Singapore Accident

[John Arton]

Either already in force or shortly coming into force, is the requirement for all ships to be fitted with an automatic bridge watchkeeping alarm system that has motion sensor as part of its fit, so no sleepies in the bridge chair for the watch keeper and if they dont press the reset button at correct interval, no sleep for anyone.
Should at least prevent ships crashing due to watch keeper being fast asleep, though will not stop collisions due to incompetence.
rgds
JA

[Colin McClelland]

Watchkeeping alarms are not a new thing.
I sailed on a few American built ships 20 years ago that had these alarms on the bridge and the engine control room.
The captain and the chief engineer would set the time interval required between pressing the button to stop the alarm going off.

Regards Colin

[Lou Barron]

I remember the 2nd mate on the D/Bedford telling me when on lookout always report every thing you see i took all this in .Then he said if it is a mass of seaweed there could be a floating mine and also a flock of birds as they could be a jerry plane in there so on watch with this 2nd mate i reported a school of porpoises he came over and said its porpoises and i said i thought i might be a jerry sub he looked at and laughedand said well done and by theway he was a very good 2nd mate he learnt me a lot

[Bill Bland]

I was an A.B.on M.V.Canopic when this collision ocurred.
Masters name of Canopic was Capt. Tudor.
Hudson Firth came out of thick fog from Canopics port quarter and hit us at No3 hatch behind vthe bridge. Master of Hudson Firth was on his starboard wing, he called up to us on Canopics deck what damage we could see had been done to his bow. If my menory serves me well, all he had was a badly bent stem post. With that he slid baCK INTO, THE FOG.

[Captain Kong]

Watchkeeping alarms

I saw a watch keeping alarm on a tanker in 1980 on one of their old ships. built in 1960.
You had to hit the button every half hour. Didnt last long the Captain didnt want to be woken up.
Sometimes you would forget, specially if your busy with traffic etc.
Brian.

[robpage]

The easy answer to forgetting would be a bell locally , that rings for a full two minutes before the , I am awake ! button has to be pushed

[Tony Morcom]

Courtesy of our friends @ gCaptain

Vessel Sinks After Colliding with High Speed Ferry Off Singapore, 1 Crew Unaccounted For

By Bloomberg On March 9, 2013



Sea Hawk, image courtesy LittleWalter/Shipspotting.com

(Bloomberg) — An Indonesian-registered vessel sank in Singapore waters after colliding with a ferry this morning, triggering a search and rescue operation for one missing crew member, according to the Maritime and Port Authority.
The Budi Jasa 18 was involved in a collision with Sea Hawk, a ferry carrying 200 passengers, in the West Keppel Fairway, the authority said in a statement. While other vessels have been ordered to keep clear of the search-and-rescue area, port operations are not affected, according to the statement.
Divers and four maritime and police coast guard craft have been activated for the operation, it said. Five crew from the Budi Jasa 18, described as a coaster craft, were rescued, with one reported missing, it said.
Eight people on the Sea Hawk, which was traveling to Singapore’s Bukom Island, suffered injuries, the authority said. The authority received a report about the sinking at 6:25 a.m. local time.
Singapore, a city-state at the southern end of the Malacca Strait, is home to the world’s second-busiest container port.
- Andrea Tan, Copyright 2013 Bloomberg.

[Tony Wilding]

Is there any more News of the first Collision, did the smaller Ship sink, ?

[Stan Carter]

appears the hudson firth did'nt do fog very well, hope it was'nt the same skipper. that would be hard to live down.
regards, stan

[j.sabourn]

Was looking on the internet for any follow up to the recent accident. Apparently was considered minor. Believe was a Turkish vessel and some Asiatic ship. One anchored for repairs and other went on way. Beggars belief, years ago both ships would have been detained for an enquiry. Seems our lax laws extend to maritime casualitys also now. The actual film was taken by another vessel in the other lane going the other way according to the report and the date given as the 2 or 3 March. Would have thought the exact date and time would have been logged by the shore routing authority. Gives to me a bad smell of inefficiency to the merchant fleets of today. Some things have changed for the worse. Regards John Sabourn