200310 Paperwork on the Bridge

Paperwork on the Bridge
Report No. 200310

In response to MARS 200201 entitled "Bulk Carrier or Paper Carrier" (assuming the facts reported are correct) I would like to note the following comments:

I was once told about a vessel that went aground because the Officer on watch was busy filling out his overtime request slips. Using the logic of MARS 200201 one could say that the vessel went aground because the owners pay overtime.

In this report they were obviously in confined waters because they had a pilot on board. If the pilot is refusing to perform his duties unless receiving a bottle of whisky as a gift, the ship should be stopped and the pilot sent away. The Master should then insist on getting one that will perform the duties he/she is paid to do. The report says that the Master was on the bridge and well aware that the Chief Mate was not paying attention to his navigating duties, therefore he should have taken over the con of the vessel. The Chief Mate should know there is a time and place for everything. When navigating in and around restricted waters is not a time to be doing paper work. Paper work that had not been completed could wait until the vessel was safely docked.

The vessel that I am currently in command of has recently come under I.S.M. certification. At first it did seem like a horrendous amount of paper work. However, with a little common sense, logic and planning it now goes quite smoothly. The majority of the I.S.M. procedures were already being carried out by the crew, only now it is documented. The biggest change which I have noticed is that now the vessel owners have to live up to their own standing orders and prove it.
The only problem I have with I.S.M. is that it does not include all commercial vessels regardless of size or tonnage. In the areas my vessel trades, we are competing with a smaller vessel that does not come under I.S.M. They can circumvent regulations and operate cheaper, albeit not as safe, vessels. Cargo owners tend to go to the cheapest carrier. If all vessels came under the same regulations, all seafarers would have a much safer and level playing field.

In closing I would say Report No 200201 is a poor example of "don't worry about the damage, fix the blame." Let us be honest, the ship went aground due to sloppy, negligent bridge watch keeping and navigating practises.