Chapter 15 

Assertiveness and Motivation – Integrity of the Audit– Norms for continuous improvement

Assertiveness: to say the thing right.

To say the thing right is part of the accountability (to do the thing right) acts inside a company or organization by the driving power of “sense of belonging” to do something good within our own power. But to say it right to an outside parties is different thing as   Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines assertiveness as: "a form of behavior characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view". We need another strong motivation to make us doing as requested, part of inner leadership.

Behavior characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof is not an easy task for normal people. For we get used to “defer to authority” rely on others to make the decision or negotiate the better terms for our life ever since we are still a small child. This is the first problem. The second problem is the confidence we had in ourself, without need of proof. The third problem is the statement we made is convincible or not. The most important problem is “will they act as my request”?

Relationship of the Pilot with the ship’s Master

For example, the relationship of the Pilot with the ship’s Master is in this domain. “Well trained competent individuals can still have faulty situational awareness, imperfect judgment, insufficient experience with new situations, or be burdened with multiple tasks or problems in a crisis that overcome their ability to cope”, like to say a pilot. “In pilotage waters the workload on the bridge increases, the time between error and consequences is reduced to a very short interval, and specialized knowledge in close quarters ship handling and local conditions are required”, like to say the Master.

To a pilot association view; We try to emphasize that the pilots primary obligation should not be to the shipowner or master as a private service provider, but to the public represented by the Pilot Authority that appointed him and the Legislature that created the pilotage system. It is recognized that the pilot’s future employment should not depend upon how well he satisfies the shipowner’s commercial interests.

To a shipping line view: The emphasis is on the ship manager’s needs or objectives, or more recently, on defining the master/pilot relationship in terms that fit the company's "Bridge Team Management" plan or guide. They seek to define the role and function of the pilot on their own terms and conditions with their priorities or viewpoint given paramount consideration. 

“ On the bridge of a ship the master/ pilot relationship might best be understood if we make a distinction between Power and Authority. Power can be defined as the ability to act without regard to the right to act, while Authority can be described as the right to act without regard to the means or ability to complete the act. At sea the master has both the power and the authority over the ship and its crew, but on entering pilotage waters the authority to direct and control the movement of the ship shifts by operation of our laws to the pilot (UNION SHIPPING V. U. S. 127 F. 2D 775 (1942)). What binds their relationship together is that the pilots authority can only be exercised in co-operation with the masters power to command the crew, and the master's power to have the ship moved can only be lawfully exercised in co-operation with the pilots authority to direct and control the movement of that ship. (Quoted from 

MASTER / PILOT RELATIONSHIP 

THE ROLE OF THE PILOT IN RISK MANAGEMENT  Captain GEORGE A. QUICK)

“ The master has the right, and in fact the duty, to intervene or displace the pilot in circumstances where the pilot is manifestly incompetent or incapacitated or the ship is in immediate danger ("in .extremis") due to the pilots actions.

State-licensed pilots are expected to act in the public interest and to maintain a professional judgment that is independent of any desires that do not comport with the needs of maritime safety. In addition, licensing and regulatory authorities, state and federal, require compulsory pilots to take all reasonable actions to prevent ships under their navigational direction from engaging in unsafe operations. Because of these duties, a compulsory pilot is not a member of the bridge "team." Nevertheless, a pilot is expected to develop and maintain a cooperative, mutually-supportive working relationship with the master and bridge crew in recognition of the respective responsibility of each for safe navigation. (Quoted for Resolution adopted by the Board of Trustees of the American Pilots’ Association on October 8, 1997)

What we have a shortage of is an understanding of existing laws and a clear view of what practices or policies should be adopted to improve safety?  Questioned by Captain GEORGE A. QUICK. 

Assertiveness of the ship’s Master with the Pilot.

Relationship of the Pilot with the ship’s Master had confused the senior pilot and every Master on board. Seafarer never takes enough training (In law, local Geographic, local current, tide, sand bar……) before he joined the vessel like no one can fully understand the whole truth of this world. We are carried with the LT memory of work to support out career if possible. We do what we saw others do in our career, no more no less. This is the fifth problem we faced. Take the case below for reference:

One container vessel overspeeded in Kaohsiung and collided with the gentry crane which had collapsed after the collision. As the drawing below, ship has 1.7 knots SOG(speed over Ground) while his bow collided with gentry crane. At this point, vessel should not have any speed remained from his approaching to berth. No speed at all and parallel to the berth direction and begin the berthing maneuvering is the standard operation procedures of the shipping company. Stop. Parallel and Berth. General principal of berthing Trilogy. What’s going wrong? 

When ship entering break water (B/W) entrance with pilot in speed over ground of 11.4 knot is considering “Normal” for the current outside the B/W is pushing vessel toward the North end of B/W. Vessel need more speed to activate rudder efficiency with stronger expelling wake current from the Main Engine Propeller higher revolutions. We can see the vessel’s heading is 090⁰(T), small dotted line along the ship’s fore and aft direction, in 04 19 23 UTC while the truth ship’s movement is toward 078⁰(T) COG Course Over Ground, showed by the red dashed line. 

When ship entering inner harbour entrance in speed over ground of 8.3 knot is considering “Abnormal” for no current is pushing and the vessel felt the resultant forces working the vessel toward the portside (ship’s heading 084⁰(T) and COG is 074⁰(T)). At this point, at least three indicators can tell something is terribly wrong.

l   The rate of turn: should be established by now to the starboard side while the Doppler log indicated vessel bow still turning to port side.

l   The COG indicator : Course over Ground should pointed to starboard side more than the heading 084⁰(T), not 074⁰(T) now.

l   The passing speed: it is hard for the ship’s master to determine what the excess speed in each port entrance is. Please refer to drawing in top right, the entrance side is solid bank. So it is helpful if Captain can remember what speed the pilot used to avoid the washing damage to the berthed vessel. Here the speed of entering should not over 6 knots at most. Ship’s momentum is not linearly proportional to speed only, like the bunker consumption in each revolution per minutes.    

The problems associated with assertiveness

Now let’s go back to see the problems a ship’s Master faced:

l   Rely on others to make the decision for us? 

It is surely not our wish to ask others to decide our fate. The problem remained as Can we take it over with our own power?.  “On entering pilotage waters the authority to direct and control the movement of the ship shifts by operation of our laws to the pilot (UNION SHIPPING V. U. S. 127 F. 2D 775 (1942) ” But “ The master has the right, and in fact the duty, to intervene or displace the pilot in circumstances where the pilot is manifestly incompetent or incapacitated or the ship is in immediate danger ("in .extremis") due to the pilots actions. Under three circumstances as above, Master can take it over with his power and has the duty to intervene.

l   Confidence we had in ourself, without need of proof?

Need of proof of what? The safety is the utmost concern not only to the ship but also to the pilot. Actually all our actions in the industrial all serve one basic function “for the sake of all good”. If everything ran smoothly no one will remember or mention it again. It is just normal operation. Once anything is go wrong everybody is suffering. Just doing what they are expecting from us (to take it over) won’t do any harm to our career. If we are in the Authority to do the right thing (even pilot take the con now), ours challenge is also serving the same purpose. In assertiveness, we don’t need to know everything. We just need to bring out our challenge. The pilot has the authority to con the ship now will proof its correctness to you if the time is amble to do that.

In immediate danger, the action expected from us is to displace the pilot. Can we do the pilot job? Yes, we can. Actually we might do it better than them. The reason is the compulsory implementation of ECDIS. What pilot has the geographical advantage over us had been replaced by the ECDIS. Although ECDIS can be used for chart display only, it is most efficiently used when all available ancillary systems and data are linked to it. This provides the mariner with convenient, detailed and accurate navigational information. 

What in old time the ship’s approaching shape pilot can best estimate by our ship’s water line profile now can be compensated with GPS and Consistent Common Reference Point (CCRP) like the approaching plan above. It is a bird view in top quite like only in GOD’s position can see it. Even the pilot has the bird view in before is only about something vaguely appear in his mental picture. Now the bird view is opened to all users on board like a text book.  The approaching shape used to be the privilege of an instructor in the simulator to analyze the timing and amplitude of each rudder and engine order. Now is also available on ECDIS playback. The master can monitor his vessel information with one glance on the ECDIS monitor or navigational console. The rate of turn, COG Vs. Heading, SOG at turning point are available at all times. Once the feeling of turning rate now had replaced by digital display on the wall or monitor in ROT meter ( degrees per minutes). 

The advantage of ship’s master to maneuver his vessel is the familiarity he has over the ship’s characteristics of turning and stopping and all thrusters available in his hand. There is no news now the ship’s master maneuvering his vessel to berth under the eyes of pilot.          

l   Statement we made is convincible or not?

Captain and pilot are in the same boat and on the same purpose. They bonded together on board to do the same thing. What Captain request from pilot should be responded properly. It is the basic knowledge in shiphandling that burst of engine and hard over rudder are desirable in getting better approaching shape ( bird view as in textbook ). Take away the engine revolutions immediately to make the approach speed more slowly and nicely. These serious slow speed maneuvering sequences usually are not the prefer type of pilot. It will take too many working hours on their duty time especially in a busy port with lots of vessel movement daily ( one movement one payment). Speeding like in a road accident is also the main reason in marine environment and with lots more serious consequence. Like the case on top, three gentry cranes were damaged and the terminal had to close 6 months for repairing and restoring the facilities, most of all, without any income for the terminal and for the shipping line which have to increase ship’s speed to compensate for the time lost in terminal operation. All these sufferings to the terminal and liner company, Mr. Pilot just say one word to Captain and left. “Sorry”.

As a leader inside or outside, one thing is important to our leadership. The energy within a statement is as important as the massage itself. Why Captain has to wait everything is out of control then regret for his undoing. Knowing what you want and what your limitations are and being able to express that in a confident and respective manner.

Assertiveness is the ability to say “no” because you know what you are capable of. In this world you have to not only know your limits, but be able to convey them to others. The secret of this assertiveness is your energy within.

In military training movie, we can see the Sergeant shouting at the civilian (in the far left) “Hello, what did you say?” “Sir, Yes Sir.”( left in the second place with yellow hair) “ I can’t hear you.” “Sir, Y-es Sir.”( in middle left position with more yellow hair ) “ Sir-, Ye-s Sir.” (in the middle right position where the muscle on arm are increased) “ Sir what?” “ Sir--, Ye—s Sir-.”( in the second place right with balck hair and stronger shoulder now) “Say again” “ Sir, Yees Sir-“ ( burst of energy in fully growing state. All muscle are used) 

These are our inner energy waiting to explore. The difference in sound between “respecting” and “ suspecting” is just too great. Some people seem to be naturally assertive. But if you're not one of them, you can learn to be more assertive by shouting in the poop deck. Or, reading out loud of any piece of paper as you are confident about yourself. Everyday in ten minutes, say it with energy you will get it. This is no joking in self training for leadership. Most of the time, you will need to say it with assertiveness to yourself. Self suspect is the worst enemy of all. Stop your negative thoughts with assertiveness.

l   Will they act as my request?

Beside the energy within, our assertiveness are also affected by the wordings we used to express. Once you had the energy to say no, just say no. we also have to take out any negative or self depressive expressions in our statement, only say no. Just “Command” and simple truth will be enough like “ Stop Engine, it’s too fast”, “Hard Port, no turning rate”, “Bow Thruster to port, heading is changed”. We don’t need to get pilot admiration or friendship, just make your concern clear will be enough. Those statements to say maybe because you mean maybe are not because you're putting somebody off for fear of saying no are not recommended. For example; “Mr. Pilot, could you reduce the speed a little?””It may Not a good idea to go Full Ahead.””The Bow may be too Close to the pier.””If we goi in this speed, the Ship cannot stop in time.”In our professionalism, effective communication is always more important than our politeness. Forget your courteous English, we should have the military precision to express our concerns and request. 

In the end, pilot may have the authority to handle the vessel. The power to execute these maneuvering is still in Master Hand. Unless obvious wrong act which will jeopardize the situation, Mr. Pilot will respect your concerns.   

l   We do what we saw others do in our career, no more no less.

One of our basic survival techniques is to watch what others doing. It is no exception in shipping. We see our mentor doing in the bridge with the pilot and follow their style as well. Once you are a Captain, it has very rare chance to see what other Captains are doing in the bridge unless you have joined exercise with other Captains in the training center. It is one of those important reasons to include the simulator exercises in HELM training. It is also most unlikely that an instructor can have the first hand experiences in bridge with the pilot of how the assertiveness of both sides could be carried out. We are all in the same learning cycle, no more no less. We all have to keep an open mind to these new era changes and take our responsibilities as requested. Assertiveness in Master side will not ruin the relationship with the pilot, but also a must-be while pilot in need as Captain GEORGE A. QUICK said “Well trained competent individuals can still have faulty situational awareness, imperfect judgment, insufficient experience with new situations, or be burdened with multiple tasks or problems in a crisis that overcome their ability to cope”

Assertiveness in our relationship and shipboard culture    

Assertiveness is the ability to honestly express your opinions, feelings, attitudes, and rights, without undue anxiety, in a way that doesn't infringe on the rights of others. If you don't know how to be assertive, you might experience:

l   Depression -- Anger turned inward, a sense of being helpless, hopeless, or of having no control over your life.

l   Resentment -- Anger at others for manipulating or taking advantage of you.

l   Frustration -- Why did I allow that to happen?

l   Temper/violence -- If you can't express anger appropriately, it may build up.like, we should just be 

Being assertive can also help boost your self-esteem and earn others' respect. This can help with stress management, especially if you tend to take on too many responsibilities because you have a hard time saying no.

In the sense of belong and brotherhood inside a group, the assertiveness should not be a problem as we always do the things right (accountability) and hold our feeling right (temperance) and always know we are right (wisdom). 

What is Motivation? To raise the stake

No matter how hard we tried, people just lost their attention within 10 minutes. To increase their situation awareness we need to prompts a person to act in a certain way or at least develop an inclination for safety behavior, this is motivation.  Motivation could derive from many sources like physical hunger, thirsty, sleepy, sex or emotional like hate, love, like or social like belonging, respected or honored, Intrinsic or extrinsic. All these factors has only part of truth, no one dare to say his theory is the absolute dominated factor. For we have only limited conscious capacity of 7 items, all other factors in our subconscious only surfaced as a feeling or strong sensation. Down inside the subconscious you can give it a lot of theories to explain motivation. However, to hold our feeling right is the basic virtue we should cultivate; temperance. We don’t really need to know why we want to do thing in that way; the motivation. We need to focus on what is the right thing to do; accountability. To take one more extra mile in our efforts to best protect my, ship and company’s interest and safety. The stake we raised is in our accountability, not any intrinsic or extrinsic interest in ourself only.

Transfer Motivation into good working habits

The motivation can stimulate the desire and attention to things we are interested, but not for long. Everybody knows keep alert is important in navigational watch. When he feel tired during port formalities, cargo operation, long transit time in channel/canal or other things then he fell very very sleepy. If things seem OK maybe one short nap won’t hurt. This is the time complacency set in, the motivation could be his loyal to his boss or his awareness of the potential danger might involve. Maybe this is the time he should know how to deal with his tiredness by washing his face or drinking a hot tea or walking around. The eyes are the first area of aging while we are getting old. The eye balls are constantly moving; the eyes are never completely at rest. They make fast random jittering movements even when we are fixated on one point. The reason for these random movements are the photoreceptors and the ganglion cells which are not constructed as a photo films. In the back of our eye, there is a hole which our photoreceptor nerves transmit received light massage to our brain. This hole makes the picture we see never complete with one glance. The eye balls movement to compensate for this hole and regenerate full image into our mind. Below points quoted from US Federal Aviation Administration: How to Avoid a Mid Air Collision.

l   It appears that a constant visual stimulus can make the photoreceptors or the ganglion cells become unresponsive; on the other hand a changing stimulus will not. Once we stared at a constant scene we lost awareness of it. A constant scene may be a target in relative steady bearing and have collision risk. 

l   Another focusing problem usually occurs at vague, colorless days when it fog, mist or rain with no distinct horizon is visible. If there is little or nothing to focus on at horizon (missing now), we do not focus at all. We experience something known as "empty-field myopia: " we stare, but we see nothing, even opposing traffic, if it should enter our visual field.

l   To actually accept what we see, we need to receive cues from both eyes. If an object is visible to one eye, but hidden from the other by a windshield post or other obstruction, the total image is blurred and not always acceptable to the mind.

l   Although our eyes accept light rays from an arc of nearly 200 degrees, they are limited to a relatively narrow area (approximately 10-15 degrees) in which they can actually focus and classify an object. Though we can perceive movement in the periphery, we cannot identify what is happening out there, and we tend not to believe what we see out of the corner of our eyes. This, aided by the brain, often leads to "tunnel vision." 

l   This limitation is compounded by the fact that at a distance, a target on a collision course with you will appear to be motionless. It will remain in a seemingly stationary position, without appearing either to move or to grow in size for a relatively long time, and then suddenly bloom into a huge mass. This is known as "blossom effect."

l   Most of all, the eye is vulnerable to the vagaries of the mind. We can "see" and identify only what the mind lets us see.For example, a daydreaming OOW staring out into space sees no approaching traffic and is probably the number one candidate for a collision. 

Seeing with your mind seems the most serious problem to our OOW; boring. It is also important that we know our own limitations in watch keeping so as avoiding any neglect. This is our knowledge which can last for two weeks at most. To remember these points we need to chunk it short; constant target, no horizon, seeing both eyes, seeing at center, no change target and where am I. try to remember it all while you are tired at watch and count 1,2,3,4,5…6. OK, that’s all points should be checked while I am boring. 

Some people just get boring very quickly due to lack of training, Self training. If we ever see the scene of the body guards protecting the President of a country their eye are constantly switching, scanning or idle in listening their earplug intercom. We should do a self check of our vigilance in the bridge by feel our eye balls movement. As always we can sense the competence of an OOW by the way he looks out the windows.      

A simple truth is that we need to stop our walking while we are trying to figure out something. In the bodyguards scene, there is one thing wrong. Why they idled while listening? In their long years training could it possible to correct this lapse of attention. The answer is impossible. It is just human nature. We cannot see and listen at the same time, plus the talking.But the most common scene at bridge and simulator exercise is the Captain grasps the VHF and conducts all communications with the pilot station and port authorities. This is surely the time of lapse of mind. Captain has his own considerations while conducting the communication with outside parties. The time frame may not be able for him to convey all his concerns to OOW. However, this should not be the common practice on the bridge. Whenever the Captain feels comfortable he should let the OOW to take care of the communication as much as possible. Good working habit is the only guarantee of successful watch keeping. It is hard for me to say, the simulator exercise should the tool to evaluation the correctness of seafarer’s working habit or rightly to say his SOP.     

 Integrity of the Audit Process

In International Safety Management(ISM) Code 2010 regulation 1.4 stipulated:

1.4          Functional requirements for a safety management system

Every Company should develop, implement and maintain a safety management system which includes the following functional requirements:

.1 a safety and environmental-protection policy; 

.2 instructions and procedures to ensure safe operation of ships and protection of the environment in compliance with relevant international and flag State legislation; 

.3 defined levels of authority and lines of communication between, and amongst, shore and shipboard personnel; 

.4 procedures for reporting accidents and non-conformities with the provisions of this Code; 

.5 procedures to prepare for and respond to emergency situations; and 

.6 procedures for internal audits and management reviews.

Further in regulation 12 specified 

12   COMPANY VERIFICATION, REVIEW AND EVALUATION

12.1  The Company should carry out internal safety audits on board and ashore at intervals not exceeding twelve months to verify whether safety and pollution-prevention activities comply with the safety management system. In exceptional circumstances, this interval may be exceeded by not more than three months.

12.2   The Company should periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the safety management system in accordance with procedures established by the Company.

12.3   The audits and possible corrective actions should be carried out in accordance with documented procedures.

12.4   Personnel carrying out audits should be independent of the areas being audited unless this is impracticable due to the size and the nature of the Company.

12.5   The results of the audits and reviews should be brought to the attention of all personnel having responsibility in the area involved.

ISM code have set up the basic functions of this code to include 1. a safety policy, 2. many instructions and procedures, 3. defined levels of authority and lines of communication, 4. reporting accidents and non-conformities, 5. prepare for and respond to emergency situations. All these five basic functions have to be tested and ensured by the internal audit procedure which is ISM basic function No. 6. 

The integrity of the audit process is further regulated in regulation 12, 1. audit interval ashore or on board not exceeding 12 months, 2. audit should have correction actions to take, 3. audit personal qualification, 4. all personal should know the audit result, 5. management personnel should take timely correction action. 

The meaning of the Audit Process.

ISM code had very clear regulations of what and how the safety management system (SMS) of each shipping company should be audited. This SMS is nothing more than the basic management structure as PDCA: Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to promote continuous improvement. Act is the correction action after each check (audit). The concept is easy. The problem is the attitude toward the audit, internal or external from PSC (Port State Control). One thing is for sure:  these audits no matter how good it supposes to be are extra working loads to seafarer from Master to Ordinary sailor. These working loads may very according to the conditions of ship’s age and construction way. But for the sake of safety, there is no compromise. Seafarers on board should bear this in mind to ensure his vessel is always sailed in sound and clean way to avoid any pollution and safety concerns. As to the increased workload, the maintenance work with no concerns of safety should be prioritized. Those works in less priority should asking help from the management to solve the extra manpower needed in the long run or shore base assistance in occasional requirements.    

How should we treat these auditors?

In the virtue of accountability, when a company have culture of accountability every action toward more safe environment is taking automatically. The auditor will be treated as our friends. Well, this is not an easy way to do. Now on board audit become a common practice in shipping line. Some internal audit can last 5 days at sea with external auditors (foreign class association or management company) hired by company management. These auditors become the worst nightmare a Chief Engineer (C/E) or Master can have in his contract period. These situations will not mitigate just by patience or dedication to the job. 

The situations of constant resentment in our mind could change by changing our relationship with auditors. But how? Remember in Chapter 11 we had stated four principals to change our relationship with others. 1. To show out your inner Child to them often: Billy, don’t be a hero. Don’t be a fool with your life. ( an old song lyrics) Be a C/E or Master is not a superman. Don’t defense for yourself. Tell them you don’t know or didn’t notice it before. They will help you as this is the purpose of company management to help the ship board personal. No harm can be done as this is internal audit which is not to check what you had done or not. It is to check “did you do it enough?” and help you go back to the correct track.

2. To establish the setting with them often: follow their steps as much as you can. Managing by walking around (MBWA) is the best way to know the actual problems. Your companion with auditors will also ensure your correct understanding of what he said or what he requested. This is also a good sign of willingness to cooperate.

3. To let them help you often: asking a small favor from them from time to time will increase the interaction times you have and speed up the process of familiarity. The favor you should asked for is his expertise which he had worked and accumulated many years before he can qualified as an auditors. The more you ask, the more easily the task can be solved as you had done exactly what he wants.

4. To give them the stage often: to show our respect to his works and give him the time to show what he is looking for. Not to concentrate what we had done for the company but to focus on what he wants can help us to accept the auditing results more easily. Maybe we are more senior than the auditor and have more safety concerns than just what he asked, it doesn’t matter. Just follow his steps, it is his job. Our purpose is only to reach mutual understanding of safety concerns. That will be all. 

Remember. Working is not the only thing matter in your relation, the playing part of life is also very important to our relationship with others. Give him some entertainments while he is on board to quick change the atmosphere of both parties. Today all vessels have some exercise or recreation facilities. Make sure he has the access to it and best joined with him. Lots of things could be done in unofficial stage. While he is happy you are happy too. All the deficiencies and non conformities are just our routine works to finish. No other things more, no need to defense anything, just to promote continuous improvement. 

How about the external auditors like PSC control?

Well, the trick is almost the same. Only that we cannot say we don’t know, we may be deemed unqualified for the position we are in. Don’t defense for yourself. Tell them you don’t know or didn’t notice it before. Follow their steps as much as you can. Asked for his expertise opinions of how he had found the deficiency and by which means you can notice next time? Or something alike which you have puzzle with polite manner as to an officials he represented. To show our respect to his works and give him the time to show what he is looking for. 

Our accountability is what they are looking for?  Trust yourself and trust your company. Show auditors your willingness to do the right thing (accountability) to correct the deficiencies and Non conformities will promote our continuous improvement. If there is a penalty your attitude could be one of determined factors, who know.        

Action plan in PDCA cycle.

Action plan is the words using in PDCA management concept in Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to promote continuous improvement which is a sequence of steps that must be taken, or activities that must be performed well, for a found deficiency or non conformity been corrected. It is a must-be in the managing cycle. In ISM CODE in regulation 12 COMPANY VERIFICATION, REVIEW AND EVALUATION specified 

12.3   The audits and possible corrective actions should be carried out in accordance with documented procedures.

12.5   The results of the audits and reviews should be brought to the attention of all personnel having responsibility in the area involved.

An action plan has three major elements 

(1) Specific tasks: corrective actions should be carried out in accordance with documented procedures. What if documented procedures are wrong? Or What if documented procedures did not specified the steps as requested? It should bring up to company’s Designated Person (DP) for further clarification and modification. 

(2) Time Frame: when will it be done should be decided by the seriousness of the deficiency or no conformity. For shipping, the time and place to locate the required materials can also create big problems too. In any case, a specified time must be set. This time frame can ensure this deficiency can be properly follow up and solve in time.    

(3) Resource allocation: what specific resources are needed for this action plan? The work descriptions are defined. The materials and time frame are set. The work force and personal and necessary authorities are all need to organize to correct the deficiency/ non conformity. This action plan may well over the power a Captain can handle. Company Management should involved as regulation 12 stated “should take timely corrective action on deficiencies found.”  

Norms for continuous improvement.

The norm of continuous improvement is a belief that learning about one’s work is never finished, professional development is dynamic. To refine our skills, inquire into practice, and construct craft knowledge while working with peers are important to us. The explosion of technologies in these years has meant that in order to become an effective seafarer there is much more to know and apply concerning learning, instruction and leadership. These norms are reflective of continuous improvement:

■ The norm of continuous improvement implies that our knowledge development should support the ongoing development of new skills. (i.e., ECDIS, AIS, Integrated Bridge System and e-navigation.) Unfortunately, current seafarers are only pursuer of new technologies. Even the most important machine in the ship Main Engine can be a new product to all crew without any knowledge; like the case of “Savannah Express” in 2005. At 1146 on 19 July 2005, one of the largest container vessels in the world, the German flagged, 94483 gross tonne Savannah Express made heavy contact with a linkspan at 201 berth, Southampton Docks. The vessel had lost astern engine power entering the Upper Swinging Ground where she was due to swing before going alongside. 

The large, slow speed, diesel main engine on Savannah Express was of a revolutionary design without the normal camshaft and mechanical timing gear. This equipment had been replaced with a computer controlled electro-hydraulic system. The system had suffered a number of technical problems since Savannah Express had left the builder’s yard in Korea in April 2005. (Marine Accident Investigation Branch Report No 8/2006 March 2006)

The largest container vessel in the world has large slow speed, diesel main engine of a revolutionary design. Does this sound like a trouble or potential threat? 

Another case is in 1995, the Panamanian cruise ship Royal Majesty ran aground east of Nantucket (off Boston US). There were no deaths or injuries as a result of this accident. Damage to the vessel and lost revenue, however, were estimated at about $7 million.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the grounding of the Royal Majesty was the watch officers’ overreliance on the automated features of the integrated bridge system, Majesty Cruise Line’s failure to ensure that its officers were adequately trained in the automated features of the integrated bridge system and in the implications of this automation for bridge resource management, the deficiencies in the design and implementation of the integrated bridge system and in the procedures for its operation, and the second officer’s failure to take corrective action after several cues indicated the vessel was off course.

All of the fixes that the navigator plotted during the voyage from Bermuda one day before were derived from position data taken from the GPS and not the Loran-C. At1600, The chief officer also indicated that he relied on the position data from the GPS to plot hourly fixes during his watches and that the Loran-C was used as a backup system in case the GPS malfunctioned. 

The bell log recorded a course of 197°,000°, and 197°, indicating that the GPS data were invalid. This could be the result of the GPS receiver being turned on and going through its satellite acquisition process, chopping, antenna connection problems, or other problems. The anomalous 197°/000° courses recorded by the bell log were the result of the GPS receiver being in the SOL and DR modes. (no GPS fix is available)

(US NTSB MARINE ACCIDENT REPORT Adopted: April 2, 1997  Notation 6598A)

“integrated bridge system could assisted Grounding”

The bell log recorded a course of 197°,000°, and 197°since vessel sailed from MU June 9 1252:02 till grounding at June 10 2225 hours ( 34 hours lapsed) indicate GPS malfunction without been noticed or double checked.

No one can deny that Maritime career is an adventure. Only very little OOW and EOOW had long term employment relationship with shipping company. Most of the case, seafarers have joined in one Manning Company which might serve more than one shipping line to broader his business scope. Different ship’s type, different ship layout, pipe arrangement, tank arrangement,… etc, seafarers take the challenge with courage and helps from other on board. Most of the times it work. Sometimes it doesn’t work. In this case of Savannah Express grouding, MAIB had concluded 2.4.4 Training – general conclusions as: 

Despite rigorous testing prior to delivery, experience shows that incidents will occur as the system matures, on the vessel. In the meantime, the Engine Control System is being fitted to numerous vessels which have the capability of causing considerable damage after a propulsion failure. 

l   The necessary safety barriers, such as a longer period of supervision by guarantee engineers, should be put in place during the development of a new safety critical piece of equipment, such as a main engine control system.

■ The norm of innovation is a belief that effective implementation of a new technique takes time and those early trials will not be perfect. Lots of points are out of the hands of seafarers which need all parties concerns to work out a reasonable solution. Techniques improvement is no news to shipping communities. Only the attitudes toward new techniques have to adjust to the reality. Seafarers are not superman, Mr. know-all at this fast paced and ever changing world. It is the shipping lines have to take the responsibility to listen to the Crew for what is good for the ship, so as to company and environment. Ship yard won’t tell whole truth to ship owner. Ship owner may have very limited knowledge of the ship and alike. Commercial pressures are always there and those problems are not unsolvable. Take the patience and listen to the crew, everything could be solved in the long run.  

Strategies which support ongoing development include study groups, action research groups, observation and assessment, peer coaching, training and follow-up, participation on school improvement and/or curriculum writing teams, and problem solving sessions throughout the year. It is obvious that a shipping line have to dedicate his efforts to cope with these strategies with a constant department or working team setting. Outsourcing the ship crew is not a good idea as always for manning agent did not have the resources to negotiate better training terms and first hand informations for his crew. Now we are facing a more challenging world than ever before. 

End of chapter 15