As someone who spends many hours on the navigation bridge I read with great interest your article about bridge navigation watch alarm systems (BNWAS; Feb, p16).
In every navigational watch you hear a variety of audible alarms. It may start with the GMDSS alerting you to a storm, an iceberg or an accident, for example. To cancel the sound, you have to press two buttons every time, one on each terminal. That may be necessary up to 20 times per watch. Then there’s the MF DSC alarm, which may be telling you either that a ship needs help or that an officer on a ship pressed the wrong button. If you have a dewatering system installed in the cargo holds you may hear a very powerful alarm – hopefully, a false one.
That is not the end, as the steering gear system may provide an alert about some malfunction. If you switched on the waypoint arrival alarm on the GPS receiver and radar, each device will sound when the ship comes to the waypoint. The AIS receiver has its own secrets and its alarm is followed by that connected to the GPS receiver. And if, as sometimes happens, the GPS receiver loses the fix, guess what will happen!
So we already have plenty of alarms on the bridge – I haven’t mentioned them all – which keep us busy. Why, then, do we need a BNWAS? Is it because there is nobody on the bridge when a ship is under way or there is an officer who, instead of keeping his watch in accordance with maritime practice, sleeps?
This begs several questions. Why is the officer not on the bridge? Perhaps he is busy with some other job, like paper work. Is paper work more important than keeping the bridge watch?
Why does the officer sleep on the bridge when the ship is under way or at the anchor? Some would say he is tired through working too many hours without rest. But how is that possible, when the IMO requires watch-keepers to have at least 10 hours rest in every 24, consisting of not more than two periods, one of which has to be of not less than six hours except in emergencies (the 10-hour rest period may also be reduced to not less than six consecutive hours for not more than two days)?
The answers are that there are too few people on board to keep the ship safe, and paper work is more important than safety itself.
In conclusion I would say that working six on/six off is acceptable in port but not during navigation. Every ship should have two watch-keepers (officer and AB) on the bridge at night and in poor visibility.
Every ship needs one additional officer to handle paperwork and should have a rested AB on the wheel. Too many alarms increase fatigue. Most mistakes on board are consequences of mistakes of those ashore.
I don’t believe the BNWAS should be compulsory, but, if it is installed, the master should be the one to decide whether/when to have it switched on.
Source: Safety At Sea International 03.04.2008.
By: Captain Doctor Ivica Tijardovic
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