In the age of state of art navigational equipments and aids, where the bridge watch keepers are supposed to be better equipped to take right decisions, collision of ships do occur from time to time, because of several reasons, which I am not discussing here and leave it to you to comment on.

So it is a perfect platform that we discuss procedures to follow in case of such mishappening and try to come out with the best practices.

This blog I am writing after consulting safety procedures of various companies, but yes more can be added to it(as I am a marine engineer but interested in all aspects of ship’s operation), for which I count on you as reader and as a responsible and cautious seafarer to add more in comment of this blog

• The Engine Room as a whole can be regarded as a high risk area with some positions inside the machinery spaces carrying a higher risk than others.(like purifier spaces and Fuel oil system modules)
• By far the majority of the combustible materials in the Engine Room are Class B(oil).Although a fire in the Engine Room may well be electrical (Class C) in origin, ultimately a serious fire will probably be Class B.
• Foam is the best fire fighting medium to combat an oil fire and the Emergency Party should use the portable foam making equipment.
• The Engineer who discovers a fire in the Machinery Space must immediately consider the following:-

           (a) Raising the Alarm.

           (b) If oil is involved-stopping the flow of oil to the fire.

           (c) Bringing the above portable foam making equipment, or other portable fire        fighting equipment into action. He should continue to tackle the fire until the Emergency Party arrives, when the Second Engineer will direct operations.

Two  researchers from Sweden’s Uppsala University have recently released some findings of a rather interesting study that dispel popular beliefs dating back to the Titanic about the anatomy of shipwreck survival.

According to the study, titled “Every Man for Himself: Gender, Norms and Survival in Maritime Disasters“, researchers found that in the case of a maritime disaster the age-old ‘women and children first’ does not hold, and in reality is more like ‘every man for himself’.  In fact, women and children have substantially lower chance of survival than men, particularly than that of the captain and crew, the study finds.

In order to come to this conclusion the study’s authors, economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson, analyzed data based on 18 of the most notable shipwrecks during the period 1852 to 2011 with information on the fates of more than 15,000 people with one, well two, critical-yet-obvious exceptions; the RMS Titanic and RMS Lusitania. Why not include these? Simply put, the Titanic (and RMS Lusitania) disasters were exceptional.

Reports from SCI’s 2012 Shore Leave Survey show a continued need for convenient seafarers’ access to shore leave.

The Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) announces the results of its eleventh annual Seafarer Shore Leave Survey. Port chaplains from 29 United States ports collected data on seafarers’ shore leave during the first week in May. Although the data show a reduced percentage of ships reporting detained seafarers, they also indicate the continued challenges foreign seafarers face when trying to secure much-needed shore leave in United States ports.

The Shore Leave Survey indicates that of those seafarers denied shore leave, 81% were denied shore leave because of either a lack of visa or an invalid visa. The United States is the only major maritime nation that requires foreign seafarers to have a visa to go ashore. Other contributing factors included vessel restrictions, company restrictions and terminal restrictions. Although terminal access restrictions showed improvement from last year’s Survey, some terminals continue to charge seafarers exorbitant fees for simple escorts through terminals.

Bills of lading have been known from at least the thirteenth century. At that times shippers (usually the owners of the goods) as a rule accompanied their cargoes on the voyage to destination and bill of lading served only as an invoice of the goods shipped. 

Later, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when larger ships has begun to carry varied cargoes belonging to several shippers this practice gradually came to naught and it became the custom to incorporate the terms of the contract of carriage into bill of lading. 

Finally to meet requirements of businessmen who wished to sell the goods before the vessel reached its destination bill of lading extended its status to a document of title. Thus at the end of the eighteenth century bill of lading was characterised as:

Development of the ISM Code

A number of very serious accidents which occurred during the late 1980's, were manifestly caused by human errors, with management faults also identified as contributing factors.

Lord Justice Sheen in his inquiry into the loss of the Herald of Free Enterprise famously described the management failures as "the disease of sloppiness".

Recently I had joined "oceanuslive.org", a website dedicated to Maritime security,for which it has  some collaboratory tools to highlight the piracy incidents in the oceans.They also publish some reports on piracy with their own and do analysis .

I found an article about the Survival of a seafarer as a hostage,which I think is worth making a blog.

So here it begins...

This is a blog I found in a website titled "Maritime bulletin", a shipowner oriented portal for merchant navy.You may find how this blogger is unaware and careless about conditions of seafarers of all world in various types of ships and is completely non-sympathetic of the rigors of seamen.

Please read the views of this writer about the Maritime Labour Convention(Bill of rights) and who criticizes the fruit which we seafarers and the unions have achieved after a long fight,in the form of Bill of rights in Maritime labour convention.

When the twentieth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill came around [in 2009], a lot of the mythology surrounding the incident came around again, too. Everybody knows, for instance, that Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the tanker, was drunk at the time of the incident. Except, this was never proved. In his trial following the incident in Prince William Sound, Hazelwood was acquitted of being under the influence of alcohol at the time of the oil spill. In fact, he was acquitted of all felony charges, though he was convicted of a misdemeanor charge (negligent discharge of oil) and his master’s license was suspended under Coast Guard administrative rules.

Also untrue is the story that Hazelwood left the bridge under the supervision of an unlicensed mate. Third Mate Gregory Cousins was a licensed mate, what he lacked was the endorsement required by oil tanker watch officers to operate in Prince William Sound. Cousins was cleared of any charges related to the incident.

The Exxon Valdez may be the most famous oil spill, but it’s not even close to being the largest. Ten years before the incident in Alaska, the Atlantic Empress collided with the Aegean Captain off Trinidad and Tobago in the eastern Caribbean. The resulting spill dumped 287,000 metric tons (about 84 million gallons) into the sea, compared with the Exxon Valdez’s 37,000 metric tons (about 10.8 million gallons). The Exxon Valdez doesn’t even make the top ten in terms of size of spill.

This article is to provide in simple terms an explanation of how letter of credit works..

In the beginning there is a seller and buyer who want to conclude a business transaction.. Now they might or might not know each other or might or might not trust each other in terms of finiancial obligations..

Because of the time it takes for cargoes shipped from foreign ports to reach their destination, importers have to find a way of guaranteeing payment to exporters before the goods are received.. The answer is a letter of credit – an instruction by the importer’s bank to an overseas bank to pay the exporting company in advance.. The banks naturally charge interest for this service..