Near Miss Incident

This article doesn’t mention, I couldn’t locate, where this incident took place. Nevertheless, I’m sure it will generate interest for some discussion.

The source is the MARS program at the Nautical Institute which is described, “The Mariners’ Alerting and Reporting Scheme (MARS) is primarily a confidential reporting system run by The Nautical Institute to allow full reporting of accidents (and near misses) without fear of identification…”

The more successful near miss reporting schemes can be described as confidential, voluntary and non-punitive. The confidentiality is critical, particularly for those reporters coming from organizations without a robust “just culture.”

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The undermanning of the bridge mentioned in the article occurs when the mate has done excess hours and the second and third mates have been six on six off throughout the port call and the master is struggling to provide a "well rested " mate to keep a watch.

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Yuppers. All Chief mates should day work and a second third mate should be standard.

I never figured out how someone thought it was OK to have a job that required two people to stand a 6 on 6 off watch in port on a tanker crude oil washing and simultaneously ballasting and discharging and only provided three mates to do it.
The one time we were really stretched was about 80 miles of Sabine Pass lightering of to 80 to 100,000 tonne tankers. There was some really bad weather , it destroyed citrus crops in Florida with the cold, and we weighed and slow steamed to provide a lee.
So we had to man the bridge as well. The old man slept on the bridge when the third mate was on. The mate and I 6 on 6 off on deck with one pump man.
What happened to those time and motion experts when you need them.
The P & I club Gaard has a publication on guidance to masters. It’s about 400 pages of “the master should” and “the master will”. If you followed it religiously you better hope for a 60 hour day.
But then again the rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.
Stay lucky.

Pilots have had a program like this for ages:
https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/report/electronic.html

A post was split to a new topic: Confidential Near Miss Reporting System to be implemented by USCG: