A warning to Alabama mates and ABs on the undermanned bridge

A collision in the Far East where 11 fishermen were killed due to an undermanned bridge should be a lesson to mariners in Alabama.

The Marine Accident Investigation Bureau’s recently released report on the collision between a 69-thousand ton cargo ship and a fish transporter in the East China Sea blamed an undermanned bridge as the cause of the accident.

The Cosco Hong Kong’s second mate was blamed for sending the able seaman off the bridge just prior to the collision in the early morning hours of Mar. 6, 2011. That left the mate as the only lookout and helmsman even though there was poor weather with reduced visibility and it was in a coastal area filled with many fishing boats and navigational hazards.

The MAIB report concluded that “had the lookout remained on the bridge, it is possible that he would have seen the approach of Zhe Ling Yu Yun 135 in sufficient time for avoiding action to be taken.”

All 11 crewmembers of the fishing boat were presumed dead.

According to Rule 5 of the International Rules of the Road, “every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.”

Many mates from Alabama and elsewhere have undoubtedly been in situations where they, too, sent their AB off the bridge. Probably even in conditions not unlike the one in the East China Sea.

The point of this article is not to cast judgment on those who some might deem to be “guilty” of following the practice of the undermanned bridge. There is greater value in looking at the culture of an industry that drives an individual officer of the watch to make the decision to stand alone in the wheelhouse. Here are three of the contributing factors behind the undermanned bridge.

The Company Bottom Line. Many companies have a policy of sending the AB on watch to make safety rounds at night and even down to the deck to work on preventive maintenance. Even when conditions warrant that the mate needs that extra set of eyes on lookout. Why? Because in this age of under-crewed vessels, companies want to bleed every ounce of work they can out of the deck gang. What more effective way to do this than by taking an AB who is “just standing around doing nothing” on lookout and getting use of him without having to pay overtime?

You folks out on some of the larger vessels know this is true.

Captain’s Plausible Deniability. Even though the master has ultimate responsibility for the safety of the ship, a clever captain knows how to impose his or her own unwritten policy—as well as that of the office—upon watch officers without any direct evidence.

Will you ever see instructions written in the Night Orders ordering the mate to send the lookout off the bridge to work deck maintenance? Of course not. The captain will just deny that he ever ordered such a policy, and claim that it was known that it was the mate’s call on whether or not the lookout was needed.

Union Giveaways. There’s an adage: “today’s penalty is tomorrow’s mandatory.” Well, we’ve never actually come across that phrase but nonetheless the words ring true. Extra on-watch voluntary work that pays penalty O.T. today becomes mandatory duties without O.T. pay tomorrow. In the past an AB on watch would never be sent up to the flying bridge to Ospho the radar mast. But then the chief mates started asking if they wanted to do “light maintenance” on the bridge wings for penalty O.T., of course only when there was no traffic around.

So, crewmembers agreed to do these types of extra duties. Then, before they knew it, those voluntary on-watch jobs became mandatory bridge watch duties in the next union contract.

How the USCG allowed that to happen is puzzling, and troubling.
If you are a watch officer and you believe the old man is pressuring you to work your AB on watch in unsafe circumstances, speak up. If the captain is resistant, have him or her either put it in writing or take the conn. Either way, keep a written log of events while the situation continues.