The information contained within this post are referring a technical problem encountered in a number of fishing and offshore support vessels, which have reported sea water leakage at the top of sea chests, located in the engine room. The sea chest holds a box cooler and the leakage has been experienced at the bolt flange between the box cooler and the sea chest. As a result a number of vessels have needed to be taken into dry dock for unscheduled repairs.
Lately, due to a DMA report, there has been a lot of talk regarding administrative tasks in the maritime sector. In this article the findings of this report are being highlighted. The DMA report contains data from three studies on administrative burdens in the maritime sector. The first two studies on Danish seafarers and Danish shipping companies found that Danish seafarers use up to 20% of their working time on tasks they consider as administrative burdens and for employees in shipowners’ offices ashore the figure was 9 %. The study that has been conducted on international seafarers (with data from 59 nationalities) showed that 30 % of international seafarers feel that they spend too much time on tasks that they consider to be administrative burdens.
MV SUNLIGHT-BEY was a ro-ro cargo vessel converted into a 6056 GT livestock carrier, flying the flag of Lebanon. The vessel called at Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain) port on May 28th 2008. She had been reported by the pilot due to problems with the propeller. After the PSC carried out on the same day, she was detained with 25 deficiencies, out of which 6 were considered as detainable deficiencies.
The following article was initially published in SAFETY4SEA by Apostolos Belokas Managing Editor of SAFETY4SEA. In an effort to enhance fatigue management IMO has amended the “fitness for duty – hours of rest” requirements to provide watch keepers on-board ships with increased rest periods on the latest STCW Amendments in line with the ILO MLC. Despite the fact that over the last few years STCW latest amendments are in place and ILO MLC is being implemented as of 20 August 2013 a number of problems are being experienced.
During a Class survey of a tanker, several cracks were found in the deck structure in the midship area, at the connection between the deck longitudinals and the deck openings (access and Butterworth hatches).
In the morning of October 8, 2008 the Liberian tank ship “CARIB VISION”, a former oil tanker and now a miscellaneous tanker carrying molasses, was boarded in Three-Rivers Canada, to perform a Port State Control inspection. The ship hadn’t been inspected under Paris MOU within the past 7 years and was not a regular trader to Canada. She was on her first of two scheduled voyages between Puerto Rico and Three-Rivers. During the first part of the inspection in the master’s office, only minor non-conformities were noted but the master showed evident signs of agitation. As the inspection progressed, tension was building to a point that the attending PSCO requested assistance from the district office. The inspection started out as an initial inspection but ended up in a detention as major deficiencies were revealed.
The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is used worldwide in order to track shipping vessels. Researchers from a computer security company Trend Micro found that the system can be hacked using cheap radio equipment, making fake vessels to appear, real ones to disappear, and to issue false emergency alerts.
On more than one occasion, vessels have been arrested in port, after discovering cocaine (as much as 100–300 kg) and stowaways in the rudder trunk of these vessels. The void space has been accessed from sea level, by climbing up into the trunk from underneath.
Yesterday at 2130 hours local time a panama flag cargo ship, belonging to China’s Lishen International Shipping Group Corporation, with a crew of 19 sank in South Korea’s southeast Pohang harbor during a storm. The Chinese Consulate General in Busan reported that up until now 9 people have been reported dead, 8 have been rescued and 2 are missing. 18 of the crew were Chinese and 1 Vietnamese. The South Korea’s coast guard conducts the rescue operation.
During the April session of the IMO FAL Committee, Denmark hosted a presentation where the Danish Captain Christian Rørbeck shed light on the administrative burdens faced by ships on a daily basis around the world. The specific examples of administrative burdens for a container ship in service were an eye-opener.
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Officer of the Watch 