DISQUS

JoeP · 2 years ago

A friend of mine worked for NASA on the lunar mission. The saying is "it's not like your trying to land on the moon". Well no one person did. We got to the moon by finding experts in every minute aspect of the operation. An expert battery guy, radio guy and antenna guy each worked to make just one radio aboard.

Your ideas are good I just doubt that most masters will admit they are not experts in everything!

grandmanier · 2 years ago

It seems like the hornets nest has now been stirred. Will this make ‘our commercial masters’ (accountants, MBAs et al) to sit up and realise that it is imprudent to make decisions based solely from a commercial view point. Masters are being blackmailed into accepting unsafe, unprofessional and unethical practices. Vessels are under tremendous pressure to minimise deballasting time at bulk loading ports. This one has hit home in Australia where the terminals are amongst the worst to pressurise vessels into taking unseamanlike short cuts.
Will there be any changes in the future?

Ian · 2 years ago

Latest comment from Minister for NSW Ports Joe Tripoldi. Two salvage tugs have arrived. One proposal being considered involves sourcing a large anchor handling vessel to position anchors out to sea to enable Pasha Bulker to use their own winches to escape the beach.
The Minister states that required equipment including pumps, pollution control barriers etc has been gathered from around the country. Also mentioned that there is some mixing of oil and seawater aboard but that it is still proving difficult to assertain extent of hull damage. Fortunately, it appears that there is still no pollution evident in the vicinity. Hull was reballasted yesterday to assist holding in present position and oil is to be moved to higher tanks.
It appears likely that recovery attempts will be commenced Mon 18 due to predicted king tides that day.
Minister claimed salvage team is “best in the world”; that they have developed “best contingency plans for oil containment” and that there is a high level of information exchange in both directions with experts from other countries. John would be pleased to hear that they are using some current technology including E-mail “conferencing”!
One would certainly wish them every success. Carving up the ship and carting it away doesn’t bear thinking about.

Gordon Whitehead · 2 years ago

I just love that photo...

Mike · 2 years ago

I don’t understand how some ships still don’t have internet access. Wake up, it’s 2007 not the days of sail.

Mike · 2 years ago

This was in the MarEx Newsletter:

When MarEx went online, salvage experts were still making plans to refloat the vessel regardless of the one confirmed hole. According to the Ports Minister, Joe Tripodi, the salvage operation’s costs would be met by the vessel’s owner. A press release dated the day of the grounding by Lauritzen Bulkers, the charterer of the Pasha Bulker, states: “Lauritzen Bulkers follows the situation very closely and will do their utmost to assist and support the Japanese owner of the vessel as well as the shipping company that has the Pasha Bulker on sublet.”

Jake · 2 years ago

John Konrad makes some excellent points above, particularly regarding Bridge Resource Management and communications - these are found to be at the root of almost all incidents.
However his comments regarding double hulls may be misleading.
Im not sure what environmental catastrophe has been averted because of a double hull. Had the Pasha Bulker been a loaded tanker then we should certainly be grateful for the containment of the cargo due to the double hull.
But an empty bulk carrier offers no particular risk other than her own fuel, which is usually carried in the double bottoms anyway and which are most likely to cause concern.

Telstar Logistics · 2 years ago

John, what is Bridge Team Management? For us armchair ship watchers and/or management geeks, that would a great topic for a blog post unto itself -- what is it, how does it work, basic principles, etc.

John · 2 years ago

Bridge Team Management (called BRM in the industry) is a process to use all of your available resources during critical operations. It came from the airline industry which found an alarming number of accidents happened despite prior warning from the equipment or crew.... mostly by captains with military backgrounds and a "I can do this" (keyword: I) attitude who did not use (or in some cases trust) either the equipment or junior personnel.

Boiled down it's a class all officers must take in both teamwork and processing the large amounts of data (lookout reports, radar, radio comms, gps charting, weather information....) that pours into the bridge.

John · 2 years ago

Here's a more official answer:

The Bridge Resource (or team) Management course introduces the concept of a navigation team to ship masters and watch officers and frames their decision making process toward establishing watch conditions during the course of the voyage. Bridge Team Management techniques will emphasize decision making based upon conditions related to workload and potential threat to the vessel. The intent of the program is to define the individual task and responsibilities of the various team members while developing a situational awareness to prevent individual errors.

Todd Lappin · 2 years ago

Fascinating! Thanks John!

Whatever-ishere · 2 years ago

thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful...