Working aloft or overside means a work being performed at a height and involves risk of falling, resulting in an injury. Generally, personnel should not be permitted to work overside when the vessel is underway unless it is necessary and as determined by the Master.
An effective permit to work system should include a working aloft or overside permit. This should be issued for all similar activities. As always, a toolbox meeting prior start is vital for proper implementation of procedures. Movement of ship in a seaway will add to hazards involved in work of this type. A stage or ladder should always be utilized when work is to be done beyond normal reach.
A safety harness with lifeline or other arresting device should be continuously worn when working aloft, outboard, overside or at height. A safety net should be rigged when necessary and appropriate. Additionally, when work is done overside, buoyancy garments should be worn and a lifebuoy with sufficient line attached should be kept ready for immediate use.
Specific areas of the ship require different approaches
- Near ship’s whistle, officer responsible for job should ensure that power is shut off and warning notices posted on bridge and in machinery spaces.
- For work in funnel, officer responsible should inform duty engineer to ensure that steps are taken to reduce as far as practicable emission of steam, harmful gases and fumes.
- For work in vicinity of radio aerials, officer responsible should inform radio officer so that no transmissions are made whilst there is a risk to seafarer. A warning notice should be put up in radio room.
- Where work is to be done near radar scanner, officer responsible should inform officer on watch so that radar and scanner are isolated. A warning notice should be put in set until necessary work has been completed.
On completion of work of type described above, officer responsible should, where necessary, inform appropriate officer that precautions taken are no longer required and that warning notices can be removed. Unless it is essential, work should not be done aloft on a stage or bosun’s chair in vicinity of cargo working.
Care should be taken while work is being done aloft or at a height, to avoid risks to anyone working or moving below. Suitable warning notices should be displayed. Tools and stores should be lowered and sent up by line in suitable containers which should be secured in place for stowage of tools or materials not presently being used.
No one should place tools where they can be accidentally knocked down and may fall on someone below, nor should tools be carried in pockets from which they may easily fall. When working aloft, it is often best to wear a belt designed to hold essential tools securely in loops. Tools should be handled with extra care when hands are cold or greasy and where tools themselves are greasy.
Cradles and Stages
Planks and material used for the construction of ordinary plank stages must be carefully examined to ensure adequate strength and freedom from defects. A defective item should not be used. Wooden components of staging should be stowed in a dry, ventilated space and not subjected to heat. Gantlines should be kept clear of sharp edges.
Particularly, when a stage is overside, the two gantlines used in its rigging should at least be long enough to trail into the water to provide additional lifelines should the operator fall. A lifebuoy and line should still be kept ready at a close position. Where men working from a stage are required to raise or lower themselves, great care must be taken to keep movements of the stage small and closely controlled.
Ropes
The safety of seafarer working aloft or overside depends upon the strength of the holding line, whether it is a lifeline to his harness or gantline to a bosun’s chair or stage. Person responsible for work being undertaken should ensure that all ropes, lifelines, gantlines etc. employed for a particular job are resistant to attack by substances that might be used during course of that job.
Rope should be inspected internally and externally before use for signs of deterioration, undue wear or damage. This is particularly important if a gantline has not been used for some time. A high degree of powdering between strands of man-made fibre ropes indicates hard wear and impaired strength: internal wear will be greater with ropes that stretch. Some ropes, for example of polyamide, become stiff and hard when overworked.
Portable Ladders
A portable ladder should be soundly constructed and have adequate strength for purpose for which it is used. A ladder should not be used if any part is defective, for example if any rung depends for support solely on nails, spikes or similar improvisations.
All ladders should be inspected at regular intervals and maintained in sound condition. Wooden ladders should not be painted or treated to hide cracks and defects. When not in use, portable ladders should be stowed in a dry ventilated space away from heat.
Working from ladders should be avoided as far as practicable since there is a risk of overbalancing and falling. Where it is necessary, a safety harness with a lifeline secured above the position of work should be worn when working at a height in excess of 2 meters.
Bosun’s Chairs
Always inspect the chair and gantline before use. When using a chair for riding topping lifts or stays, make sure that the bow of the shackle, and not the pin, rides on the wire. In any case, seize the pin. Use only your hands, never a winch, to haul a person aloft in a bosun’s chair.
Protective Clothing
Protective clothing should be worn by operator to protect him/her from particles that might affect their eyes and skin.
Operator should normally wear:
- Safety helmet
- Working gloves
- Safety goggles
- Suit or other approved protective clothing
- Safety harness with lifeline
Falling from a height, whether it is onto the deck or overboard, could cause serious injuries and in the worst case be fatal. Through the permit to work system, the maritime industry tries to reduce incidents of falling from height during specific task. However, there is still a large number of incidents for seafarers injured after falling from height due to other reasons i.e. falling in cargo hold when tried to look, falling while climbing down stairway or external ladder etc.
