I am currently operating on a Singapore flagged JU 2000 in Mexico that is Singapore flagged. The official language is English according to Flag. All of our station bills posted around the rig are in English. I thought since the majority of the crew speak Spanish that it would be a good idea to have an identical station bill translated into Spanish and posted right next to the English ones. In speaking to the Marine Manager he said it is illegal to do that. I have challenged him that meeting international requirements and exceeding them are two different things particularly since I believe it will be of benefit to the rig to do this, but I can not find any justification written to support my argument.
I have sent an E-mail to MPA to see what their opinion is on this, but I have not received a response yet. Does anyone here have a similar experience and if so what was the resolution?
I appreciate any input particularly if you know of some regulation written that supports my argument.
What vast experience does your Marine Manager have? And can he cite for you where your request is illegal, or does he not want the expense of translating and printing a few documents. Not worth losing a job over but best practice would have both posted. Maybe you can help out by getting someone onboard to help you with translation, then you aren’t asking your boss for too much.
I worked on a Marshall Islands flagged Jack Up down there a couple of years ago. PEMEX put a lot of their own folks onboard and, as I recall, there were also station bills in Spanish. Supplemental to the ones in English. Don’t know how having one in Spanish IN ADDITION to the one in English would be prudent at a minimum. I can say as a former Class Surveyor and Marshall Islands agent for SOLAS and MODU CODE Certificate inspections and issuance, having an additional station bill in any language would not be a hindrance. . .
On all ships, to ensure effective crew performance in safety matters, a working language shall be established and recorded in the ship’s log-book. The company, as defined in regulation IX/1, or the master, as appropriate, shall determine the appropriate working language. Each seafarer shall be required to understand and, where appropriate, give orders and instructions and to report back in that language. If the working language is not an official language of the State whose flag the ship is entitled to fly, all plans and lists required to be posted shall include a translation into the working language.
This might be outdated but from SOLAS 2001: Chapter III, Regulation 8 Muster List and emergency instructions,
1 Clear instructions to be followed in the event of an emergency…shall be drawn up in the language(s) …required by the ship’s flag State and the English language.
[QUOTE=Seago;196243]This might be outdated but from SOLAS 2001: Chapter III, Regulation 8 Muster List and emergency instructions,
1 Clear instructions to be followed in the event of an emergency…shall be drawn up in the language(s) …required by the ship’s flag State and the English language.[/QUOTE]
For Singapore flag the language is English, but dual language is commonly used when the majority of the crew and/or pax are not English speakers. (On rigs it is common to see dual language Station Bills. Required by many Shelf States, incl. Brasil, Malaysia, Indonesia and more)