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Jun 20th, 2007 by Bob Couttie
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Maritime Accident Casebook
Maritime Accident Casebook was created by Bob Couttie in June 2007. It quickly established itself as an authoritative, credible source, popular among both seafarers and maritime accident investigators.
It is a voluntary, free resource for seafarers and those who train them and support is always welcome. Click here to find out more.
Objectives
Sea transportation remains the most cost effective and environmentally friendly way of getting goods from one side of the world to the other, yet it comes with a cost - maritime incidents cost around $1 million a day. Not all incidents are disasters, not all make headlines, but in nearly every case human factors present the most significant element in the incident. The objective of Maritime Accident Casebook is to empower seafarers to keep themselves alive and keep their ships from harm by offering lessons from real world events that they can use in their daily work, whether deckhands or masters. It is hoped to encourage seafarers to think beyond the minimum safety standards offered by the SOLAS convention to encourage active safety awareness. by enabling them to explore in an accessible way how and why such incidents happen and how they can be avoided. I hope seafarers will find them interesting, entertaining and educational and those who have an interest in maritime incidents will gain a deeper insight into the challenges facing today’s maritime industry. Each Case File consists of an audio podcast you can listen to at your leisure. Edited, illustrated transcripts will be available on the Transcripts page of this blog with PDF versions for download together with links to official reports and other information of interest. Except where otherwise indicated, the opinions expressed in the podcasts and on the transcripts are my own. I hope you enjoy the casebook. Your feedback is welcome at mac@maritimeaccident.org
Safe sailing.
Bob Couttie
About Bob Couttie
Bob Couttie has written for a number of maritime industry publications, including the prestigious Lloyd’s List International daily newspaper and Lloyd’s Ship Manager magazine. His reportage on problems with ship’s officer certification examinations in the Philippines in the late 1990s influenced the adoption of computerized examinations for ship officers by the country’s Professional Regulatory Commission. Maritime Accident Casebook episodes are drawn from investigations around the world to explore in a informal, entertaining and accessible way how and why such incidents happen and how they might be avoided. Each casefile consists of an audio podcast, accompanied by a transcript with illustrations and links to further information. Except where otherwise indicated, opinions and recommendations are those of the author.
Donations
Maritime Accident Casebook is free, thanks to donations, sponsorship from people like you and your company and we want to keep it free.
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Contact Details
By mail:
Bob Couttie
Maritime Accident Casebook
PO Box 078
Subic Bay Freeport Zone
Philippines 2222
Web:
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Bob,
I was the investigator and the author of the Sapphire report and want to say I think you’ve done a great job in the way you have presented it in “The case of the silent assassin”.
Good luck and I’m sure your site will serve a very useful purpose in spreading advice and warnings to seafarers. Contact me if you think we can help in any way.
Great site Bob. I’m looking forward to the the next podcast, great for those long travel days!
Everyone I kinow has had at least one bad accident resulting from working with this type of crane. Owners and builders want ever decreasing clearances because shippers do not want to charter ships with wing areas as they slow productivity and complicate the loading process. SOLAS needs to return vessel designers to the old 30 inch (.75M) clearance for walkways. Design to protect not to endanger.
Emergency cut offs should be on strings suspended around the entire base of the crane port and starboard. There is always an emergency cut off. It always is away from the accident or there woukdn’t be an accident.
Radios yes, but an owner or operator finds it difficult to maintain radios in the maritime environment on a fleet of ships, and guarantee they will be used, kept charged, or that there is no language barrier. Shore radio traffic can render these devices usless in some ports. Loud whistles work just as well. They can be purchased by the box full.
High Visability there is no excuse for dark cloors and non reflective clothing. Stevedores spot their deck men because of these things and their attention is drawn away from the crew.
The missing guard could very well have been the responsibility of the deceased, but it is shared Chief Officer, and by the engineering department. Thiis points to a lack of training and oversight.
Capt. Tom Bolcar
Bob
Thanks for stopping by our site. I need to catch up on the podcasts….I am behind. I like your site.
Dwayne Clark
http://www.lawboat.com
http://lawboat.blogspot.com
Bob, Thanks for the podcasts.
I perceive the maritime industry to entering into a very difficult straits. The age of current mariners encourage them to retire and the needs of the industry for qualified seaman doesn’t appear to be well known.
Few schools promote knowledge of, or share with students a vision of a career; at sea. Careers as a merchant mariner is not advertised to young people looking for a career. Education and a Coast Guard, license does not substute for experience.
Jim Nisbet
Benchmark Aviation Marine,
Safety, Accident, Risk Management, Consulting
Indeed, folk like the North of England P&I club have voiced concern about the shortage of experienced officers and a lack of new blood to replace those who are leaving.
Is the industry itself sufficiently pro-active?
The existence of this website has just been brought to my attention, and I was very impressed by the articles. The Case of the Silent Assassin has the same characteristics as a lot of other accidents. Even experienced seamen take shortcuts and bypass the rules, even if they know the subsequent dangers. In my years as an instructor of safety and sea survival, I have learned that regardless of the rules, the ship´s officers set the standards by their own conduct. Mostly, the crew will follow their lead. If you don´t mind, I will use material from this website in my teaching, when applicable.
There has been a seemingly inexhorable rise in the number and severity of crew related incidents, that has caused alarm bells to be rung within the P&I insurance world. The rapidly expanding world fleet has now exhausted the available, experienced pool of seafarers. More and more vessels are having to use greater numbers of inexperienced crew members. Add to this a cocktail of some operators, desperate to keep their vessels operating (with the current enormous freight rates), cutting back on any regular maintenance that might delay the vessel and also vessel charterers, pushing for “corners” to be cut off vessel operating costs, and we end up with a dangerous recipe leading to increases in accidents and crew injury/deaths. 2008 will see more hefty increases in P&I club calls (probably over 20% increases across most of the mutual clubs) and this will continue until someone starts taking maritime safety a bit more seriously.
Well done Bob - I just hope your efforts are taken note of.
Great blog, Bob. I find your writings are excellent not only because of the maritime aspects. But because of their insightful analysis based on universal safety principle, which can be applied to almost all fields of expertise. I suggested to my friends, who don’t have off-shore related jobs, to read your blog. I am looking forward to your new post.
Hi Bob,
Found your [excellent!] site from a link on the Christian Science Monitor where we had an article. Maritime casualties have always interested me and so I was quite excited to see what you are doing and have now bookmarked you for daily updates.
Ian Bowles.