Tag: life onboard

This is a story of what a woman in maritime can do; a pathway towards overtaking the difficult conditions navigating the male-dominated maritime industry. From the importance of mentoring to the need for equal training.

Mental health and wellbeing are issues playing out regardless of whether they are ashore or onboard. The way a crew member may experience life onboard with other seafarers, himself or his workload is thus related to him or her as individual, multi-dimensional human being.

The Mission to Seafarers, in cooperation with the project founder Steven Jones, have released the first edition of the Seafarers Happiness Index, which was relaunched in 2017. The SHI initiative aims to discover seafarers’ thoughts and opinions on important welfare issues such as shore leave, wages, food, training, social interaction and family contact.

David Price, Wallem Ship Management states that safety of seafarers remains a top priority for Wallem and explains why safety is intrinsically linked with operational excellence. He also explains Wallem’s approach to increase engagement among its people, by referring to company’s safety strategy which focuses on five key areas: communication (ship & shore), retention, training, shipboard working & living conditions, recognition & rewards.

Financial services provider ShipMoney highlights that shipping companies are paying out unnecessary high costs by continuing to pay seafarers with cash.With the cost of delivering cash to vessels ranging from 3% to 10% of the value being transported, shipping companies are losing significant amounts of money by paying crew via hard cash or wire transfers, the company says.

Steamship Mutual offers a new training course which is perfectly aligned with one of the key messages contained in the Club’s “Fit for Life” DVD, which has been nominated for the 2017 SAFETY4SEA Initiative Award. The course will focus on the importance of a balanced diet and nutritious food along with galley hygiene.

The UK P&I Club provides lessons for summertime safety onboard discussing the importance of knowing the signs of heat stroke. The Club recently reported the death of two crew members who were found unresponsive onboard, apparently suffering from heat stroke and notes that particularly at this time of year, this is not an isolated incident.

Nautilus International issued a report, presenting findings on its "Connectivity at Sea" survey. The results show that despite 88% of the interviewed seafarers have internet access at sea, those who do often have limited access at high cost.

Navigating a ship is a complex task that takes years of training, but more importantly years of experience, notes The Nautical Institute in its latest issue of 'The Navigator' and calls for spreading the mentoring message. Mentoring at sea doesn’t just improve safety and commercial services; it can reduce social isolation, help overcome language and cultural barriers and generally improve working and living environment onboard.