Hey folks, I’ve done some looking around but haven’t found anything like a “best practices” writeup or other professional recommendations for what a fathometer/depth alarm should be set to.
It’s common knowledge that the officers of the Royal Majesty had her alarm set for 0 meters when they ran aground, when normally it would have been set to 3, but a static alarm setting doesn’t seem prudent for cargo vessels with variable drafts and significantly different UKC requirements depending on conditions/locations/load.
I’ve heard some officers set the alarm to the required UKC, others who set it for a meter more to notionally give advance notice before violating UKC policy, etc. What do y’all do on your ships, or what is your company policy?