Swedish P&I Club publishes Monthly Safety Scenario for July
The Swedish P&I Club publishes on a monthly basis a new Monthly Safety Scenario (MSS) to assist owners in their efforts of complying with regulation. Under the ISM requirement owners are obliged to carry out monthly safety meetings or safety committee meetings onboard their vessels. This obligation comes also from Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seamen, where it is stated that the safety committee should meet regularly: 3.13.2, The frequency of meetings will be determined by circumstances but as a general guideline, the committee should meet about every 4-6 weeks.
Swedish Club published Monthly Safety Scenario for July 2013.
Officer falling asleep
The container vessel had arrived at its penultimate port in Europe before proceeding to Asia.The vessel visited 5 ports in 6 days in Europebefore proceeding to Asia. The vessel had beendelayed at the previous port because of problems with a cargo crane. To make the scheduledberthing time at the next port the vessel had toincrease speed. There was also a long pilotageat the next port.
The vessel departed around 2300 the previousevening and arrived at the next port around 1000in the morning. The normal procedure was thatthe chief officer was awake during the cargooperation and also did the 4-8 watch. Usuallythe Master took the evening watch after thecargo operation. Unfortunately this was impossible because the vessel departed around 2300from the previous port. The chief officer did hismorning watch as the pilot came onboard early inthe morning and after breakfast he prepared thecargo operation. During the cargo operation themaster carried out administrative tasks.
Just before midnight the vessel departed forthe final port and the chief officer went to bed toget some rest before his watch at 0400.The Chief Officer woke up at 0345 and wason the bridge just before 0400. The 2nd officerhanded over the watch and told the chief officerthere were no special orders, there was some traffic but nothing unusual and that he shouldcall the pilot station at 0600 to make arrangements for an 0800 berthing.
Both radars were operational and the vesselhad an electronic chart with the passage planentered. Guard zones were not used on the radarbut the electronic chart did have a cross trackerror alarm and radar overlay. The vessel’s coursewas maintained by autopilot.
The chief officer did his normal checks of thenavigational equipment after he had taken overthe watch. Visibility was good with calm winds, so theChief Officer told the lookout that he could goand rest but should be available on the radio. Around 0430 the Chief Officer saw a fishingboat fleet that was about 6 M away and to stayclear of the fishing boats he made a small alteration to starboard and then sat down in oneof the cockpit chairs.
The Chief Officer suddenly felt a lot of vibration and heard a monotone alarm. In shockhe realised that he had fallen asleep and was nowaground on a small island. The sound was fromthe cross track alarm on the electronic chart asthe vessel was far from the planned course. Thealarm had a low monotone signal and had notawoken the Chief Officer. Shortly after the vessel ran aground the master rushed into the bridge, found the Chief Officer in shock and reduced the engines toneutral. See the rest on Monthly Safety Scenario: Officer falling asleep.
Source: The Swedish P&I CLub
Also find previous Monhtly Safety Scenarios