Naval disasters have provided models for what to avoid in shipping for centuries
but there are still new lessons to be learnt, and causes are often startlingly simple,
insurance expert Chris Adams reports
There is of course nothing novel about ships running aground. They have been doing it for centuries. For example, 306[ds_preview] years ago in the autumn of 1707 the rather exotically named British Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell managed to run his ship »HMS Association« and three other vessels of his fleet into the Isles of Scilly with the loss of over 1,500 lives, including his own. Folklore has it that Sir Cloudesley was washed up on the beach alive but was beaten to death with a rock by a local Scilly woman who had taken a fancy to his rather handsome gold and emerald ring. The warmth of the welcome offered by the inhabitants of the Isles of Scilly in those days left rather a lot to be desired.
Shallow waters, deep trouble
The cause of that disaster was the difficulty that the navigators of the day had in determining longitude. Reliable chronometers had not yet been invented, and that incident was the catalyst for a lifetime of work by John Harrison, but that is a separate story in itself. Today, the determination of a ship’s longitude takes but a few moments of glancing at the GPS unit where both that and the latitude are displayed to startling levels of accuracy.
And yet despite vast technological advances that have been made and the increasingly sophisticated equipment on our merchant ships, groundings continue to occur, quite often in circumstances which challenge credulity.
The Steamship Mutual has recently released the latest in its series of loss prevention DVDs, and the topic covered by the most recent production is vessel groundings (see box left).
The consequences of these casualties vary in severity. At one end of the spectrum the vessel may suffer little or no damage and be re-floated, either under the vessel’s own power, or with tug or salvage assistance. At the other end of the scale, the vessel may suffer extensive physical damage resulting in the total loss of vessel and cargo, and environmental damage from the spillage of oil or other pollutants.
A quick glance through the list of incidents over the last five or six years that have led to claims upon the International Group Pool and Excess Loss Reinsurance arrangements reveals that a large number of those incidents arose from groundings, and when compared with the overall number of claims, the cost impact of them has been disproportionately high. The reasons for that of course are the environmental damage and the liability for wreck removal that usually arises in these serious cases.
When groundings occur that result in the vessel becoming a wreck, coastal authorities will almost invariably require its removal, either wholly or substantially, no matter how difficult the technical challenges of such an operation may be. The costs of such operations, which are always complex marine engineering projects, are extremely high.
Many of the liabilities to which shipowners and operators may be exposed through the activities of their vessels are capped by financial limits, determined by international conventions and national legislation. However, in sharp contrast, in the vast majority of jurisdictions, liability for wreck removal is not constrained by limitation, and this is reflected in the overall claims experience for this category of loss.
Avoidable human error
If one then turns to examine the causes of the incidents, they are often startlingly simple. It is apparent that groundings are persistently occurring as the result of avoidable human error on the part of the navigational team. The causes of these errors are varied, but there are recurrent features such as fatigue – with or without the added complication of alcohol consumption, complacency, deviation from passage plans, poor risk assessment, and poor bridge resource management.
The navigational equipment on vessels is increasingly sophisticated. The amount of information that is available to the navigator is also increasing. Yet, notwithstanding the abundance of information that is available from a wide array of equipment and navigational systems, groundings continue to occur. It is particularly noteworthy that those incidents, which have given rise to the largest P&I claims, could all so easily have been avoided.
The growth of the world shipping fleet in recent years has put pressure on the availability of crew, and this in turn has had an impact upon the collective experience of those on board particular ships. Training and qualifications are only part of the solution to sound ship operation. Experience is another very important factor and that of course takes time to achieve. This highlights the important part that mentoring has to play in the transfer of knowledge to those who need it most.
Shipowners and operators should be extremely concerned to ensure that the substantial assets they have entrusted to their seagoing staff are being operated safely and fully in accordance with the company’s procedures, safety management system and international regulations. This in turn requires their superintendents to rigorously check the manner in which vessels under their supervision are being operated and particularly navigated.
In examining this topic, it was the imbalance between the simplicity of the causes of groundings and the severity of the consequences, together with the evident need for something to be done to control the very substantial claims expenditure arising from groundings, that was the catalyst for Steamship’s loss prevention programme.
Chris Adams
