Watchstander fatigue

John Konrad -

For half an hour there was almost unbroken silence on the bridge before it was shattered by the unmistakeable sounds of a ship running aground on rocks. The playback from the voyage data recorder told a familiar story to the listening casualty investigators: a lone watchkeeper at night had nodded off with no lookout posted and the watch alarm disabled as his ship sailed blindly on.

The German investigators discounted the watchkeeper’s claims he had not fallen asleep. Timesheets also told a story of illegally excessive workloads on the German-flag cargoship’s three officers working a two-watch system deemed “inadequate” by the investigators.

The English version of the report into the incident in September last year which resulted in the ship being declared a constructive total loss was published only days after a major shipping company had pleaded guilty to breaking international laws governing hours of rest and failing to comply with a warning to rectify the situation on one of its UK-flag containerships.

The UK, following a number of incidents in which fatigue among watchkeepers and the lack of a dedicated lookout were listed as key factors, has taken a unilateral stance “to ensure the safety of shipping and protect the environment”.

The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) earlier this year set out its plan for dealing with the problem. This includes inspection of crews’ timesheets and cross-checking them with other on-board documentation and ships’ voyage schedules. Surveyors are also checking that dedicated lookouts are being deployed at night.

The MCA also said it would be looking for evidence companies were auditing shipboard records, pointing out the requirement for such audits under the International Safety Management Code. Previously, German casualty investigators had criticised the operators of a containership which smashed into a bulk carrier at 25 knots one night in September 2007 for failing to either spot the excessive hours being worked by the lone watchkeeper or act on the information.

Casualty investigators are reluctant, however, to state categorically fatigue was the cause of an incident. In the grounding incident the report says, “We are unable to exclude the possibility of the officer of the navigational watch being affected by fatigue caused by an excessive workload.” In the collision case the report noted “significant violations of the stipulated maximum work and minimum rest periods”, but could not conclusively attribute the incident to fatigue, despite evidence

This cautiousness derives from the fact that while fatigue has been acknowledged as a potential risk it remains difficult to measure. Someone may have worked long hours but may still be capable of performing satisfactorily. Other factors such as an individual’s physical and mental state have to be considered.

Yet the assumption is being made that working long hours with inadequate rest can cause error-inducing fatigue, hence the reliance on rules setting maximum and minimum hours for rest and work that will increase with the entry into force of the Maritime Labour Convention and the amended Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping convention.

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