Liberia Investigation: Bosun loses his life after falling through a chain rail
After all the spare parts were brought onboard, the Bosun attempted to manually toss the cargo net back ashore. He lost his balance and fell through a chain rail section of the handrail near the starboard bunker deck onto a rubber fender between the berth and the vessel.
The poor dude. That sucks. I always gave chain breaks a wide berth when passing by.
Horrible situation. Sincere condolences to his family & apologies if they are reading this & are offended by what I’m about to write.
IMO, the co-root cause of this accident is probably on page 10 of the report. The guy was 65 yrs old. A very common concern in our industry nowadays. The last time I worked with a bosun younger than 40 was about 15 yrs ago. The master of the ship was 72 yrs old btw. I know I don’t & can’t make the jumps, lifts & throws that I used to & I’m not 5/6th the victims age yet.
Yes! Put all of us poor old fellas into rocking chairs at the nursing home where we belong. Long live the nanny state!
Then tie up a third of the fleet because there are not enough young American officers to replace us.
Unless of course, you prefer to bring in young, smart, fit Indian officers to replace all of the American officers.
Okay grandpa, I’m not saying we should force old folks to jump off of high cliffs to make way for younger people to take over. Just making an observation about traditional rolls different age groups normally took & safety concerns in this new era when senior citizens are humping heavy nets far distances from high places with shoddy safety barriers. I know my balance, back & some muscle groups don’t work as well as they used to at my age & nothing wrong with discussing it imo. If the victim was a 20 yr old, inexperienced newb it would be prudent to discuss age & experience in that situation too.
As we all know there are many such hazards on ships.
During my time at sea (50 years) I came close to losing my life on numerous occasions. Some were from the elements, some from poor design features, and some from fellow shipmates recklessness. For me, with increasing age experience saved me from becoming a casualty. However, mental and physical fitness are also important, especially as you age. Mandatory State Medical Examinations and Survival at Sea course’s emphasise that you are able to save yourself in an emergency and also not be a liability or hindrance to others in such emergency.
So grandpa at sea is not such an unusual thing these days.
Nursing homes are more expensive than euthanasia.
Good enough for my dog, good enough for my bosun. I’ve always said that.
as clint eastwood said” a man got to know his limitations. I’m seventy-six and am very careful because in my mind I think I’m still 25.
Peter Pan syndrome.
Terrible accident I wish his family my condolences.
While at a shipyard in Singapore I saw a foreman who appeared to be over 70 jumping in and helping his fitters whenever a job got difficult many times telling one to stand aside while he did it. When I asked him how old he was his response was, “On the outside or the inside?”
I’m not with you on this one. No shoreside building code will accept a railing that a 60-year-old plus or a one-year-old could possibly fall through. Ship construction standards are frauds.
Yea, right. No one ever falls down the steps or over a railing on shore. They need to tighten up those ship construction standards and eliminate all possible boarding locations. If you can’t embark or disembark, think of how much safer a ship will be.
Thank you.
From the linked article:
“Although chains were installed and secured, one chain failed under load.”
So the incident had nothing to do with his being 65 years old.
Maybe the chain was 65 years old?
When I was in my twenties I misjudged a jump, slipped & fell 8 ft onto a metal deck hitting my calf on the way down. Hurt like hell, badly bruised but I was right as rain in a month. In my early 30’s I slid down a half flight of stairs in an engineroom dislocating a couple of fingers. But I flipped them back into place & sorely went about my business. Now knocking on 50 I’m pretty sure either of those accidents would have put me in the infirmary today, maybe even killed me? You in the “age is just a number” crowd must have excellent yoga instructors & take some multivitamins I don’t know about.
Ureka! Thats it, the chain and the Bosun were both 65 yrs old, a deadly combination.
Am 70 yrs and retiring in three weeks, about time. After open heart surgery, artificial knees, an artificial shoulder, spinal stenosis/ kyphosis/ scoliosis, I was reduced to crewing only ROS over a year ago despite lying to myself. But I was blessed and fortunate and am walking away in somewhat one piece. Hearing the millennial and gen-Z crew talk of what they will “accept” in the shipping industry and what they will not is entertaining. Suffice it to say I applaud that they realize life and family should at least be of equal weight to a hard working life at sea, and working insane hours and conditions which our generation of seafarers and I did is no longer tolerated. At the same time I realize that first world mariners from the US and Europe will soon be a relic of the past as we will not be able to compete with the driven and educated and tenacious mariners from the rest of the world.
When I retIred from my shipowner management job was offered on call work on launch boats. Background was good Ex CG Boatswain mate and Coxswain,5 light tonnage inland licenses. Did not renew the license when the last one expired, working out of the US too difficult and its expensive. I was the deckhand. Operator very experienced and professional.
Thing that always surprised me how careless or unaware passengers were boarding from the launch. Told them preferred way, most times they listened, sometimes not. Heavy backpack climbing the Jacobs ladder, offered a messenger line for the pack, refused. Recreational Inflatable PFD poor condition cartridge never checked. Wrong shoes no gloves. Climbing without using 3 points of contact. Out of the launches cabin walking forward without holding the hand rails often carrying a package.
Ships crew generally better not aways. Ships at anchor combination was set up, gangway down, Jacobs ladder from the end of the gangway to launches deck level. Sailors often took risk setting up the combination. Chain down leaning over the side. No fall protection carrying the heavy magnets that stabilize were gangway meets Jacobs. They should have had Officer or Boatswain supervision most times none.
Have seen a lot of accidents and CG circulated accident reports we were not involved with as a training tool. Most could have been prevented. Proper experienced supervision lacking many times .
Anyone having sea time knows NOT to use the hand rails as anymore than a hand ‘guide’. Now having said that there are times when one is going to somehow have their weight up against the railing (chain). I believe the synopsis said the chain gave way which is something most of us anticipate (I hope). The age thing is pretty self explanitory, we slow down, don’t have the strength etc. anyone who thinks otherwise has their head up their hawsepipe and you work accordingly and if crew says something it’s probably time to move on.
