200059 GMDSS Alarms

GMDSS Alarms
Report No. 200059

l can still remember the time, not too long ago, when the Auto alarm would go off or "Sparks" would come on to the bridge clutching a cable to find out if we were close enough to a distress to render assistance. Now gone along with the Chief Steward and many more, the deck officers are expected to do their jobs.

Recently l was on watch and the GMDSS alarm went off, in the following hour and three minutes l logged 25 alarms consisting of two distresses, one over 3,000 nm away and the second 1,600 nm away, l noted the MMSI numbers of all vessels who relayed the distress and who acknowledged it, as well as the coast stations. Apart from one Norwegian acknowledgement the rest were; Turkey, Malta, Kuwait, Syria, Liberia, Panama(2), and Bahamas, as the main distress was in the Mediterranean and almost in an A1 area anyway why does this still happen and why are the vessels responsible for these needless relays not dealt with by being reported by the coast stations concerned to flag states for action?

My primary duty as a watchkeeping officer is to keep an all round visual watch and ensure the vessel is safe at all times. How can l do this if my attention is broken and l have to keep a radio watch for an hour just to make sure that maybe the next alarm is not within a couple of hours of our position? Who would be at fault then? Not all the clowns who press buttons ad lib that's for sure. Of course l could call the master or an EXTRA officer but we seem to be the only professionals who have legislated to say we can work 98 hours a week, other professionals have their hours of work restricted to less than this. Who is going to fight our corner when the next 300,000 tons of oil goes on the beach because nobody making the rules has tried working the hours and the person keeping the watch has just spent what should have been his sleeping time logging needless radio traffic. l suggest that alarm units are located in all offices of IMO and others who pushed this system in before it was ready, maybe they would like to experience the frustration of their fourteen hour days being interrupted constantly by response freaks! l would also suggest if this was the case a solution would be rapidly forthcoming!!!

Linked to: GMDSS Alarms - Who is to blame?