The Swedish P&I Club Monthly Safety Scenario for May 2014

The Swedish P&I Club published its Monthly Safety Scenario for May 2014 regarding an Officer of the Watch who fell asleep while on duty . The Swedish Club publishes on a monthly basis a new “Monthly Safety Scenario” (MSS) to assist owners in their efforts of complying with the maritime regulations.

The vessel was a small coaster and was loadingcargo in a European port. Transit time to thenext port was about one day. The vessel had a6/6-watch system and the Chief Officer was onthe 12-6 watch. The vessel had berthed at 1800and the Chief Officer monitored the loadinguntil 2300 when the stevedores stopped for thenight. The Chief Officer went to bed and got upin the morning when loading started at 0600.The Chief Officer monitored the loading untildeparture at 1730 and went to bed afterwards.

The Chief Officer relieved the master at 2300 on the bridge. There was no lookout posted and the Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System (BNWAS) was not switched on. The Chief Officer had been awake for 17 hours since the previous day when the vessel had been loading. After the Master had left the bridge, the Chief Officer looked out the windows to see if there was any nearby traffic. He drank some coffee and verified on the radar that there was no traffic nearby, so he started to do some paperwork. The first job he did was to update the voyage plan for the present voyage.

After about two hours working the Chied Officer sat down on the sofa. Suddenly there was a loud crash and the Chief Officer realised that he had fallen asleep. He ran to the window in panic and when he lookded out he could see a big stone wall in front of the vessel. He realised that the vessel was aground.

The Master rushed onto the bridge and when he realised what had happened he stopped theengines. The Chief Officer seemed to be in shockas he just stared out of the window.

The Master asked the Chief Engineer to check all the tank soundings. The Bosun reported that waterwas leaking into the forepeak. No other tanksappeared to have been breached. The Master askedthe Chief Officer if all valves between the tankswere closed. The Chief Officer was still in shock anddid not answer.

The Master called the owner and informed him about the grounding. The owner told him to ballast the vessels to ensure it did not move and cause further damage and not to use the engines to try and refloat. The owner also instructed the Master not to sign any agreements with any salvors or a Lloyd’s Open form, as the owner would arrange salvors to assist the vessel. After about 6 hours a salvage vessel arrive and in another 12 hours the vessel was afloat and towed to a dry dock for repairs.

This Monthly Safety Scenario includes the following questions for incident investigation and further discussion on the accident

1. What were the immediate causes of this accident?

2. Was there a chain of error?

3. Is there a risk that an accident like this could happen on our vessel?

4. How could this accident have been prevented?

5. Which sections of our SMS were breached if any?

6. Is our SMS sufficient to prevent this type of accident?

7. If procedures were breached why do you think this was the case?

8. When do we update the voyage plan and who should sign it?

9. Is it a requirement to always have a lookout on the bridge?

10. If no, why not?

11. What are the instructions if the vessel is aground?

12. Are there specific instructions regarding salvage?

13. When should a LOF be signed and when should it not be signed?

14. Do we have a Risk assessment onboard that addresses these risks?

15. What do you think was the Root Cause of this accident?

Source: The Swedish P&I Club /Monthly Safety Scenario