard" repelled an attack by boats and boats of pirates about 500 miles off Somalia. Apparently it was a planned attack. Initial news reports spoke about the ship taking successful evasive action, but truth is that the security forces onboard used firearms "and more" to drive off the attackers, and then actually doing some more too-which cannot and will not be repeated here.

But put it this way, there are videos circulating on the Internet of how security men from another nation captured some pirates, released the hostage crew who were being forced to operate the mother ship, and then, what the heck, tied the pirates up and then blew up the ship.

Some people got very, very, wet-and unhappy. Russian ships don't get attacked in Somalia any more, either, for some time now.

So this is what the MSC Melody's ship-owner's statement said: "Security work onboard our cruise ships is very popular with young Israelis just out of the army, the job is seen as a chance to save money and travel at the same time. Hundreds of veterans and reservists of elite Israel Defence Force units, including Naval commandos, are employed in security work on cruise ships and oil rigs in areas subject to pirate attacks."

And in the bargain, another amazing factoid is emerging in Africa-the Israelis are fast becoming important players in all forms of commercial enterprises in and around the emerging African countries. One country, (actually three of them), is reported to now permit nuclear tests as well as Armed Forces "training" on their territories. (South Africa stopped in the post-apartheid era, that is what one understands, and Angola is not all that big).

The Chinese are now facing competition, because cheap labour costs the same for both of them, especially if it is from Third World countries. And most of all, Israeli interest ships continue to flow through safely-which is more than what many other countries can claim.

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Where is India on something like this?

1) All sorts of important people in Delhi are debating on whether Indian ships should have armed guards on them or not. Popular sentiment fashioned on some old traditions going back to, where else, the British, has it that merchant ships should not be armed. This is usually after lunch and before dinner, after which they all go home to their well-protected homes, mostly with heavily armed guards outside.

2) The Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai, in its own brilliance has made it extremely difficult for ex-Indian Navy personnel to sail onboard Indian merchant flag ships. The background of this is somewhere else totally, and involves Supreme Court judgements, so it will not be discussed here, other than a single simple comment: "own goal". Or better, still, "self
hit-wicket."

3) Foreign flagships which have their own armed personnel onboard declare the security people as "seamen", and organise documents for them from the flag state. The actual arms are either declared and kept in bonded locker stores, or simply, sometimes, not declared, that's also life. Releasing a ship from official pirates in India is easier than getting it released from unofficial pirates in Somalia.

4) The ITF, BIMCO, Intertanko, Interbulk and the International Chamber of Shipping are meeting in London again next week. Apparently they plan to issue another joint appeal, after lunch and before dinner, and then launch another Web campaign. However, they are also not in favour of placing armed guards on merchant ships-though this is also being debated. To the best of my knowledge, the Indian government is not represented here this time, though some other Indians in shipping are.

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There is no too ways about this-piracy at sea is now a very important component of what is increasingly being referred to as "MCO". (Multinational Crime Organisation). History teaches us that the New World was conquered by buccaneers and they were supported brilliantly by their backers-state, church or commerce. Things really haven't changed that much lately, either.

Hijacked ship with captured crew attacks Spanish naval warship . . .

Good heavens! So now, first you get pirated or hijacked, then you get forced to use your ship to try and ram into a naval ship, which then fires back at you.


http://www.eaglespeak.us/2010/11/somali-pirates-using-big-mother-ship-to.html



The Izumi, a Japanese cargo ship captured in October 2010, was used to try and ram into the Spanish warship Infanta Cristina, which was escorting a merchant ship in the area, off the East Coast of Somalia on the 14/15 of November 2010.

Read the full report . . . amazing.

HE-Alert - the magazine for safety on ships

Now also available online at:-

http://www.he-alert.org/index.asp

Here's my short response to an article on a subject dear to me . . . read on:-


Richard Sadler's column (Alert/issue No. 23/May 2010) makes some very valid points on the relationship between finance/financiers and shipping/seafarers.

Here's my point of view, and please don't put it aside as "3rd World" because of my physical/geographical location on date - as an ex-seafarer who has been a shipbroker, into politics, as a freight forwarder, been part of bringing unitised cargo inland into India, on television as an anchor, within all forms of media and headed the Asia operations of a Silicon Valley tech company in the business of transaction management for 3 industries - financial, gaming and preventive defence - as well as fathered two investment bankers - and so I do think a bit of world view comes from New Delhi, too. Please also excuse the syntax and grammar - for the last one year I have been at it trying to also revive my CoC issued 1980 and that has been an experience, too.

1) The biggest flaw is that the seafarer is seen by everybody ashore as an over-worked donkey - which she or he is. The rest of the world has moved on, not just in reduced working hours, but the seafarer is still flogged on 4-on/8-off, or worse. Between IMO, ILO, STCW, ILO 147, ILO 163, ILO 180 and now ILO Super - everybody knows that the seafarer they visit on the ship is still subjected to something called "not undermining the authority of the Master" - in this day and age. The first thing that needs to be done, therefore, is to bring down working hours onboard, especially for deck watchkeepers, by the simple method of adopting a Master + non-watchkeeping First Mate, and 3 independent watch-keepers. At the very least.

2) The training for seafarers is still stuck in arcane subjects like magnetic poles, theory of gyro and other ancient art forms - when what is needed for interaction with shore staff is more a PR cum legal person. An average seafarer by the time he is 30 or so has spent more than 4 years learning about stuff that is going to be of no use to him, while the same time could be spent better in understanding the simpler art of collision avoidance, pollution prevention and acquiring basic economic skillsets. That's the next thing that needs to change. You want respect from your banker - you have to understand what he is saying.

3) Industry meaning shipowner - and I have spent some quality time lately with shipowners as well as taken part in piracy/hijack release discussions - considers the seafarer on board as a standing expense - whether alive or dead. As long as the CoC and other certification is in order keeping the ship seaworthy, it does not matter - the seafarer is a commodity to the shipowner. Barring passenger and cruise ships, it is better to treat the seafarer as somebody who eats too much food, and then cribs about everything.

4) Industry meaning cargo interests, port state staff, insurance the rest of them - in my part of the world, treats the seafarer as somebody from the bottom rung, like the hapless truckdriver. Somebody to hold as hostage for a period of time at no cost to anybody other than the shipowner, so why feed the seafarer in the period ad interim. For "food" read salaries, and other expenses. I have heard shipowners crib about paying salaries to seafarers who have spent months onboard ships arrested, hijacked or similar - or been jailed for alleged crimes committed while on duty.

5) On crew shore leaves, and the comparison to airline crew, very valid points. Where do we start - should seafarers demand shore leave as a right? Good heavens, even earned leave is deemed to be a "privilege" extended at the mercy of the owner, so what cost shore leave? So
would owners now start insisting that charter parties include clauses on shore leave for seafarers, or ensure additional "bonuses" in lieu, is that a thought the time for which is very overdue?
What I can not agree with, Sir, is the approach that we leave it to the bankers to administer these changes. Having been a vendor to the banking industry for the last decade, I would suggest that change in inertia level is one thing they hate. What we have to do is look within. Take, for example, the whole wonderful concept of GMDSS. Great. But how on earth did it evolve into something which did away with a Radio officer onboard, when in actual fact we need a Super Elecronics and Communication person on every Merchant Navy ship?

The cure, Sir, is from within. It is the seafarer who needs to say, OK, I am a Master, and I consider this ship unseaworthy if it does not have at least 1 more watch-keeping officer - and he then needs to work with the Port State, since the Flag State and its bankers sure will not assist.

Sincerely,
Veeresh Malik
New Delhi
India

(Courtesy of Alert! - The International Maritime Human Element Bulletin)

You, and technology onboard - whither goest thou?

How about this - if you have a gmail account, you will now be able to make free phone calls from your mobile phone number to any mobile phone number, anywhere in the world, for free if local and not more than 2 cents a minute for international. This may soon be available on any ship which has internet connectivity.

Will this increase or decrease your workload on the ship?

Or this - sitting on your computer, from anywhere, you can make a vast variety of Indian Government related payments - taxes, train tickets, car insurance, highway toll recharge, postal work, provident fund management, pension updates, the works. (Actually, correct that, anything but any payments related to our very own Directorate General of Sleeping, sorry, Shipping, and its Moribund, sorry, Mercantile Marine Department, where we still have to stand in lines at selected fixed times in dingy rooms with small windows to pray to the mini-gods behind the counters to be allowed the privilege of paying by demand draft or treasury challans in quadruplicate and talking to them.) So now also look forward to a time where instead of payments being made on behalf of the owners by agents, the ship can release funds directly to the authorities, and save on costs.

Will this increase or decrease your workload on the ship?

The more things change, the more there is a chance that some of us who feel that the door was shut after we got on, will try to freeze at some point in time or space. Our time was the best time. Any change or difference, even improvement, is viewed as an increase in workload.

But meanwhile, on a ship not too far away from you and me, things are evolving and changing even more rapidly. As an example:-

On the bridge you now have electronic ECDIS charts that are capable of being updated courtesy the internet and communications equipment that can handle most things automatically. Down below, in the engine control room, a variety of redundancies has taken care of much maintenance and possible equipment failures. As far as new-age technologies go, the shipping industry has been right there, ahead of the rest of the world, for centuries now - and that's a simple fact. Not the latest is the use of neural netoworking technology to help predict problems. Wait a bit more, and they will soon second guess your inner most thoughts, too. The technology already exists, it is just the cost and the resistance to change, both of which will be overcome ashore in due course.

What takes longer to change is the attitude of the man on board, and worse, the attitude of his ex-seafaring contemporaries ashore. One has encountered people in offices ashore who will not walk to a filing cabinet in the next room or open the data on their own computers, choosing instead to fire off one more email to the seafarer on board, content in his knowledge that mail from office is still treated with respect - and fear - on ships.

Which is also the biggest complaint onbboard ships against new technology. The loudest wail one hears is that all this technology causes more workload. This is like blaming the booze inside a bottle - instead of blaming the person who bought and drank it. The technology is waiting to be used, but many of us onboard will not do so or take the effort to master it  - and here's an example from the '70s when I was a cadet.

The company wanted copies of the log books for some voyages gone past, and we had a brand new photo-copying machine onboard, which in my unasked for opinion as a cadet was more than enough. However, the Master was of the opinion that since they had copied logbooks into logbooks in his days, the same needed to be done, and so it was done. Sitting in the same ship's office with a brand new photocopying machine, yours truly spent all his spare time copying the log book by hand. For weeks.

Went to the office a few months later, as it so happened I carried the old log books with me, and was asked why did I do it, why did I copy everything down by hand, they needed photo-copies.

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Today all one hears is complaints about how people ashore, be they port, state, flag or company, keep demanding all sorts of information. There are those Masters and Chief Engineers who will make heavy weather of each request for information. And then there was this email from a batchmate, one of the better Masters at sea, if I may say so, with varied experience ashore, who said this:-

There is tsunami of paperwork and we have to accept - NO work is done without doing the paperwork, even when you visit the toilet. The problem regarding paperwork is because we compare them with our early days of command and due to total dependency of shore staff to feed them with all information. Infact I have now developed a checklist and reporting system, which if sent to me by masters from ship then I or even my wife can monitor ship's performance from my bedroom. So much spoon-feeding and uncalled for reporting which the inexperienced office staff wants is tremendous and most of incoming messages request for response ASAP, including yours, maybe. So, now a master is a glorified Head Clerk / PRO, who is expected to be sitting infront of the computer all the time during the Head Office working hours, otherwise there you get a phone call! Life is different onboard after ISM, after the "overriding authority" said to be given to master by companies and after company various departments depend on various reportings - daily/weekly/fortnightly/monthly/quarterly/Pre-Arrival Port/ In-Port Report/Departure Report/ etc and etc..... I can go on and on. I have the basic computer skills if not more, but can't tide over the paperwork tsunami very easily. But systems can be made and placed in position, if you learn to carry the shore staff with you.

That's the key phrase - at sea with all this technology at your disposal you are now no longer a ship far away - you are an extension of the commercial part of things. Which is the real truth - the ship is out there to make a profit for the stakeholders, and all the technology provided is supposed to assist you. Get used to it.

So either you learn to master it, or you move on, and make way for a generation of younger people who will do so. Luckily, there is a shortage, otherise can you imagine what would be the fate of Masters and Chief Engineers who have not bothered to upgrade their computer and technology as well as information gathering, dissemination and public relations/protocol skillsets?

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It is high time that an infotech usage course, maybe a module teaching seafarers more than the usage of things like word and excel, was made part of the whole certification process.

Here's an article published by me at MONEYLIFE, referring to the commercial aspects of claims and counter-claims when cargo ships meet accidents.

This one was with reference to the MSC CHITRA / KHALIJA III collision off Mumbai Harbour.

http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/8064.html

It is always sad to see ships collide, break their backs, capsize, and sink, especially if they are so close to port. Here major media make a circus out of what is actually one of the saddest spectacles.

The MSC Chitra / Khalija III collision outside Mumbai Harbour once again brings into focus the sheer neglect of maritime matters on the Indian coast by the various organisations responsible.

(read on)

http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/8064.html

Mariners Welfare Guild - and you

Want to do something to help improve things for seafarers?

Take a look here:-

http://www.marinerswelfareguild.com/

And then, if you agree, join.

Costs nothing but a wee bit of time.

Indian seafarer jobhunting feedback for owners/operators/managers

Anybody got any more ideas or comments? Identities shall be protected . . .

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Here's a collection of feedback from seafarers in context with their life at sea, as well as when they visit the shipping company offices ashore:-

# Ship owners and managers should send more inhouse information, especially as pertains to casaulty reports and also company's internal issues, so that those at sea can remain informed.

# Ship manager and owner offices must have better facilities for seafarers. Sitting in open plan offices discussing terms and conditions is not good. Seafarers must be called into small conference rooms for all pre-joining facilities where those who have business with them can come to them instead of seafarers standing in front of clerks like slaves.

# The first point of contact is usually a security guard, who is familiar with regular shore staff, but usually disrespectful to the seafarer who comes occasionally. This needs to be resolved. Seafarers should be accompanies into offices by specially designated people who will coordinate other issues too.

# General waiting areas for seafarers must be cleaner, as well as provide full facilities for refreshments, beverages and cleaning up. Toilets, especially, must be of high standard. If shipping companies want their offiers to behave like officers, then they need to treat their officers like officers, too.

# Ship owners and managers are sending seafarers to look after investments costing millions of dollars. But at the shipping offices, this simple fact is lost on especially the juniormost staff, who need to be educated and taught as well as trained to be aware that they are there to serve.

# Wages are often the subject of verbal agreements, which are then broken, so that needs to be sorted out. In addition, companies must inform prospective hires that this is the number, gross salary, without trying to fool people with offers of hazy bonuses, and "tax saving" schemes.

# Seafarers too should rely on guidance from their own tax consultants on the best way to save tax. With so many changes coming by way of NRI status and service tax, seafarers working on contract need to be very clear well in advance on possible tax implications.

# Most of all, in the forthcoming days of seafarer shortages, companies must bring in programmes to look after the families of seafarers at sea. It usually will not need anything more than outsourcing such work to specialist agencies, including hospitals.

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Full report on the Hanjin Gotherburd/Chang Tong collision

Seldom have I seen such amazing photographs as these. A container ship at 25 knots slices through the midships of a bulk carrier, both were in an end-on situation, clear visibility, classic case of faster vessel altering to port in a TSS, while the slower bulker alters to starboard.

http://www.bsu-bund.de/cln_005/nn_101744/SharedDocs/pdf/EN/Investigation__Report/2008/Investigation__Report__450__07,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/Investigation_Report_450_07.pdf

Worth the visit, if only for the photos.

Fatigue at Sea (LLLLOOOOng POST)

Many decades ago, there was once an uproar over the quality of food on trains as well as separately, the quality of service by telephone operators in India. Since both were Government monopolies, the matter went all the way to the top, and in due course of time, a very precise response was returned, which said that, inter-alia, basis the number of passengers who travelled everyday and the number of phone calls made everyday, the number of complaints was very small. Which further then implied that all was fine. All is well.

Mathematically, this was certainly correct, but all of us know what the quality of railway food and telephone servcies used to be like - regardless of whether we made a complaint or not. All was certainly not well, but most of us chose to keep quiet and ignore matters, suffering the consequences.

Likewise, there is absolutely no co-relation between the number of hours worked at sea in a year by all seafarers and the number of complaints for fatigue by a seafarer, truth be told - if your shipmate prefers a medical visit with a complaint for "fatigue", then other than being laughed out of the smoke-room, he will also probably never be given a job again.

So, when I first discussed this subject of fatigue with batchmates and friends in the ship-management and ship-owning business, I was told variously that:-

a) It was not macho to be concerned about complaints of fatigue on board; after all, life ashore was not easy either, and life on ships was not for the weak and faint-hearted.

b) Any attempt to even try to quantify actual working conditions on board would misfire, since other nationalities were willing to send their people to work even longer hours.

At the root of everything, ofcourse, is the rather controversial 98 hours per week status. As has often been reported, the Merchant Navy is probably the only profession in the world where people have to falsify their work-sheets to show that they have not worked over 98 hours. That, incidentally, is a higher number than most airline crew end up working in the course of a month.

So here are some more fatigue at sea statistics, gathered from a variety of sources:-

# The average sleep duration for mariners at sea is 6.6 hours per 24-hour cycle, in the course of a typical 4 month contract.

# Watchkeepers at sea obtain their sleep in fragments, median time achieved here is less than 5 hours at a stretch.

# The 4-8 watchkeeper has it worst, getting less than a total of 4 hours of sleep for about a quarter of the days on board.
(Source:- Work hours, sleep patterns and fatigue among merchant marine personnel:-

THOMAS F. SANQUIST 1 MIREILLE RABY 1 ALICE FORSYTHE 1 ANTONIO B. CARVALHAIS 2

1 Battelle Seattle Research Centre, Seattle, WA, USA 2 United States Coast Guard Research and Development Centre Groton, CT, USA )

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Getting straight to the views of governance in India, here is what Mr. P.H. Krishnan, deputy director-general of shipping, said to the newspaper DNA, on the high stress levels and disasters at sea:-

Q:- Every-time there is an accident (now mv Rezzak has gone missing off the Turkish coast) on the high seas, there are theories about how high-stress levels among sailors act as a contributing factor to the disasters. Is there a direct correlation?

A:- Yes, there is. Sailors on board merchant vessels remain on the high seas for six months at a stretch. Internal surveys have revealed that there is a high degree of fatigue among a 16- or 17-member ship crew. Also, there is a dearth of effective co-ordination and communication among the crew as they come from various ethnic backgrounds. All the above factors cumulatively lessen response capabilities in the sailors in times of emergencies, leading to the heightened possibility of disasters due to poor manoeuvring and navigation of the ship.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_ship-crews-face-high-degree-of-fatigue-at-sea_1152952

So now we know what the Government, the same one that ratifies conventions leading to 98 hour working weeks on ships, has to say.

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According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) "fatigue can be defined in many ways. However, it is generally described as a state of feeling tired, weary, or sleepy that results from prolonged mental or physical work, extended periods of anxiety, exposure to harsh environments, or loss of sleep. The result of fatigue is impaired performance and diminished alertness."

and

DEFINING FATIGUE:-

There is no universally accepted technical definition for fatigue. However, common to all the definitions is degradation of human performance. The following definition is found in IMO’s MSC/Circ.813/MEPC/Circ.330, List of Human Element Common terms: “A reduction in physical and/or mental capability as the result of physical, mental or emotional exertion which may impair nearly all physical abilities including: strength; speed; reaction time; coordination; decision making; or balance.”

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Some inputs from the Exxon Valdez case, now over two decades old, details of which are available free of copyright on the Internet.

One of the findings of the Exxon Valdez (1989) investigation conducted by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was that "there were no rested deck officers on the Exxon Valdez available to stand the navigation watch when the vessel departed from the Alyeska Terminal." It is interesting at this time to note that regulations already existed mandating rest periods for watchstanders. With this in mind, the NTSB report recommended "rigorous" enforcement of current regulations concerning watchstander time off, as well as increasing manning levels . . . this report also addressed the growing tendency toward reducing crew sizes by stating the "Exxon Shipping Company manning policies do not adequately consider the increase in workload caused by reduced manning."

It is interesting to observe that the concept of fatigue weighs so heavily in recent maritime accident investigations that almost all reports on accidents at sea invariably contain a section on fatigue, even if fatigue played little or no role.

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Adopted on 20 November, 1973, IMO Resolution A.285(8), Recommendation on Basic Principles and Operational Guidance Relating to Navigation Watchkeeping, only briefly mentioned fatigue in Annex A(b)(ii) when talking about fitness for duty by stating that "The watch system shall be such that the efficiency of the watchkeeping members of the crew is not impaired by fatigue. Accordingly the duties shall be so organized that the first watch at the commencement of a voyage and the subsequent relieving watches are sufficiently rested and otherwise fit when going on duty."

That sounds very nice. But in actual fact, what does it mean?

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IMO issued Resolution A.772(18) on 4 November 1993, entitled Fatigue Factors in Manning and Safety, which was an entire 4 page document dedicated to defining fatigue, identifying specific shipboard related fatigue factors and tasking shipboard management with specific responsibilities in mitigating these factors.

http://www.imo.org/includes/blastDataOnly.asp/data_id%3D2476/1014.pdf

It must be recognized that the seafarer is a captive of the work environment. Firstly, the average seafarer spends between three to six months working and living away from home, on a moving vessel that is subject to unpredictable environmental factors (i.e. weather conditions). Secondly, while serving on board the vessel, there is no clear separation between work and recreation. Thirdly, today’s crew is composed of seafarers from various nationalities and backgrounds who are expected to work and live together for long periods of time. The operational aspects associated with shipping become more complex compared with standard industries, for reasons such as: variety of ship-types, pattern and length of sea passage, port-rotation, and length of time a ship remains in port. All these aspects present a unique combination of potential causes of fatigue.

The most common causes of fatigue known to seafarers are lack of sleep, poor quality of rest, stress and excessive workload.

A. Crew-specific Factors

The crew-specific factors are related to lifestyle behavior, personal habits and individual attributes. However, fatigue varies from one person to another and its effects are often dependent on the particular activity being performed.

The Crew-specific Factors include the following:

• Sleep and Rest:- - Quality, Quantity and Duration of Sleep, - Sleep Disorders/Disturbances, - Rest Breaks
• Biological Clock/Circadian Rhythms
• Psychological and Emotional Factors, including stress:- - Fear, - Monotony and Boredom
• Health:- - Diet, - Illness
• Stress:- - Skill, knowledge and training as it relates to the job, - Personal problems, - Interpersonal relationships
• Ingested Chemicals:- - Alcohol, - Drugs (prescription and non-prescription), - Caffeine
• Age
• Shiftwork and Work Schedules
• Workload (mental/physical)
• Jet Lag

B. Management Factors (ashore and aboard ship)

The Management Factors relate to how ships are managed and operated. These factors can potentially cause stress and an increased workload, ultimately resulting in fatigue. These factors include:

1. Organizational Factors

• Staffing policies and Retention, Role of riders and shore personnel, Paperwork requirements, Economics, Schedules-shift, Overtime, Breaks; Company culture and Management style, Rules and Regulations, Resources, Upkeep of vessel, Training and Selection of crew.

2. Voyage and Scheduling Factors

• Frequency of port calls, Time between ports, Routing, Weather and Sea condition on route, Traffic density on route, Nature of duties/workload while in port.

C. Ship-specific Factors

These factors include ship design features that can affect/cause fatigue. Some ship design features affect workload (i.e. automation, equipment reliability), some affect the crew’s ability to sleep, and others affect the level of physical stress on the crew (i.e. noise, vibration, accommodation spaces, etc.). The following list details ship-specific factors:

• Ship design, Level of Automation, Level of Redundancy, Equipment reliability, Inspection and Maintenance, Age of vessel, Physical comfort in work spaces, Location of quarters, Ship motion, Physical comfort of accommodation spaces.

D. Environmental Factors

Exposure to excess levels of environmental factors, e.g. temperature, humidity,excessive noise levels, can cause or affect fatigue. Long-term exposure may even cause harm to a person’s health. Furthermore, considering that environmental factors may produce physical discomfort, they can also cause or contribute to the disruption of sleep.

Ship motion is also considered an environmental factor. Motion affects a person’s ability to maintain physical balance. This is due to the extra energy expended to maintain balance while moving, especially during harsh sea conditions. There is a direct relation between a ship’s motion and a person’s ability to work. Excessive ship movement can also cause nausea and motion sickness. Environmental factors can also be divided into factors external to the ship and those internal to the ship. Within the ship, the crew is faced with elements such as noise, vibration and temperature (heat, cold, and humidity). External factors include port and weather condition and vessel traffic.

5. BASIC CONCEPTS IN UNDERSTANDING FATIGUE

A. Sleep

Sleep is an active process; when people sleep they are actually in an altered state of consciousness. All sleep does not have the same quality and does not provide the same recuperative benefits. In order to satisfy the needs of the human body, sleep must have three characteristics to be most effective:

• Duration: Everyone’s sleep needs are unique; however, it is generally recommended that a person obtain, on average, 7 to 8 hours of sleep per 24-hour day. A person needs the amount of sleep that produces the feeling of being refreshed and alert. Alertness and performance are directly related to sleep. Insufficient sleep over several consecutive days will impair alertness. Only sleep can maintain or restore performance levels.

• Continuity: The sleep should be uninterrupted. Six one-hour naps do not have the same benefit as one six-hour period of sleep.

• Quality: People need deep sleep. Just being tired is not enough to ensure a good sleep. An individual must begin sleep in synch with the biological clock to ensure quality sleep. If the time of sleep is out of synchronization with his/her biological clock, it is difficult to sleep properly.

B. Biological Clock and Circadian Rhythm

Each individual has a biological clock, and this clock regulates the body’s circadian rhythm. To best understand both of these features, it is first necessary to understand how the circadian rhythm functions. Our bodies move through various physical processes and states within a 24-hour period, such as sleeping/waking, and cyclical changes in body temperature, hormone levels, sensitivity to drugs, etc. This cycle represents the circadian rhythm. The biological clock regulates the circadian rhythm. The biological clock is perfectly synchronised to the traditional pattern of daytime wakefulness and night-time sleep.

For many seafarers, working patterns conflict with their biological clock. Irregular schedules caused by shifting rotations, crossing time zones, etc. cause the circadian rhythms to be out of synchronization.

C. Stress

Stress occurs when a person is confronted with an environment that poses a threat or demand, and the individual becomes aware of his/her inability or difficulty in coping with the environment (a feeling of being overwhelmed). This can result in reduced work performance and health problems.

Stress can be caused by a number of things, including:

• Environmental hardships (noise, vibration, exposure to high and low temperatures, etc), Weather (i.e. ice conditions), Personal problems (family problems, home sickness, etc.), Broken rest, Long working hours, On-board interpersonal relationships.

Fatigue is dangerous in that people are poor judges of their level of fatigue. The following is a sample of fatigue’s known effect on performance.

• Fatigued individuals become more susceptible to errors of attention and memory (for example, it is not uncommon for fatigued individuals to omit steps in a sequence).

• Chronically fatigued individuals will often select strategies that have a high degree of risk on

Fatigue can affect an individual's ability to respond to stimuli, perceive stimuli, interpret or understand stimuli, and it can take longer to react to them once they have been identified. Fatigue also affects problem solving which is an integral part of handling new or novel tasks. Fatigue is known to detrimentally affect a person’s performance and may reduce individual and crew effectiveness and efficiency; decrease productivity; lower standards of work and may lead to errors being made. Unless steps are taken to alleviate the fatigue, it will remain long after the period of sustained attention, posing a hazard to ship safety.

One very important fact to remember is that people who are experiencing fatigue have a very difficult time recognizing the signs of fatigue themselves. It is difficult for a number of reasons, but largely because fatigue can affect your ability to make judgements or solve complex problems. The following list describes how fatigue affects your mind, emotions and body; you may recognize some of these changes in others (with time, you may learn to identify some within yourself):

A. Physically:

• Inability to stay awake (an example is head nodding or falling asleep against your will)
• Difficulty with hand-eye coordination skills (such as, switch selection)
• Speech difficulties (it may be slurred, slowed or garbled)
• Heaviness in the arms and legs or sluggish feeling
• Decreased ability to exert force while lifting, pushing or pulling
• Increased frequency of dropping objects like tools or parts
• Non-specific physical discomfort
• Headaches
• Giddiness
• Heart palpitations / irregular heart beats
• Rapid breathing
• Loss of appetite
• Insomnia
• Sudden sweating fits
• Leg pains or cramps
• Digestion problems

B. Emotionally:

• Increased willingness to take risks
• Increased intolerance and anti-social behaviour
• Needless worry
• Reduced motivation to work well
• Increased mood changes (examples are irritability, tiredness and depression)

C. Mentally:
• Poor judgement of distance, speed, time, etc.
• Inaccurate interpretation of a situation (examples are focusing on a simple problem or failing to anticipate the gravity of the situation or failing to anticipate danger)
• Slow or no response to normal, abnormal or emergency situations
• Reduced attention span
• Difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly
• Decreased ability to pay attention

Food (timing, frequency, content and quality) Refined sugars (sweets, doughnuts, chocolates, etc.) can cause your blood sugar to rise rapidly to a high level. The downside of such short-term energy is that a rapid drop in blood sugar can follow it. Low blood sugar levels can cause weakness, instability and difficulty in concentrating and in the extreme case unconsciousness. Eating large meals prior to a sleep period may disrupt your sleep.

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Now, here are the rules under which, using some cleverly worded options, an active seafarer is presented with a 98-hour work-week on board, when actually, a work week should never have exceeded 91 hours in a week. However, having said that, we need to look closely at Article 5 Paragraph 6:- what are the National Laws for hours of work at the workplace, and why can't these be implemented on Indian ships or even those ships visiting Indian ports?

ILO Convention 180

Art.5 paragraph 1. The limits on hours of work or rest shall be as follows: (a) maximum hours of work shall not exceed: (i) 14 hours in any 24-hour period; and (ii) 72 hours in any seven-day period; or (b) minimum hours of rest shall not be less than: (i) ten hours in any 24-hour period; and (ii) 77 hours in any seven-day period.

Art. 5 paragraph 2. Hours of rest may be divided into no more than two periods, one of which shall be at least six hours in length, and the interval between consecutive periods of rest shall not exceed 14 hours.

Art. 5 paragraph 6. Nothing in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall prevent the Member from having national laws or regulations or a procedure for the competent authority to authorize or register collective agreements permitting exceptions to the limits set out. Such exceptions shall, as far as possible, follow the standards set out but may take account of more frequent or longer leave periods or the granting of compensatory leave for watchkeeping seafarers or seafarers working on board ships on short voyages.

Art. 7 paragraph 1 Nothing in this Convention shall be deemed to impair the right of the master of a ship to require a seafarer to perform any hours of work necessary for the immediate safety of the ship, persons on board or cargo, or for the purpose of giving assistance to other ships or persons in distress at sea.

Art.7 paragraph 3 As soon as practicable after the normal situation has been restored, the master shall ensure that any seafarers who have performed work in a scheduled rest period are provided with an adequate period of rest.

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And here's what the STCW convention has to say about things:-

STCW Convention

Section A-VIII/1 of the STCW Code (Mandatory)

1. All persons who are assigned duty as officer in charge of a watch or as a rating forming part of a watch shall be provided a minimum of 10 hours rest in any 24-hour period.

2. The hours of rest may be divided into no more than two periods, one of which shall be at least 6 hours in length.

3. The requirements for rest periods laid down in paragraph 1 and 2 need not be maintained in the case of an emergency or drill or in other overriding operational conditions.

4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2, the minimum period of ten hours may be reduced to not less than 6 consecutive hours provided that any such reduction shall not extend beyond two days and not less than 70 hours of rest are provided each seven day period.

5. Administrations shall require that watch schedules be posted where they are easily accessible.

3. In applying regulation VIII/1, the following should be taken into account:

.1 provisions made to prevent fatigue should ensure that excessive or unreasonable overall working hours are not undertaken. In particular, the minimum rest periods specified in Section AVIII/1 should not be interpreted as implying that all other hours may be devoted to watchkeeping or other duties;

.2 that the frequency and length of leave periods, and the granting of compensatory leave, are material factors in preventing fatigue from building up over a period of time;

.3 the provisions may be varied for ships on short-sea voyages, provided special safety arrangements are put in place.

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PART III. MANNING OF SHIPS

Article 11

1. Every ship to which this Convention applies shall be sufficiently, safely and efficiently manned, in accordance with the minimum safe manning document or an equivalent issued by the competent authority.

2. When determining, approving or revising manning levels, the competent authority shall take into account:

(a) the need to avoid or minimize, as far as practicable, excessive hours of work, to ensure sufficient rest and to limit fatigue; and

(b) the international instruments identified in the Preamble.

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PART IV. RESPONSIBILITIES OF SHIPOWNERS AND MASTERS

Article 13

The shipowner shall ensure that the master is provided with the necessary resources for the purpose of compliance with obligations under this Convention, including those relating to the appropriate manning of the ship. The master shall take all necessary steps to ensure that the requirements on seafarers' hours of work and rest arising from this Convention are complied with.

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Case reports:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4597111.stm

chief maritime investigator, UK, Stephen Meyer in his annual report, said:-

"With only two watchkeepers, even if they did nothing but their bridge watches, they would work an 84-hour week," Mr Meyer said. "But with routine paperwork, cargo work, maintenance, entering and leaving harbours, inspections, loading/unloading, passage planning etc., their actual working hours are much longer. "It is an anachronism in the 21st Century, that seafarers are falsifying their timesheets to prove that they are working only a 98-hour week."

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Case Study from the Chemical Trade

V/1 loaded from Malaysian and Indonesian ports arrived Europe with heated cargo of different grades of palm oil in winters. En-route passage nothing much except Suez transit and heating of cargo. Total passage to N. Europe is about 25 days. After coming along side v/l will be discharging 4 parcels along side and 4 parcels to coasters. Head office kept well informed about berths and coaster arrival schedules. Coasters are arranged by owners and as per instructions received should not have any delay when coming alongside for loading. Boarding supervisor on board to monitor cargo operations and tank cleaning. Any slackness on part of crew is added as remarks in report. Total crew on board includes Chief Officer, 2 duty officers, 3 ABs, 1 OS, Pump man, Boson and two cadets. Due to hectic schedule and freezing nature of cargo chief officer is all the time in CCR to monitor cargo operations. Duty officers are continuously on six on six off. Crew are distributed as follows: 06:00 - 12:00, 18:00 - 24:00 - Pumpman, AB1, AB2, Cadet; 12:00 - 18:00, 00:00 - 06:00 - Boson, AB3, OS, Cadet.

Except for fatty acids all cargoes require squeezing while stripping. This requires crew to go inside hot tanks and do manual squeezing. Coils are hot and tanks are slippery. Any delay in squeezing can freeze cargo at bottom and this can lead to ROB or delay by several hours in discharge of cargoes. From each watch pump man and 1 cadet stay on top for operations and crew go inside for squeezing. But with only 2 crewmembers it is not possible to complete squeezing. View this all crew members (including off watch are called for squeezing tanks). It is important to give gap in stripping of tanks however at times gap can't be more then 15mins and immediately on completion crew has to enter into another tanks. Work load increases in case cargo stops going due to freezing when level of cargoes goes below heating coils. On completion of discharge v/l to proceed to North Sea for tank cleaning. Next cargo is chemicals including some fine chemicals like Paraxylene, MEK, Acetone, Iso-Butane etc. Loading to take place in 3 consecutive ports. Time allocated for cleaning of 28 tanks is 4 days. To wash tanks with hot water followed by detergent and finally rinsing. Duty officer can't participate in tank cleaning view they are doing navigational watches. Chief Officer after completion of discharge is busy with tank cleaning schedule. Almost 3 days go in washing tanks and one day to prepare tanks for loading. Once about to complete you plan to return back for loading to avoid any delays. Tank cleaning involves manual cleaning after initial pre wash to remove traces of last cargo. Sometimes acid tanks need re-cleaning if not properly cleaned. Once again prior to arrival you will receive schedule of berth rotation and coasters in first loading port. Immediately on arrival Surveyors come on first berth to take wall wash tanks to avoid delays at other berths. This shifting on berth and loading takes about 3 days in port. After loading v/l to proceed to two other nearby loading ports. After first port, pressure reduces as number of tanks to be loaded reduces. Total Discharge-Tank Cleaning and back loading takes about 12 days. So in all, those 12 days of tank cleaning and back loading is full of work with no proper rest! Rest hours violation becomes common. With so much work in hand one has to worry about tank passing by surveyors and reports given by the boarding supervisor!!

On chemical tanker additional duty officer should be a must, who can assist chief officer in tank cleaning operations.

Nautical Institute Fatigue Forum Report, 06/001

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The results of a 6 year research programme into seafarer fatigue, Seafarer Fatigue: The Cardiff Research Programme were published in November 2006. Adequate Crewing and Seafarer Fatigue: The International Perspective has just been released. The first of these reports, supported by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, Nautilus UK and the Seafarers' Research Centre, Cardiff seeks to predict worst-case scenarios for fatigue, health and injury; to develop best practice recommendations appropriate to ship type and trade and to produce advice packages for seafarers, regulators and policy makers.

The research took the form of a literature review, a survey of 1,856 seafarers, diary studies and objective testing on board. In addition to the clear confirmation that fatigue is a very real problem at sea, the studies also exposed a tendency of many seafarers to under-record their working hours. Major findings: n One in four seafarers said they had fallen asleep while on watch Almost 50% of seafarers taking part in the study reported working weeks of 85 hours or moren Around half said their working hours had increased over the past 10 years, despite new regulations intended to combat fatigue and Almost 50% of seafarers taking part in the study consider their working hours present a danger to their personal safety n Some 37% said their working hours sometimes posed a danger to the safe operations of their ship Many reported that they had worked to the point of collapse and fallen asleep at the wheel and over half of the sample believed that their personal safety was at risk because of fatigue.

(Seafarer Fatigue: The Cardiff Research Programme.)

Excerpts:-

The 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez caused the release of 11.2 million gallons of crude oil. It was a true environmental disaster, the world's worst ever oil spill. The US National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the probable causes included “the failure of the third mate to properly manoeuvre the vessel because of fatigue and excessive workload” and “the failure of the Exxon shipping company to provide a fit master and a rested and sufficient crew for the Exxon Valdez”.

A typical example of watchkeeper fatigue occurred at 05:15 on a June morning when a 1,990gt general cargo vessel ran aground on the west coast of Scotland. The chief officer had been on watch since midnight and was suffering the cumulative effects of fatigue generated by the 6 on 6 off watchkeeping routine punctuated by regular port visits where he was expected to oversee all cargo operations. The chief officer fell asleep standing at the controls between 04:05 and 04:15 and missed a planned alteration of course. He woke an hour later, still standing, as the vessel grounded.

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Studies show that there are comparable effects between fatigue and alcohol intake on a persons ability to function. Guidance in the STCW Convention (Section B-VIII/2 part 5 – annex 5) prescribes a maximum of 0.08% blood alcohol level during watchkeeping and prohibits the consumption of alcohol 4 hours before a watch. A number of States are planning initiatives to further limit alcohol intake on board and many shipowners already operate vessels with total bans. Curiously, although studies have established that fatigue is prevalent at sea and that its effects are in fact worse than those caused by alcohol, there would appear to be much less enthusiasm within the industry for addressing the problem of fatigue.

Fatigue, Alcohol and Performance Impairment Reduced opportunity for sleep and reduced sleep quality are frequently related to accidents involving shift-workers. Poor-quality sleep and inadequate ecovery leads to increased fatigue, decreased alertness and impaired performance in a variety of cognitive psychomotor tests. However, the risks associated with fatigue are not well quantified. Here we equate the performance impairment caused by fatigue with that due to alcohol intoxication, and show that moderate levels of fatigue produce higher levels of impairment than the proscribed level of alcohol intoxication. Forty subjects participated in two counterbalanced experiments. In one they were kept awake for 28 hours (from 8:00 until 12:00 the following day), and in the other they were asked to consume 10- 15g alcohol at 30-min intervals from 8:00 until their mean blood alcohol concentration reached 0.10%.

We measured cognitive psychomotor performance at half-hourly intervals using a computer-administered test of hand-eye coordination (an unpredictable tracking task). Results are expressed as a percentage of performance at the start of the session. Performance decreased significantly in both conditions. Between the tenth and twenty-sixth hours of wakefulness, mean relative performance on the tracking task decreased by 0.74% per hour. Regression analysis in the sustained wakefulness condition revealed a linear correlation between mean relative performance and hours of wakefulness that accounted for roughly 90% of the variance. Regression analysis in the alcohol condition indicated a significant linear correlation between subject's mean blood alcohol concentration and mean relative performance that accounted for roughly 70% of the variance. For each 0.01% increase in blood alcohol, performance decreased by 1.16%. Thus, at a mean blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%, mean relative performance on the tracking task decreased, on average by 11.6%. Equating the two rates at which performance declined (percentage decline per hour of wakefulness and percentage decline with change in blood alcohol concentration), we calculated that the performance decrement for each hour of wakefulness between 10 and 26 hours was equivalent to the performance decrement observed with a 0.004% rise in blood alcohol concentration.

Therefore, after 17 hours of sustained wakefulness (3:00) cognitive psychomotor performance decreased to a level equivalent to the performance impairment observed at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%. This is the proscribed level of alcohol intoxication in many western industrialized countries. After 24 hours of sustained wakefulness (8:00) cognitive psychomotor performance decreased to a level equivalent to the performance deficit observed at a blood alcohol concentration of roughly 0.10%. Plotting mean relative performance and blood alcohol concentration 'equivalent' against hours of wakefulness, it is clear that the effects of moderate sleep loss on performance are similar to moderate alcohol intoxication. As about 50% of shift-workers do not sleep on the day before the first night-shift, and levels of fatigue on subsequent night-shifts can be even higher, our data indicate that the performance impairment associated with shift-work could be even greater than reported here. (Nature, Volume 388, July-August 1997 )

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Strong association between fatigue and accidents:-

Accident statistics show a strong association with factors that increase the risk of fatigue, such as under manning and long working hours.

Objective measures of performance efficiency are also influenced by fatigue and this suggests that it is not just watch-keepers who are likely to be affected but other members of the crew as well. Fatigue increases human error which not only increases the risk of collisions or groundings but also increases the risk of personal injury and injury to others. A recent MAIB report of an accident in which an A/B tragically died determined that the seafarer was crushed due to unsafe equipment design, lack of appropriate training and insufficient maintenance. However, the comments regarding manning levels and hours of rest make for interesting reading: Complement of Neermoor had a total crew of six, comprising master, mate, chief engineer, two AB deckhands and an OS/cook. At sea, the master and mate worked 6 on/6 off navigational watches, with the master keeping the 6 - 12 watches and the mate the 12 - 6 watches.

The two ABs were employed on deck and as lookouts as required, assisted by the OS/cook when he was not busy with his catering duties. The chief engineer was solely responsible for the engine room and other technical issues. The crew were all serving on short term renewable contracts, arranged through a third-party manning agency. This complement was in accordance with the minimum manning level specified in the vessel's MSMC. However, the ship had previously operated with a crew of 7… Hours of rest records Although hours of rest records were kept on board Neermoor, the records for the week preceding the accident were not available at the time of the accident, and they have not since been produced. While full details of crew hours just before the accident are not available, conclusions have been drawn from logbook entries, voyage reports and other sources.

The master and mate, as the only two navigating officers on board, worked a 6-on/6-off watchkeeping routine while on passage. In addition, they were required to work standby periods for arrival and departure from port, as well as administrative/ship's business and cargo related duties while in port. The crew had a similar workload, as shown by the narrative of this accident. After the short passage from Dordrecht to Southampton, they were required for arrival and then berthing duties. The logbook shows that a security watch, in accordance with the requirements of the ISPSC, was maintained during the time spent discharging in Southampton. Once they had completed their unberthing duties, the ABs were set to work cleaning the hold; this took most of the night and they were barely finished on arrival at Teignmouth. from the MAIB investigation of the fatal accident due to collapse of a portable bulkhead onboard mv Neermoor at Teignmouth, UK on 27 April 2006.

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Fatigue was clearly established as the principal causal factor in the case of an 80m long bulk carrier, which ran aground on rocks in the Western Islands of Scotland at 01:50 on an October morning. The vessel only had two watchkeeping officers including the master. Towards the end of his 18:00 to 24:00 watch, the master left the bridge and called the chief officer to relieve him. He returned to the bridge, plotted a position on the chart and sat in the wheelhouse chair to await the arrival of his relief. He fell asleep, and the chief officer remained asleep in his cabin. They both woke up as the vessel grounded. There had been no watch alarm fitted to the vessel and there had been no seaman on lookout duty.

In the previous 4 days, the master and the chief officer's workload had been arduous and they had not achieved more than 6 hours off duty at any one time. The quality of sleep during some of their rest periods had also been poor because of the uncomfortable movement of the ship in a seaway. In port, their off-duty periods had been disrupted by the need to shift berths because of cargo loading requirements, and at sea the pressures of paperwork and meal times affected their ability to rest. (MAIB Bridge Watchkeeping and Safety Study, 2004)

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A growing cause for concern. In recent years, the Association has noted an increase in incidents involving crew members who appear to be suffering from some form of psychological difficulty. This can range from mild anxiety attacks to aggressive behaviour to fellow crewmembers, including extreme physical violence. More tragically it can lead to suicide. It is not clear what the main causes are, but a possible factor is the length of time spent away from home and sometimes an inability to get relieved from a ship. At the same time, there may be family pressure to remain at sea longer in order to earn more money and continue sending funds home. In the modern world of shipping, turnaround times in port are also much quicker, creating more work for both officers and crew and less opportunity to relax, resulting in fatigue and stress… (North of England P&I Club, Signals Issue: 64 July 2006)

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So, what's it like with fatigue and you, at sea or ashore?

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The way forward

Treat fatigue as a serious health and safety issue.

A large proportion of work-related death, injury and ill-health amongst seafarers arises from failure to manage health and safety effectively. This failure is exacerbated by changes that have taken place in the structure and organisation of the industry internationally over the last quarter of a century that both increase risks to health and safety and make prevention of harm to workers more difficult to regulate or manage. Industry wide, cultural change is needed to address fatigue. There are serious risks and consequences associated with fatigued seafarers such as the potential for more environmental disasters and loss of life, the economic losses due to accidents, and the impact on the health and well being of the seafarers. The first stage of dealing with fatigue is to get the relevant people to acknowledge that there is a problem to address.

A more robust approach to regulation and manning A starting point for improving the situation must be a more robust approach to regulation. It is important to ensure that potential fatigue is taken into account when setting appropriate manning levels. Manning levels need to be addressed in a realistic way that prevents economic advantage accruing to those who operate with bare minimums. Such an approach must consider more than the minimum levels necessary to operate a vessel; rather it must address the need for maintenance, recovery time, redundancy, and the additional burden of the paperwork and drills associated with security and environmental issues. More transparent regulatory models need to be developed to allow such an approach. Enforcement of existing legislation, elimination of false record-keeping, and better training and guidance It is essential that existing guidelines are enforced with mandatory provisions and that effective measures are taken to overcome the problem of false record-keeping.

One possibility could be to link the guidance in IMO A890 to the ISM Code. This must be supplemented with a serious attempt to promote a culture of safety on board ships. As long as seafarers feel compelled to falsify records of their hours of work, the problem will be hard to address. Appropriate training and guidance regarding avoidance of fatigue and optimum working conditions is needed. Lessons can be learned from other transport industries and it is important to seek examples of best practice and apply these in an effective way to the maritime sector.

One of these is to seek the involvement of all stakeholders in developing solutions to the problem. Methods of addressing issues specific to seafaring are now quite advanced and a holistic approach to the issue of fatigue can lead to a culture that benefits the industry as a whole. If nothing is done now, the maritime industry may find itself compelled to respond to external drivers such as the environmental lobby or those pushing the security agenda. Learn from best practice in the maritime sector and in other comparable industries It is important to learn by example and adopt those strategies that ill lead to a culture of “best practice” and an elimination of “worst case scenarios”.

This approach will require the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders and good models of such teams (the work force, owners, regulators, and academics) have been developed in other areas of transport.

For more detailed information on the outcomes of the recent research quoted in this document see: Smith,

A., Adequate Manning and Seafarers' Fatigue: The International Perspective January 2007 Smith, A., Allen, P., Wadsworth, E., Seafarer Fatigue: The Cardiff Research Programme November 2006

For more details of fatigue related accident reports see:

MAIB Bridge Watchkeeping Safety Study July 2004

and http://www.maib.gov.uk/


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Followup article is here:-

http://matescabin.blogspot.com/2011/12/fatigue-at-sea-masters-point-of-view.html

How many people should we have on board ships??

I believe the Port State authorities in Spain and the US, and now to some extent Greece also, have recently as Port States started taking some interesting initiatives in placing their National interests first as far as safe manning onboard ships of other flags visiting their waters and ports/countries is concerned. I do not have the exact details, but have heard about how the number of watch-keepers, for example, has to be "better" if that from the flag state is at variance to what the port state expects.

There is no reason to not motivate the Indian Government to do so for all vessels calling Indian ports, also - we are not exactly minnows in the world of ocean trade either. Likewise, with some foresight, the same can be applied to ships entering Indian waters in their voyages worldwide - especially now that ships from the PG to the Far East as well as others tend to hug the Indian coast because of the Red Sea/Somalia piracy issues.

Just a thought - but worth pursuing. Or we keep our peace - Black Rose at Paradeep and similar not-withstanding. Volvo buses plying between Mumbai and Bangalore now have 4 drivers (2 for city at each end and 2 for the long haul) like do Suez Pilots - but at sea, we keep worrying about Indian seafarers becoming non-competitive?

As far as reduced manning is concerned - it is my submission that for the typical ship-owner/operator, human beings on board are certificates of competency that eat food, so the fewer the better. In the risk analysis of seaworthy in terms of documentation versus seaworthy in terms of actual facts, the cost of those lives is factored in - so the fewer the better. Barring the Derbyshire and maybe a few other cases, has anybody here heard of family or flag state pressing for investigations, lately?

Quick solution to the problem of fatigue at sea . . .

The issue of seafarer fatigue on board ships gets worse with every passing evolution. Whether it is shorter port turnaround, bigger and more complicated ships or reduction in headcount on board, fact remains, this is the only profession in the world where people have to fudge their time sheets to show that they have worked 98 hours in a week. While the rest of the world moves towards 35-40 hour weeks and quality of life parameters based, seafarers are pushed to the edge, and more.

Take a look here at what the MCA in England did to the Maersk Patras:-

http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=76428

And this is one of the biggest and best, blue of the blue, right?

One solution would be to change the watch-keeping pattern from 4-on 8-off to 3-on 9-off, viz, 4 watch-keepers instead of 3, under normal circumstances. An argument raised against this is that as it is there is shortage of trained manpower, so where will the shipowners get 33% more trained watchkeepers from?

The answer is also here - womenpower may yet solve the problem. The colateral effect of making seafaring a more attractive profession, by addressing the overwork and fatigue issues, will attract more young people, both women and men. We just have to give it a go.

So what can you do, active seafarer, at sea? One option is to start logging woking hour audits honestly, and when you are fatigued, logging it. Or writing in.

Humbly submitted.