SAFMARINE MERU ablaze following collision with NORTHERN JASPER

[em777]

In my limited, but valid experience. I find that those seafarers coming fresh out of college can be split into two types. Those that want to be there and those that are there because they want the money or to see the world. I joined the merchant navy as a young man who wanted to go to sea, who was proud to wear the uniform, who wanted to be apart of the history. There are others like me who have an interest at what we do.

Unfortunately some out there do it for the money or lifestyle. These people jump through the college hoops and once out in the big wide world struggle as they have paid little interest into their profession other than what they needed to pass an exam. Once on the bridge in a real situation the college structure is useless. That interest and learning that should have been carried through isn't there and these young officers struggle. Relying on computer screens which are only useful if you have been bothered to learn to understand them and again have an interest in it.

This lack of or wrong type of motivation to do the job, I feel is a fundamental reason as to why safety in the job sometimes falls down. Yes accidents can and do happen and we can all make bad decisions. But I feel the quality of person as a professional on the bridge can be scrutinised further than what tickets they hold. You have to look at the person as a person not a ticket.

That little extra I feel makes a hell of a difference when it comes down to who you want to navigate your vessel for 8 hours plus a day.

John

[DeepSeaDiver1000]

Has anybody been able to see any of the photos of NORTHERN JASPER - IMO 9466960 - after the collision like in particular the bulbous bow, and hull bow?

[Captain Ted]

@ Phil and others

I had a 2.Officer on the bridge, I caught him in the english channel to make the port maneuver, it is clearly stated in the COLREGS not to do it "SHALL NOT" . He did it anyhow. When asked and referred to the paragraph in the COLREGS he did no give a answer, after asking closer his answer : I did not involve myself yet with those regulations too much !!!!!

Another 2.Officer, whom I asked when sailing down from Montevideo to the Magellan Strait and the daylight got everyday longer I asked him why that is so. No answer. Then I took the Nautical almanac and showed him
for example in march that on 1 day at a certain hour the declination (Lattitude) was 00-01-0 N and 1 hr later 00-02-0 S and what happened in that hour, his answer : The sun went over the North pol.


And yes,,it is pure luck that we don,t have more accidents and in congested areas (English Channel/ Strait of Gibraltar / Malakka Strait and so on only not because all is tracked by land stations and someone plays not along is called on VHF.
It is today standard that officers on the bridge,,10-12 miles apart and on a head on course with another vessel calling the other vessel  and asking what the intention is.  AS per COLREG it is clear,, both vssels changing course to their stb side and make a clear red on red pass.  My guess is 40-50 % they change the rules and pass green/green or as I witnessed in the NorthSea years back they agreed to pass green to red !!!!!! Now that was fun to hear the outcome on VHF when one realized that Green on red does not work !!!

It,s the wild WEST out there!!!!

[em777]

As much as I agree with your sentiments Ted and see it as much as you do, it's important to note that not every person on the bridge of a vessel chooses to go about his or her work in this way. Yes unfortunately as a generalisation it is a common practice, but should be noted that it is still the exception not the rule.

John

[Captain Ted]

@ John
of course it is not all, then we could shutdown shipping business right now. !!!
A lot companies try hard to keep it straight,,for example the company where I work for, but there are companies around they do not follow up too much and those make the shipping always and again a bad
name. Unfortunately one hears of course only about the bad matters and not about a ship just came around the world with no incident,,,THAT WOULD HAVE NO NEWS VALUE !!!!

[DeepSeaDiver1000]

Based on the navigation rules at the link below do you all think that Rule 14 and Rule 15 apply? When you look at the photo of the firefighter vessel, the sea condition seems pretty good maybe slightly choppy? This area for sure looks like it has alot of congestion / traffic? In this situation is there other rules that should apply? Thanks for the help everybody.    

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/navrules/navrules.pdf

[smithy166]

Rule 14 applies, but I don't think 15 does - as both vessels were head on.

There's a few troubling things with this accident;
1. Why on earth did they steer closer to each other, given there was more than enough sea room for the Jasper to stbd?
2. Why did neither vessel realise they were going to smack each other until it was far too late?
3. Why did the Jasper cross the Meru's bow in the first place? There's plenty of sea-room behind her!
4. Why did the Meru essentially keep plodding along at a merry 18 knots, when it was clear the jasper was playing a very dangerous game of chicken?

...Was noone looking out of the window?!

N.B. I'm a cadet, and I always place more trust in what I see out of the window than what the new-fangled ECDIS is telling me

[Luko P.]

I agree with many comments regarding missuse of equipment (specially AIS), acting against RoR etc. Moreover, for me is sometimes scary to learn how many Officers, young and not-so-young, unfortunately prefer changing the course to Port side in head-on and nearly head-on situations. I see this as a huge problem on nowadays ships.
However, when I was a boy, say 40 years ago, my late grandfather used to say: "Who are those young men, they do not know nothing about true seamanship...". So it looks like in the meantime nothing big has changed.

[DeepSeaDiver1000]

Speaking about ECDIS - I was wondering about that. Do you all think any one of these ships had this Totem Plus system?

http://www.totemplus.com/ecdis.html

[smithy166]

Speaking about ECDIS - I was wondering about that. Do you all think any one of these ships had this Totem Plus system?

http://www.totemplus.com/ecdis.html

I doubt it. I'm not sure it's a wise idea to have a system which advises oows on what action to take either, as there's a very real risk people will become over reliant on it.

[DeepSeaDiver1000]

Good answer smithy166 cheers to you from my hole LOL

[DeepSeaDiver1000]

Update about the Northern Jasper - Article credit fleetmon and Mikhail Voytenko

https://www.fleetmon.com/maritime-news/2016/12779/northern-jasper-vs-safmarine-meru-update-may-11/

[Gerry Radt]

You know Phil,you maybe stating facts.
However we see more and more accidents and collisions happening at sea,on rivers in harbors and at approaches.
Makes one wonder why with all today's technological advances,that no one uses the age old system of opening your eyes,and see whats happening.Rather then relying on all the fancy equipment.
And yes as an ex-sailor I too question the abilities of today's sailors.

PS;I studied at the Zeevaartschool De Ruyter in Vlissingen ,3rd Officer Foreign Going.Passed
worked for van Nievelt Goudriaan.

[em777]

Why Gerry would you question the abilities of today's sailors? Was your ability questioned by ex seafarers when you were at sea?

At the end of the day, incidents have, do and will happen and as most people know an incident is just a result of a series of breakdowns.
Yes some sailors are better than others and of course some are far more experienced. But until we know all of the findings of the said incident it is unfair to put blame solely on one sailor. Upon hearing of a plane crash the flight crew aren't immediately blamed. Failures leading up to what may or may not be pilot error are attributed and looked at for their significance beforehand. This could have been a total breakdown in bridge resource management or simple communication breakdown by a team of people.

It's not fair or appropriate I feel to question a sailors ability unless the facts are known and that to generalise the ability of 'modern sailors' as a whole is wrong. As I've  said before, it comes down to the person to an extent, but also the training colleges and courses, the crew as a team and even the employer and working conditions.

John

[Bob Scott]

There seems to be an awful lot of Luddites out there. I am sure that, if it had not been for the introduction over the years of VHF, radar, ACAS, ARPA, AIS, ECDIS and all the other electronic gismos, collisions would be much more frequent than they are today.