Ship master’s standing orders is part of the safety management system (SMS). In this case, one of the senior officers’ (SO) non-compliance with the master’s standing orders had resulted in a fatality and a serious head injury incident.

Case study: heavy weather impact

The vessel was at sea riding to heavy weather. The master’s standing orders, which was read and signed by all deck officers, explicitly disallowing deck work when vessel encounters heavy weather. The SO, through his own assessment, deemed that the heavy weather had improved. He gave two crew members some work in the vessel’s aft mooring station (“aft station work”) without going through risk assessment and issuing of a permit to work, as required by the SMS. The tools required for the aft station work were kept in the fore peak store. Both crews proceeded to fore peak store to retrieve the required tools. When they reached the store, they noted water ingress from the store’s mushroom ventilators. Out of his own initiative, the senior crew (SC) decided to arrest the leak of the ventilator (“repair”), which was on the forecastle deck. The SC and the other crew (“JC”) went to the forecastle to carry out the repair. The vessel was pounding in heavy weather.

The SC stated that while attending to the said ventilator, he heard a loud banging sound from the vessel’s bow followed by the JC’s shout. And the next moment he knew was that he was at a disorientated state found near the accommodation by his other fellow crew members. However, JC was nowhere near SC and a search was carried out. Subsequently, JC was found motionless on the forecastle deck and was later pronounced dead.

Why did it happen?

The SO had not heeded to the master’s orders by giving out work on deck, although the master’s orders additionally stated, ‘if for any reason crew has to go on deck, bridge & Master to be informed so that course can be altered accordingly for the safety of the crew’.

The SO, who had read and sign the master’s orders, did not inform bridge and the master when he gave out the job to SC and JC for the aft station work.

Despite having an SMS that is in place for work and heavy weather procedure, i.e., requirement to carry out the risk assessment and issuing of a permit to work; none of the procedure was carried out by the SO.

Conclusion

Vessel’s senior officers (SO) will issue standing orders/instructions to their respective junior staff when they sign on a vessel. It is of paramount importance for the junior staff to read, understand and comply with these orders/instructions. The SO shall discharge their responsibilities and ensure their junior staff abide to the standing orders/instructions. Safety of the crew is their top priority.