96034 Hampered Vessel Pass Too Close

Failure to keep Satisfactory Listening Watchon VHF Ch 16

Report No. 96034

My ship is a Seismic Survey Vessel towing three cables, each two miles longwith a spread of 300m at a speed of four and a half knots. We have beenworking throughout the year in the southern North Sea and around the TexelTSS and are accompanied by two Cable Guard Ships. The Mother-ship and bothof these Guard Ships are equipped with ARPA radars with GPS interface givingus the ability to pinpoint the vessels to which we are trying to talk. Ourpractice is to station one Guard Ship ahead and the other one at the endof the cables and share radar and visual watch on all sectors of the surroundingarea, working initially on a 12 mile range scale.
Our presence in the area is broadcast by Dutch Coast Stations on MF radioand is also promulgated on NAVTEX. We also make frequent broadcasts ourselveson VHF Ch 16 and working channels warning of our position, course and speed.When in operation, we need at least 2_ miles of sea room around the seismicconvoy to prevent propeller noise from passing traffic drowning out thereturning signals from our seismic apparatus. When an approaching ship isplotted to be on a course passing within this zone, the Cable Guard forthat sector attempts to contact the ship on VHF Ch 16 at a range of 8 10 miles. If VHF contact is not made, other methods are used such as firingwhite flares or the Guard Ship being positioned between the oncoming vesseland the cables to warn of danger and advise a safe course.

It has been noticeable that the ships which are most likely to fail tohear or acknowledge VHF calls, or to ignore the request for a wide berth,are the fast container or reefer vessels steaming at speeds in excess of18 knots. These ships, four of which during the last week belonging to hithertorespected European companies, have given us grave concern and spoiled ourseismic recordings. In one instance, a 50,000 tonne container ship overtookus at 22 knots in visibility of less than one mile so close that we wereable to read her name. Only then, calling her by name did we get any response.We had been calling since she was 11 miles away and her Chief Officer claimedthat he had neither heard our signals nor was he aware of our presence inthe area.

This regretfully leads one to believe that the ship in question was neithermonitoring VHF Ch 16, MF 2182 or NAVTEX and was relying solely on radarand her speed to avoid any collision situation. On one ship belonging toa well known European owner, the OOW had to call the Master to the radiobefore any action was taken.

Overall, traffic responds fairly well to our signals. However, if allpassing ships would respond to our calls at an earlier stage, they wouldonly have to make minor alterations to their courses rather than wait untilfairly strong evasive action is required.