Alert! Issue No.32 - Dealing with the menace of fatigue
The current issue of the International Maritime Human Element Bulletin Alert! provides all the connections required to link issues of fatigue to the safe manning of ships and the way they are operated.
The current issue of the International Maritime Human Element Bulletin Alert! provides all the connections required to link issues of fatigue to the safe manning of ships and the way they are operated. After many years when the industry has been hesitating about the problem of fatigue, suggesting that so much about this menace has been ‘anecdotal’, the realities provided by real evidence now illustrate that it can no longer be ignored.
This issue, which begins with a cautionary Case Study of the background to the grounding of a shortsea ship with two officers working watch and watch, is packed with advice about fatigue and how it can be sensibly countered. Noting there is still no mathematical formula for the assessment of a ship’s manpower requirement, the bulletin offers a seamanlike ‘rough guide’ to The Guidelines for the Determination of Minimum Safe Manning, taking into account the hours of shipboard duties and what might be described as ‘peak workload situations’.
Stemming from the EU-funded Horizon Project which sought to simulate the deterioration of performance as fatigue sets in, a fatigue-prediction software model MARTHA has been developed, along with a Fatigue Risk Management System, to assist managers to optimise operations and work schedules to moderate and minimise fatigue. Alert! No 32 also describes another useful tool in the US Coast Guard’s Crew Endurance Management System, which provides a very visual indication as to when crew endurance is being ‘stretched’.
It has been suggested that part of the problems stemming from the insidious onset of fatigue was the lack of any meaningful tools to assess and to counteract it. The centrespread of No 32 provides a whole list of downloadable aids to fatigue mitigation and management which can go a long way towards informing management about the realities of fatigue and its effects. It also makes clear the shared responsibilities of ship designers, owners and managers, along with seafarers themselves, for informing themselves about fatigue. This is an important reference document that illustrates a wealth of information on this important problem that continues to contribute to maritime accidents of all kinds.
Advice is also provided on the use of riding gangs aboard ship, noting that these additions to those aboard a ship cannot be used to bypass the regulations that apply to a ship’s crew.
Alert! Issue No. 32
Ends
Notes to editors
The Alert! Project – launched in October 2003 – is a campaign to improve the awareness of the human element in the maritime industry. This is a Nautical Institute project, sponsored by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
Further information about the human element awareness initiative, and electronic copies of Alert! can be found at www.he-alert.org.
David Squire, FNI FCMI
The Editor
Alert!
The Nautical Institute
202 Lambeth Road
London SE1 7LQ
United Kingdom
The Nautical Institute is the international representative body for maritime professionals and others with an interest in nautical matters. It provides a wide range of services to enhance the professional standing and knowledge of members who are drawn from all sectors of the maritime world.
Founded in 1972, it is a thriving international professional body, with over 40 branches worldwide and some 7,000 members in more than 110 countries.
The Lloyd's Register Foundation is a charity which supports advances in transportation, science, engineering and technology education, training and research worldwide for the benefit of all. It also funds work that enhances safety of life at sea, on land and in the air. The history of the Foundation dates back to 1760 through Lloyd’s Register, a public benefit organisation in the marine and energy sectors.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation currently funds activities in four categories:
- pre-university education: through appropriate organisations, promotes careers in science, engineering and technology to young people, their parents and teachers;
- university education: through universities and colleges, provides undergraduate and post-graduate scholarships and awards at first degree/masters levels to students of exceptional ability;
- vocational training and professional development: supports professional institutions, educational and training establishments working with people of all ages;
- research: funds existing or new centres of excellence at institutes and universities.
Lloyd's Register Foundation (Reg. No. 1145988) is a Charity registered in England and Wales, and owner of the Lloyd's Register Group. Registered Office: 71 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4BS, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7709 9166 Email: lret@lr.org