Ship aground

[Clanky]

British.

[bobofinga]

What nationality was he?

[Clanky]

Yeah I agree if you have 2 people on the bridge there isn't that much need for it really.

On a ship operated by a previous employer....

We arrived in a German port at approximately 0700 one morning, the German Wasserschutzpolizei (water police) came onboard and asked to see the captain, it went something like this.

Captain: Good morning

Ze Germans: Herr Kapitain, vy vas your ship in Rostock harbour zis morning.

Captain: Don't be silly officer, we were no where near Rostock.

Ze Germans: Ja, you vere in Rostock harbour at 0130, ze port control vas calling you und you did not answer.

Captain: No, don't be silly, look here is the chart with our positions for the passage, you can se that we were nowhere near Rostock harbour, look I can even show you our track on the Ecdis....

...um, ah, hold on *captain starts banging the ECDIS computer*, um, uh, *captain phones the 12-4 second mate "GET TO THE F*[email protected] BRIDGE - NOW!"

Turns out the second mate had fallen asleep, woken up with Rostock radio calling him, realised that he had missed the course change and was almost in Rostock, turned the ship around, put the engines up to full speed, got the ship back to were she should have been at 0400, flogged all the positions on the chart, handed over the watch and gone to bed presumably thinking "phew, got away with that one"

There was an AB on watch, but when asked why he didn't wake the second mate, his reply was, "it's not my job to wake up sleeping officers", guess what nationality he was?

There was a baby monitor fitted on the ships, but it was never used up until then, needless to say it was never off after that!

[Martyboy]

Really good watch, we were looking at the incident briefly today at college

[HarmlessWeasel]

link for those that want it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b039kn2b/Inside_Out_North_East_and_Cumbria_02_09_2013/

[bobofinga]

Yeah I agree if you have 2 people on the bridge there isn't that much need for it really.

[Martyboy]

Yea, on my last vessel the key was left in the switch and the OOW could turn it off if he wished........... but if the captain found out your life would become extremly unbearable for the rest of your trip so it was always left on! Although he did agree we could swtich it off as I was a cadet at the time, and as long as the bridge is manned by more than one person then in theory it isn't needed, but we just left it on anyway, the motion sensors picked up your moving around the bridge so you hardly even noticed it

[bobofinga]

Yeah it is a good system when used correctly. Theres been a few ships I've been on where the old man has the 'master key' to it though and can just turn it off.

[Martyboy]

On my last box boat if you didn't touch the radar or ecids or hit the reset button every 10 minutes it would sound for 30 seconds(i think) on the bridge and you could press the reset button to stop it but if you don't press it it'll sound in the old mans cabin or sometimes it sounds in all navigation officers cabins, letting him now you were incapacitated and they would come straight to the bridge. On the anchor handler I was on, we had motion sensors on the bridge which as it suggests would detect motion, it is a great system, it's helpful not only as the dead man system, but if the OOW falls asleep ( and it does happen!) the alarm will wake him up within 10 minutes and hopefully scare the life out of him to the point he wont do it again......

[bobofinga]

Dead man alarm - gotta press it every 12 minutes when the light comes up or an alarm goes up which eventually leads to a ship wide alarm.

[Inland Pirate]

It talks about an alarm for if the lookout falls asleep, how does that work? does it detect if they don't move about or something for a certain period of time?

[Martyboy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408698/Polish-captain-ran-ship-aground-tried-sail-Scotland-Belgium--FORGOT-England-way.html

Hi guys, this is an interesting read, happened a while back but the MCA surveyor who attended it is one of the orals examiners at Tyne, so I would advise everyone up for orals soon to read the article.