Occupational mortality among British merchant seafarers (1986-1995)

The decline of the British merchant fleet in recent years has led to an increasing proportion of British seafarers taking employment in flags of convenience and other foreign-registered vessels. It is then a matter of some importance as to whether the British seafarers who serve in foreign ships are at greater risk of mortality and, when fatalities do occur, whether the deaths are appropriately investigated. Using information obtained from files at the Registrar General for Shipping, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and many Coroners, it is evident that British seafarers serving in foreign vessels were, during the study period 1986-1995, at greater risk of mortality through work-related accidents, suicides and unexplained disappearances at sea. Those serving in the British fleet, however, died more frequently through illnesses, and through off-duty accidents and drowning. When fatalities occurred in the British fleet, the relevant log book extracts were routinely deposited with the appropriate British authorities; for deaths in FOC vessels these documents were rarely forthcoming. While the deaths of British seafarers were investigated in the large majority of cases, foreign flag state authorities seldom conducted inquiries; it was the British authorities who usually conducted the investigations.     

Seafarers’ perceptions of competency in risk assessment and management: an empirical study

Past analysis of accident investigations suggest an absence of or inadequate practices of risk assessment and management on board vessels. Although the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (ISM Code) requires that the risk management process must not only be correctly formulated and implemented but also be periodically evaluated in order to verify that these objectives are attained, the correct and effective implementation and application of the process cannot be achieved without active involvement of competent seafarers on board. Due to the limited investigation of seafarers’ competencies in risk management, the reasons for the inadequacies in the process that are leading to accidents were not evident. Hence, using a survey, this paper conducted a pilot study investigating seafarers’ perceptions of competency in the various components of the risk management process conducted on board vessels. The findings of this paper suggest an overall satisfaction with the risk assessment process. However, there is certainly room for improvement as far as seafarers’ performance is concerned. The findings of this paper provided valuable insights into the current training regimes in the area of risk assessment and management paving the way towards enhanced safety procedures on board vessels.     

Participation in the global labour market: experience and responses of chinese seafarers

Regarding their participation in the global labour market, this paper draws attention to the complexity of Chinese seafarer composition and experience. How do they approach the opportunities available? What is the linkage between working for the national fleet and working onboard foreign vessels? Which factors influence their participation? The above issues are addressed by a questionnaire survey conducted in the Port of Hong Kong in 2002/2003. There are many findings from this survey. First, differing from the sole employment pattern of state-owned enterprise (SOE) in the past, a new group, called non-state-owned (NSO) seafarers, is emerging with the target of international recruitment. Second, Chinese seafarers driven by both supply and demand factors desire to engage fully in the global labour market. Third, Chinese seafarers are embarrassed and confused by income inequality both internationally and nationally, which is partly related to the mismanagement in its recruitment. Fourth, a lack of multi-national environments also constrains them from English improvement and professional development.     

Maritime legislation: new areas for safety of life at sea

This study reveals areas where IMO regulations of safety of life at sea can be improved upon. After examination of 5389 mortality and 3559 accident cases of UK seamen and 6878 fatalities of worldwide seamen, it finds fatalities due to personal accidents on board ship constitute ~90% of all mortality cases. Therefore, prevention of personal accidents should be given a higher priority. It reveals also that accidents involving coastal (domestic) ferries were another concern in the safety of life in shipping, e.g. in 1996 alone more than 2562 fatalities occurred in this sector. As a case study, the nationalities of 364 deceased seamen in bulk carrier disasters (1990?1998) are identified. Fatalities to British and worldwide seamen are based on the data obtained from various sources. However, fatalities to seamen working on board open registry ships are the best estimation, based on the information available to the authors.     

Maritime legislation: new areas for safety of life at sea

This study reveals areas where IMO regulations of safety of life at sea can be improved upon. After examination of 5389 mortality and 3559 accident cases of UK seamen and 6878 fatalities of worldwide seamen, it finds fatalities due to personal accidents on board ship constitute ～90% of all mortality cases. Therefore, prevention of personal accidents should be given a higher priority. It reveals also that accidents involving coastal (domestic) ferries were another concern in the safety of life in shipping, e.g. in 1996 alone more than 2562 fatalities occurred in this sector. As a case study, the nationalities of 364 deceased seamen in bulk carrier disasters (1990–1998) are identified. Fatalities to British and worldwide seamen are based on the data obtained from various sources. However, fatalities to seamen working on board open registry ships are the best estimation, based on the information available to the authors.     

A study on time constraints and task deviations at sea leading to accidents – a cultural-historical perspective

The high frequency of maritime accidents and incidents occurring at sea has been a major challenge for the maritime industry in the last decades. The majority of these accidents are attributed to seafarers’ poor performance. This, despite the fact that the international maritime domain continues to adopt and update conventions regulating maritime safety to mitigate these accidents from occurring. In this paper, utilising a qualitative research approach, we show through a socio-cultural contextual perspective that time constraints as a major influencing factor in causing task deviations at sea which leads to dangerous situations. We analyse how some of the present barriers in place to prevent accidents at sea are in effect prompt seafarers who are working under time pressure to deviate from their task. Moreover, the paper discusses the social constituents such as job insecurity and the seafarers’ viewpoint towards the ship operators’ commitment to safe ship operations are crucial in motivating seafarers’ deviating from the task at hand when faced with time pressure.     

2020全球限硫令对海员权益的影响

2020全球限硫令的推出,对各方均造成了极大的影响。为确保海员权益不受损害,文章结合国内外资料以及对部分海员的访谈,在国内首次系统分析了2020全球限硫令的实施对海员在人身安全、职业健康、工作休息、工资报酬、责任追究等五方面影响;并首次从船东和主管机关的角度分别提出了履行2020全球限硫令时保护海员权益的建议,即船东要加强培训、确保船舶配员、关注海员职业健康和工资报酬,船旗国和港口国主管机关要加强海员权益保护检查、确保提供合格燃料油以及给予海员足够的宽容和理解等。     

The reform of Chinese state-owned ship crewing agencies and implications for China’s seafaring labour export

ABSTRACT

With the economic reform in China, the international shipping industry and some academics anticipated, as early as the 1990s, that Chinese seafarers would flood the world’s seafaring labour market. However, China’s seafarer export has been far lower than these expectations. This article seeks to explain this lack of development through research into the management strategies of two major ship crewing agencies in China, which have been reformed to different degrees, and the experience of the seafarers who work for them. To examine this question, 86 interviews of managers and seafarers were conducted in two Chinese state-owned crewing agencies (SCAs) between 2008 and 2013. The studies demonstrate that despite the economic reform in China, the SCAs were still supported and constrained by institutions at higher levels, instead of becoming independent, market-oriented economic entities, which constrained the development of foreign manning business. This partly explains the limited rate of increase of China’s seafarer export.     

《海商法》修改中关于船员外派的若干法律问题

随着社会的发展,中国《海商法》中某些方面的缺失和滞后严重影响着立法目的实现,特别是关于船员外派方面,直接导致了对船员的保护不足和法律适用上的困难。结合船员劳务外派工作实务中的一些常见问题,从修改完善《海商法》的角度来进行分析和论证,提出在《海商法》中设立专章或单独设立《船员法》来对船员外派的性质、外派企业的法律地位、船员的特殊保护等方面进行明确规定,以为船员的法律救济提供依据。     

Causes of casualties and the regulation of occupational health and safety in the shipping industry

The aim of this paper is to investigate maritime safety from an occupational hazards perspective as opposed to a maritime casualty perspective. It is recognised that safety in shipping should encompass casualties arising from accidents occurring in the course of performing normal seafaring duties, not just those arising from technical defects or maritime disasters. The paper discusses an investigation involving a survey of 19 flag states and two detailed studies of records kept at the Hong Kong and Singapore maritime administrations. The results indicate that occupational accidents account for a significant proportion of fatalities at sea. The statistics presented specify the ship types that are most at risk, as well as the types of occupational hazards that can most frequently lead to accidents and fatalities. The results of this study indicate voids in the process of investigating fatalities that relate to occupational accidents. These results also indicate inadequate investigation of events and causes. The creation of a database of such information could potentially be used for the development of appropriate regulations that could prevent fatal and non-fatal occupational accidents through regulatory processes.     

港口国监督检查在外国籍船舶事故险情风险防控中的应用

文中基于对全球船舶事故险情现状及原因分析,提出应强化港口国监督检查在外国籍船舶事故险情风险防控中的应用。同时从国际法背景、实施可行性、具体操作流程以及实际案例等角度论证了“广义港口国监督”能够时事故险情船实施有效控制,并以此引导抵港外轮提升在港内的表现     

Determinants of the severity of passenger vessel accidents

This study investigates determinants of the number of injured, deceased and missing occupants and the damage cost of passenger vessel accidents that were investigated by the US Coast Guard for the years 1991-2001. Negative binomial and Poisson regression estimates suggest that: (1) passenger-freight combination vessel accidents incur greater injuries than other types of passenger vessels, (2) deaths are greater when precipitation weather and poor visibility exist and (3) missing occupants are greater for capsize accidents and larger the vessel. The damage cost per vessel gross ton is less for ocean cruise and steel-hulled vessels. The major conclusion of the study is that human (as opposed to environmental and vessel) causes of passenger vessel accidents result in increases in the number of injured, deceased and missing occupants.     

Transformations and continuities of issues related to Chinese participation in the global seafarers’ labour market

Since the 1990s, Chinese seafarers have become a force to be reckoned with in the global seafarer labour market, particularly against the backdrop of the manning crisis. Compared with other groups of seafarers dominating the market such as the Filipinos and the Indians, they are commonly associated with perceptions of low cost, poor English skills, different safety/work culture, problems with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, etc. This article identifies transformations and continuities of problems related to Chinese seafarers in the global market in the last two decades or so by reviewing relevant Lloyd’s List reports as well as official documents and previous research. The review shows that Chinese authorities have been taking various initiatives to take advantage of the manning crisis and to expand and promote seafarer education, supply and export, which in general serve to make seafarers better educated and improve their communication skills. Although such initiatives have helped increase seafaring labour export, the success is nevertheless limited by tight government control on recruitment, which makes some foreign managers reluctant to employ Chinese seafarers.     

渔船编队规划模型

船舶编队规划通常归属于线性规划，用单纯形法求解，但对渔船，可能因渔场资源的可捕获量与各渔船年捕获量不匹配，而导致无解。本文提出，对这类问题可以先用匈牙利法求解，以得到渔场资源可捕获量多或少于渔船年捕获量的信息。根据此信息可以处理单纯形法的约束方程组中等式和不等式的关系，从而求出使目标函数值为最小的解。     

Analysis of occupational accidents encountered by deck cadets in maritime transportation

The 2010 Manila amendments to the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code (STCW) was adopted by the idea to render the profession more attractive to the seafarers, particularly to cadets. It is possible to ensure greater attraction only by providing suitable and safe working conditions on board to cadets. This study analyses occupational accidents and near misses encountered by ocean going deck cadets, who received A-II/I training, during their sea training. The aim of this study was to determine causal factors influencing work accidents and to propose several recommendations for the safety of deck cadets. A total of 857 officer candidates, who received maritime education at university level in Turkey, were interviewed. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used in the study to analyse the occupational accidents. As a result of this study on deck cadets, the most risky areas for work accidents were found to be the deck (39.9%), cargo areas (35.7%), areas used for manoeuvring operations (including winch areas and areas in which berthing, unberthing, and anchoring operations take place) (16.1%), and accommodation areas (8.3%). The most important root causes for occupational accidents were identified as not using personal protective equipment (24.2%), haste (22.6%), and presence in inappropriate places (13.6%). This study offers some important insight into the prevention of occupational accidents, and includes suggestions and advisory opinions of sector representatives. As a result of this study, several recommendations for the prevention of accidents are proposed.     

Predictive power of inspection outcomes for future shipping accidents – an empirical appraisal with special attention for human factor aspects

This paper investigates whether deficiencies detected during port state control (PSC) inspections have predictive power for future accident risk, in addition to other vessel-specific risk factors like ship type, age, size, flag, and owner. The empirical analysis links accidents to past inspection outcomes and is based on data from all around the globe of PSC regimes using harmonized deficiency codes. These codes are aggregated into eight groups related to human factor aspects like crew qualifications, working and living conditions, and fatigue and safety management. This information is integrated by principal components into a single overall deficiency index, which is related to future accident risk by means of logit models. The factor by which accident risk increases for vessels with above average compared to below average deficiency scores is about 6 for total loss, 2 for very serious, 1.5 for serious, and 1.3 for less-serious accidents. Relations between deficiency scores and accident risk are presented in graphical format. The results may be of interest to PSC authorities for targeting inspection areas, to maritime administrations for improving asset allocation based on prediction scenarios connected with vessel traffic data, and to maritime insurers for refining their premium strategies.     

Common patterns in aggregated accident analysis charts from human fatigue-related groundings and collisions at sea

Research has shown that there are potentially disastrous outcomes of human fatigue at sea. The conditions in which the seafarers have to operate are becoming more and more demanding. The study in this article attempts to aggregate accident charts derived from in-depth studies of human fatigue-related accidents to determine common patterns of interlinked fatigue factors. The accidents are analyzed by means of the Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM), which in the article has been modified for maritime accidents. The main fatigue factors identified are ‘shift work’, ‘irregular working hours’, ‘inadequate task allocation’, and ‘excessive demands’. The study reveals several differences between ship collision and grounding accidents and their corresponding fatigue factors. Human fatigue-related collision accidents are characterized by wrong/badly timed decisions, misconceptions, and poor communication between the vessels. Right before the collision the crew is often panicking and mistakes are easily made. In human fatigue-related groundings, the conditions are often monotonous and the navigating officer has either overlooked the upcoming seabed or simply fallen asleep. Safety climate issues are also identified as important contributors to human fatigue.     

Determinants of Indian sub-continent officer–seafarer retention in the shipping industry

The retention of officer–seafarers within the international shipping industry is a difficult problem facing shipping and ship management companies. One strategic option open to all companies that should improve overall retention is to seek to become an employer of choice by providing an intellectual capital environment attractive to officer–seafarers. This is investigated through a survey of officer–seafarers covering areas where ship management can exercise some control over their working conditions. These cover recognition by their employer and commensurate rewards, organizational culture and structure and building relationships with external parties. Experienced Indian sub-continent officer–seafarers were the sample population resulting in more than 200 valid completions. These were analysed using correlation and regression. Although all hypotheses were in the predicted direction, only four passed the significance test: long-term career prospects, a smooth and fair recruitment process, a better relationship with maritime authorities and an employee-friendly organizational culture. Stepwise regression indicated that only organizational culture had a significant positive effect on intention to remain a seafarer. The items in the organizational culture construct accord with recommendations from the literature on becoming an employer of choice and improving employee retention, providing guidance for attracting and retaining officers.     

内河LNG动力船舶船员培训探讨

文中通过分析国外LNG船舶船员培训的现状和当前内河LNG动力船舶常用知识和技能,结合笔者跟船的的实际操作体会,对内河LNG动力船舶船员培训相关内容进行初步探讨。     

水产品船船员、鲜销船船员管理历史沿革及现状

文中对水产品船船员、鲜销船船员的历史沿革进行了详细的分析与研究,并对当前这部分船员的管理现状和新政策进行了分析阐述,可为我国船员管理提供有益的参考和借鉴。