I think most of us of a certain age feel that STCW introduction was the thin end of the wedge dumbing down the status of a number of maritime countries's own marine licences, especially those of the countries with long maritime traditions. After all if you are writing a set of standards for a world-wide industry you have to set it at a level that anyone can reach, not at the highest standards set by those traditional nations whose ticket standards were regard as the highest.
However out of STCW there is one clause that I whole heartidly endorse and that is for the first time ever seafarers hours are regulated and rest bperiods have to be adhered to. This has led to a decrease in fatigue related incidents as any reputable employer can be hit very severley in the pocket if these rules are not followed. In the tanker industry vetting inspectors and port state inspectors are very keen on checking records and any failure to keep true hours of rest/work records can lead to your ship not being allowed to carry an oil majors cargo or even being detained. I know of cases whereby one ship in a fleet failed a vetting inspection amongst which was innacurate rest/work hours records. This one ships failure cost the owner $50000 for one day as it had to reschedule the rest of his fleet to get his ships into position to carry the cargoes that the failed ship would have carried with the knock on effect of ships having to be switched between cargoes and ports.
My last employers were very hot on this issue, even to the point of increasing crew size and aslo ensuring that the shore people e.g. ships agents, attended within 1 hour of the ship berthing.
Our longest trips between ports was 2.5 days and we had many pilotages of 10-12 hours in amongst those trips.
At first it was thought that Masters and Chief Engineers fell outside of these work/rest hours regs. as they are normally classed as day-workers. However the minute the Master or Chief Engineer took over the bridge/engine room on approach to the pilot station or in heavy traffic or any other situation where they would have to take over, they immediatley come under the regs. which means that they have to have had 6 hrs rest before taking over (that simplyfying a bit but basically that is the requirement). The backing that my employer gave over this issue should be the standard bearer for the rest of the industry, one Captain actually refused to sail from a berth in a busy port due to all his crew being outside the rest hours regulations caused by a number of external factors beyond his control and the company backed him to the hilt even arranging a layby berth and shore watchmen in order that the whole crew could be properly rested.
Now this leads me onto another question regarding passenger ship masters.
Looking at some cruise itinerities, especially short 7 day Medi. and Caribbean cruises, they seem to spend very little time at sea which is strange to me because its at sea where they make their dosh on bar and shop sales.
I know there are staff captains etc. on board cruise ships so much of the day to day trivia of the Masters job is taken of his hands but that does still not relieve him/her of their overall command and decision making requirements.
On top of this he has the task of being the Companies "face" and has entertaining duties to carry out. So a thought struck me, say the ship is arriving in port at 0700 after a two hours pilotage which means in theory the Master would take over the con at around 0400. Now at what time the previous day would his employers agree would be a good time for him to give up his entertaining duties in order that he could be sufficiently rested to take over at 0400. Regulations put this at 2200 but that assumes that there has been no call on him after 2200.
Now the ship is in port and I assume that he must have in port duties relating to the running of the vessel, yet his ship is due to sail at say 2200, so does he mean that at 1600 he can say, thats it I'm off to bed now to get my 6 hours rest before taking the ship to sea again. Somehow I'm not too sure that this happens, so do we have senior officers on cruise ships working hours that fail the work/rest regs of STCW?. Should have asked Capt. Kong to question the Master of the Q.E2 when he was on his cruise. This scenario of course also applies to the Chief Engineer as he too would have in port duties (bunkering etc.).
Your thoughts on this lads.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)