2004X01 Bridge Distractions

Bridge distractions
In his Captain's Column, Captain Nicholas Cooper raised the issue of alarms and distractions during critical stages of pilotage. On vessels with an UMS engine room, when entering port or under pilotage, some companies have standing orders which state that the engine room must be manned and the chief engineer is assigned to the bridge to monitor the alarms and to leave the watchkeeping officers to the navigation of the vessel.
As the engine movements can be critical should an incident occur, either at sea or under pilotage, every effort must be made to ensure that the recorder is operational at all times. As the master is the person with ultimate responsibility for the vessel, he must ensure that engine movements and other incidents such as bumps should be recorded at all times, as the record from the logger is a legal document.