While doing OVID survey on various vessel I would looked at copies of manuals in the ECR.
If the SMS Manual didn’t have oily fingerprints all over I knew that one didn’t get used very much.
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There’s a paper at Earl’s link called “Aviation Accidents and the Theory of the Situation” by Lee Bolman.
Here’s a similar talk from NASA by Lee Bolman titled “Cockpit Resource Management and the theory of the situation”.
According to Bolman some accidents occur because pilots get locked into an incorrect “theory of the situation” (aka a mental model) and fail to shift their understanding to the actual situation.
Here’s a section:
How is this also not relevant to maritime? Aviation got there first because the tolerance for aviation accidents is lower than maritime. Why reinvent the wheel?
No, of course not. The ship’s passage plan is created by the second mate, approved by the master and then posted in the wheelhouse where the watch officers can evaluate it.
In the case of being under pilotage the pilot would have created the plan, one way or the other.
It would be more consistent with BRM principles if the master could evaluate the pilot’s plan in advance. In some ports the pilot does arrive with a chartlet showing the planned passage. I’ve never seen a anything like that in a U.S. port.
If the Chesapeake Bay pilot of the Ever Forward (the ship that recently grounded) knew the third mate was using the same exact waypoint as the ones in the PPU maybe he’d of taken the watch officer’s warnings more seriously.
Right, it wouldn’t be practical. So we create a Master/Pilot exchange sheet(s) that touches on elements including items in the passage plan. It’s an administrative solution to an operational inconvenience.
Having gone ECDIS, I wonder what’s the purpose of printing and posting passage plans.
How so. The passage plan for The Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait is contained in a booklet and is available online. The waypoints are listed and can be entered into the ECDIS well before picking up the pilot. The waypoints are constructed to allow a port to port passing of shipping and most importantly the pilot and the bridge team are on the same page.
Interesting. Are the plans available to the public?
Yes. Entering the following into Google should take you to it:
AMSA Queensland Coastal Passage Plan (QCPP).
I see some of the information that used to be freely available is now charged for.
Cheers
Mike
In most cases… Where else are you going to go? The channel is half a mile wide, and everything you should need to know in relevant publications, and communications with the Pilots/agents will tell you what pilot station you’re going to pick them up at. Passage planning doesn’t stop at the sea buoy, there should be enough research done that will land you on a route identical to the Pilot’s. Exceptions exist where there is more wiggle room like the Chesapeake, San Francisco to an extent. If you follow professional voyage planning standards, your ECDIS should be very close to the PPU. If not, after a few transits, you can trace the dotted lines where the pilots will jump off the ranges or make turns.
But like what Kennebec said, a lot of pilots I’ve worked with in the far east come with chartlets with the route printed on them, where you’d pick up tugs, where to slow down, not sure why it hasn’t caught on in the US.
Very helpful, thank you Mike.
Pilots bring their own PPU. If the ECDIS hardware/software is useful, why does the pilot use his own PPU? I have my own PPU and find it simple to use. ECDIS has a number of shortcomings but it’s an auditor’s playground.
The Pilot may well have undertaken the Generic ECDIS training course although cannot be signed off on familiarisation for each different shipboard installation. The way around this is to fully train Pilots, under a type developed matrix, for their particular brand of PPU. This also provides equipment standardisation for each and every piloted vessel. Some PPU types are completely autonomous and do not rely on the Pilot plug for inputs which also provides the availability for localised RTK/DGPS base station correction whereas the vessel ECDIS may be relying on raw GPS feed.
The PPU is also a recording device and as such provides auditing capability for the Pilotage organisation.
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It’s just standard procedure to avoid error when using documents. The paper copy of the voyage plan is the official version and is signed by the 2nd mate and master. With a paper copy far less chance of making an version control error. Each change can be more easily tracked
For example on a trans-Pacific voyage if modifications to the route are made for weather routing a single “save / save as” error by the second mate and there’s a potential for file name confusion and wasted time.
I’ve been called to the bridge while underway for discrepancies between the route in the ECDIS and the route in the GPS. Don’t want to be fiddle farting around trying to determine which is the correct version. I make sure the printed version of the waypoints is correct in advance and then when there is a mismatch anywhere I go right to the printed version in the voyage plan.
I also have the second mate email me the voyage waypoints so in the event of some issue I have an electronic copy I know nobody has edited.
Our routes are checked and approved by the office.
We feel so much safer for that.
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What I’d want to see is the report the ECDIS generates after the “route check” function is run.
I would also add that with a PPU, you can select the exact kind of information you want presented. As a pilot, you don’t need to see ATON characteristics, geographic names and, for the most part, soundings - all of that is committed to memory. I like a clean, relatively simple and clutter-free display.
Can an ECDIS be setup in the same manner? Sure, given enough time and mouse clicks. But that may be to the detriment of information that, while I consider it to be superfluous, the crew deems critical to their own monitoring. My general impression of most ship’s ECDIS equipment is that it’s designed and setup well for ocean/coastal passages but poor during pilotage (for use by a pilot), especially with the constant extraneous alarms sounding.
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Totally agree with your points. We had a major issue, within Pilotage waters, with AIS CPA alerts caused by tugs coming alongside. Invariably, the duty officer was unable to either cancel, mute or modify the alarm status and the cacophony was ongoing whilst his attention was directed towards constant alarm acknowledgment. We decided to incorporate a written request within our MPX document to have the alarms silenced whilst the vessel was transiting Pilotage waters. It was more often than not, wishful thinking.
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Back to this thought of airline stuff can’t work on ships. Thanks to this post, I became aware of a white paper of how Carnival now does their bridge operations. It puts down on paper exactly a system I envisioned. I highly recommend the 10 minute read. Roles and duties are defined and used on every single bridge in the fleet.
What I really like is how the most senior guy isn’t “driving”. This allows him to see the big picture from a few steps back and spot mistakes using his wisdom and knowledge. I’ve always noticed in operational situation, I will notice much more abnormal parameters if I’m standing behind and observing the overall situation instead of being up front and directing. From heavy lifts, to commissioning, to maneuvering operations…let the young officers handle the nitty gritty and let the old salts be there for guidance for abnormal situations.
Here is one great point:
In order to consolidate this change ten Captains have been taken out of rotations and trained to become instructors and employed as Fleet Captains going around the fleet to first help Captains with the implementation and now making sure that operations are carried out as intended.
Furthermore, an annual Proficiency, Training and Assessment (PTA) programme has been introduced for all officers who have completed the all required training. The PTA includes two days of evidence based training and two and a half days of proficiency assessment, where a minimum standard must be achieved, if not, further training will be required.
https://www.csmartalmere.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Function-Based-Bridge-Organisation.pdf
I worked for a major cruise line for a couple of contracts . Coming into and departing port I was on the bridge. I do not know what they called their bridge management system but it closely matched what the Carnival system is talking about. Coming from a more commercial background it was nice to watch. The master was there but seemed to be like the CEO as the pilot and navigational officers were a well oiled team. It was very impressive.
I have had the honour of attending simulator courses and other gatherings with Hans and he is a very cluey and rational professional. He is often referred to as the father of BRM and had very close ties to the late Benny Pettersson who drove the concept of AIS whilst in it’s conceptual infancy.
I have also Piloted many large passenger vessels and have experienced the excellent and functional BRM practices exhibited by the bridge teams. Teams composed of the Master, Staff Captain, three navigating officers, a cadet, helmsman and two security personnel which is all stitched up with a myriad of wheelhouse cameras. Their responsibilities under the umbrella of a comprehensive SMS are to safety manage $1.4 billon of capital infrastructure plus the lives of up to 5,500 souls so their practices and management systems have to be seamless and beyond reproach. In addition to this their leave rotations generally are kept to around 3 months.
My next pilotage after the “Oasis of the Seas” is a $50 mill panamax with 20 souls on board and the crew are generally subjected to 10~12 month leave rotations. They are tired and fed up with life at sea. The bridge team comprises the Master, one navigating officer and the helmsman. Their primary BRM amounts to the Pilot getting the ship alongside so that they can facetime their families.
If you believe that the BRM practices displayed by large passenger vessels can or will bleed down to the general commercial global maritime fleet then you are having yourself on. BRM will occur in this arena when the powers that be introduce autonomous shipping with the human factors being transferred ashore.
Attached is an excellent read written by Antonio Di Lieto. If you are truly interested in BRM then it is certainly worth your time.
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Sure, It’s certainly not going to happen overnight. But BRM is, fundamentally, about managing resources available effectively and efficiently. It aligns with good seamanship.
Any individual captain can apply the principles of BRM without waiting for word to come down from on high. I sailed with captains, chief mates and Chief Engineers that applied these principles long before we had even heard the term.
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