“Although it may seem like we are being productive by handling emails, social media, and various apps on one hand, whilst maintaining a navigation watch on the other, our brains are not processing these activities in parallel. Instead, we rapidly shift our focus between them, a phenomenon called task switching,” cautioned Gard. “This division of attention, rather than genuinely multitasking, distracts from the primary task and ultimately reduces our ability to engage fully and effectively with either activity.”
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Forbidden for watchkeepers, instant dismissal.
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Two examples come to mind. Pilots totally distracted whilst using mobile phones.
- “Ever Forward”
- “Maersk Shekou”
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Excessive cellphone use on watch is a significant and widespread problem. That’s why Gard is now making an issue of it.
Every SMS prohibits cell phone use on watch.
Yet, various people from the office, charters, crewmen onboard, and even nearby vessels, frequently call, text and email watchstanders on the “boat phone,” or on watchstander’s personal cell phones.
Sometimes I miss the good old days when only a brief morning report got called into the office on the SSB once a day (if there was contact), and I called the office from a pay phone at the next port.
What’s it going to be like when the watchstanders all have implanted chips in their heads and can make calls and surf the web just by thinking about it?
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I honestly don’t understand why ship’s wireless networks extend to the bridge. That would solve a majority of the problems. Wifi is spotty enough with a steel hull, by simply not having a router on the bridge that removes the distraction with an engineering control, rather than a administrative control.
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Read case study 3 Spo……ring any bells?
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I did not have to listen to any bells ringing. I have just clicked the link in case 3 to see EVER FORWARD. 
Also see Wakashio although not under pilotage sensu stricte but under SHIP MASTER pilotage !!! This case should be studied ad noseam in maritime academies to educate present and future commands.
Besides Gard is chewing the old cud. The problem was communicated by many others and not necessarily P&I Clubs
And one can continue with links ad noseam some odd 20 years back.
It was a problem , it is a problem and it will be a problem and it is an elephant in the room.
Nobody has balls to fix it as now we have human rights, seafarers wellfare, rights and all this WOKE kind of BS. including crewing problems as nowadays young kids first question is : is there internet on board.
They will not work w/o it. The first thing they get after leaving mothers womb is a huge effing mobile pH and they can not function w/o it. And some can not function at sea w/o seeing everyday the tits and asses of their girlfriends.
So it looks to me that any kind of indoctrination and blah blah and doctorates written on the topic will not solve the problem. We need a huge effing disaster of magnificient proportion affecting the public, polIticians, UN and IMO , something really HUGE what will cause awakening. And safety of navigation is not the only issue here.
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Sorry my Dear it will not. Smart wizz kids like You and tech savvy wiłl buy cheap wifi extender and amplifier and fool this smalL impediment.
Besides before You were born old farts like me were doing TV, WIFI,Phone navigation shaving or hugging the shores and until today the cheap internet sim card offer ( local and international ) is limitless. Smart kids like You will resolve the problem in two shakes of a lamb taił. Hm ……and some OLD FARTS too
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“Warnings about the dangers of mobile phones use when navigating in busy waterways and during pilotage were first recognised over 12 years ago.”
It goes back further than that. In 2003 we went into Houston for repairs. The lay-berth was on the south side at the end of the shipping channel. We had to go all the way into the turning basis and then head back out to get to the berth. From the time we picked the pilot up until we started using the tug for maneuvering, the pilot was frequently on his phone. While he did call his office once or twice, the rest of the conversations seemed to be about his social life. My pointing out to the pilot that the phone was a distraction was ignored.
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Pilots are being paid by ship owners to pilot the ship, not conduct business not related to that task. If inappropriate usage takes place it might be worthwhile to lodge a complaint to the pilot association
That said the phone sometimes is the best tool for the task. In most cases there’s no good reason for OOW to have a phone on the bridge but an outright ban in all cases isn’t the answer
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Slightly off topic but within the same area of concern… When I worked for Shell if you were found to be driving and using your phone it was considered a termination offense.
Schools around here are beginning to put limits, or outright bans on kids use of phones in schools.
KC,
There must be some accountability on the part of ship managers and Pilotage Associations. They need to have in place mobile phone usage procedures which are incorporated into the Safety Operation Procedures.
It is noted that the Association of Maryland Pilots introduced a new digital media policy following the grounding of the “Ever Forward”.
There is always an element of managerial culpability attributable to these incidents. Just look at the case of the “Costa Concordia “.
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It is certainly hard to enforce this when the biggest culprit on my last vessel was the Master, he would sit on his arse on the bridge non-stop scrolling on Fakebook for just about his whole watch, he cannot bear to separated from his phone, and him a 62 year old Master of 25 years.
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In my experience the company flip phone was sufficient for ship’s business.
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The problem is many customers EXPECT the boat to answer the phone. There is no F’n way I am keeping the boat phone in my office/room so the Mate can be “undistracted” by the phone and instead it is interrupting my sleep/rest!
I refuse to make my crew hold a twelve hour watch in the bridge without wifi or having their cell phones available to them. They know when they should not be using them and when it’s completely appropriate to handle home life. And yes many mariners will not work on a ship without wifi and I am one of them. I’m not considered a young man at all either.
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Yes. I never even carried a cellphone while on bridge watch. The only exception was the last ship, a MARAD ROS activated on FOS and lacked a ship phone system and semi-operable SPP system. The cellphone was my e-conn to the old man or CHENG in genuine emergencies. Cellphones while making rounds i.e. anchored, moored or when working on deck while ship is underway is a valid reason to carry one for comms when something goes sideways but only limited to that scenario
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I remember keeping a supply of quarters for pay phones, and standing in line to use them.
I remember when I could not understand why anyone would want to carry a cellphone, except that they were trying to be “important.”
I remember when I could not understand why anyone thought that they needed a smart phone.
I remember when I refused to text, until my employer’s office staff forced me to do it.
Times have changed.
Today, the best new iPhone or Android smart phone is a very useful necessity that everyone else expects you to have and use.
Today, virtually no one is willing to be without a smartphone with cell signal and or Starlink.
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As much as I dislike phone usage in the wheelhouse, I’ve worked for multiple outfits where the mate-on-watch is so bogged down with admin, that they are constantly behind a computer in the chartroom or stuffed in a corner on the bridge. So I must ask, what is the difference?
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