Conception captain Jerry Boylan trial coverage

Maritime News
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If he had had SMS and had been doing SMS paperwork, he would have either been documenting:

  1. that he wasn’t following the SMS, the crew wasn’t getting proper rest, and they had to sleep instead of doing night watch; or

  2. He would have been pencil whipping falsehoods that the SMS was being followed and that the crew was well rested and night watch was being done - when none of that was true.

Both of those scenarios would have increased his criminal culpability, not decreased it.

Maybe certain trades, like union deep sea, oil rigs, ATBs pushing oil, can reduce operational tempo to adhere to the SMS while under crewed, but on most small vessels, we just have to get the job done with what we’ve got, and hope for the best.

I see SMS as little more than an attempt by the company to shift more of the liability onto the master. SMS is not about safety, it’s about money and avoiding liability.

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