Now You see Dear Dr.Bugge why every activity o/b requires a detailed Risk Assesment.
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This MAY not be directly relevant to the case, but the timing of publishing MAY indicate otherwise:
A little anecdote on that last point:
In 1973 I did a delivery voyage on a scrap ship (blt. 1929) from Sâpore - Kaohsiung. When in the South China Sea we received a Typhoon warning. In trying to avoid getting too near the storm centre I spent 52 hrs. on the Bridge without sleep.
That was the only time in my life I had to use something from the medical chest to stay awake. (Coffee no longer worked)
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If his tip off is reliable then I have received an answer how many navigators were available for watch keeping. So it is not two ( master and mate) 6on/6off but three. Taking into account the time of departure of Solong I do not see any particular reason for all of them being totaly exhausted . Regarding A.C.B . he is a well known and dyed in the wool russophobe.
" because they have disinformation technology to help them, catch up on their sleep "
I like that.
I donât know if he can be characterised as ârussphobeâ, but he is not a fan AFAIK.
It is not this single passage that you can base any effect of sleep deprivation over a period of time. I am reminded of one feeder vessel was due to a mistake by the charterers, was alongside Christmas Day and there was no work in the Port. There was no Christmas meal or festivities, the entire crew turned in.
My Dear Alias Hogsnort ( interesting nick by BTW) . I think I have a fairly good grasp of what accumulation of fatigue is .And I have both :
a) theoretical
b) practical
which is 3 years on coasters around european waters with me & master for keeping watch 6on/6off at sea and port ??? âŚport was mine from arrival till departure . 9 months contracts.
It was before ISM, MLC era and master could dismiss You w/o notice because for example You did not like sth or dared to complain abt sth .
Rest hours ??? WTF was that ???
You have not come here to rest getting all this fantastic money so you can live like a king in your poor country . This is work factory 
German environment under Austrian flag. The difference between the labour camp and ship was that I got all this fantastic German Marks so I could live like a king. 
. How about that for an experience. ???
Another few years later and my first command here:
1060 teu
6 months contracts on Limasol >Damieta> Beirut>Lataquia > Mersin > Limasol Merry go round and every two sometimes 4 weeks we got vacation going from Mersin to Izmir > Ambarli Limani> Gemlik > Limasol. On this long leg we were resting especially in the Marmara sea traffic chaos and Canakkale narrows. Pilot??? you dare not upset the charterers with such stupid concepts captain -that was the helping and caring hand of the managers to ease the condition of exhausted zombies.
I was even more resting filling up the second log book showed only in Turkey as somehow due to some agreement Turks were not supposed to know we called Limasol Cyprus. Her name then was FAS Lattaquie chartered by CMA Fr then , and was part of the Sadee family mafia dealings .
But due to this totaly incomprehesible dealings once a month we were arrested in Lattakia doing nothing for abt 7 days - meaning I got time to catch up with ISM/SMS paper work , go out to see the beautiful city it once was and buy some lovely gold . No MLC and STWC rest hrs yet in sight .
How abt same ship but this time under different charter: her name was P& O Nedlloyd Curaçao. 6 month contract with 21 ports in the Carribean sea w/o arrests in between what was distressing . You could rest at home going around your house for one month after sign off due to Merry go round and mental habit acquired o/b.
The management showed great magnanimity and caring for your well being by not sending you in that nightmare again.
Will give You heads up later on other sleep disturbing aspects there , not mentioned by @244
We had Anshutz autopilot , 1 GPS , 2 x ARPA Anshutz , DEAD MAN push button and I was exctatic not having any of this " disinformation technologies " helping to disturb and distract us from keeping a " continous radar watch" with its overflow of useless information and infuriating alarms . Despite having everlatsting and uninterrupted REST from "resting " we managed somehow with side effects materialising at home as described above.
Had total ECDIS failure 2 days ago.
Coped.
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Well while we are on fatigue stories.
Did anyone else find that when you actually had any time to sleep you were usually so cold and could not get warm no matter what you did. This is regardless of the ambient temperature.
My wife was a nurse who worked night shifts and also experienced this.
When you did actually fall asleep you would wake with a start and a panic that you had fallen asleep on the bridge.
And finally working a particularly difficult Rig in the southern sector of the north sea. 16 hours on the sticks was common followed by a 4 hour passage back to port turn round in about 6 hours and rinse and repeat.
One particular morning arrived at the rig 2/0 called me and as usual gave me the briefing about requirements weather tides plus of course the coffee. My regular habits was to listen to all this then go for a crap then ask him to brief me again as I would not take any of it in the first time.
This particular time I was called mid morning by the C/0 after being stood off for a few hours. As we backed in I remarked that we had no food containers on board and I was sure we had loaded a couple. The mate just laughed. I got a bit cranky and at watch handover they explained.
I had been called on arrival on location by 2/0 and informed that we were only to offload the 2 food boxes (perishable) and stand by for a few hours. I had ignored my coffee, my crap and backed straight in offloaded 2 lifts and went straight back to bed.
I reckon I had not even woke up properly.
I find that frightening.
I had heard tales of Captains moving ships in harbour and not remembering but I had put that down to them being drunk.
I know I was totally sober when this happened
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I would never doubt that you had personal experience. Me, I worked for German owners in the same crap but larger, 1850 teu, Hagglund cranes etc. I was lucky and had 3 mates feeding Kingston from every where else including Manaus.
Looking back itâs more by luck than good management. My first experience was joining as mate on an AHTS 6 on 6 off. We always arrived at 01:30 at the rig a semi submersible. In those days we would anchor and back up to the rig and secure with Samson lines to the rig. The boat was the Mighty Tide, new, but nothing beyond the very basics. Two deck hands no coms except whistle and hailer to back deck. Anchor let go and secure by whistle, had to be done right because the deck hands were aft to handle the very heavy lines. I had only seen it done once before having to do it myself in the dark.
The worst was master, one and a half hours from the port. The only boat servicing the rig with a small standby boat to take over when we went to the beach. At the end of 28 days on it took three or four days of leave to come right.
I think the point I missed making last night was that I was in my 30âs when all this was going on.
The Master of the Salong is 59 
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All German masters on my coasters 1988- 1992 were 62+ . And 1 was chain smoking Camel cigarettes 2 packets per day. 6on/6off . Special WWII kid breed. He is still living and is not even thinking of leaving
Jeez 
Was always saying : smoked fish lasts longer. 
Yeah
A UT 704 was ânothing beyond the basicsâ???
Well by the mid-1980 I presume they were getting quite common, but in comparison with the standard US-built OSVs at the time the UT 704s were introduced they were âmarvels of modern technologyâ
The Mighty Tide was built in Norway (Sterkoder) in 1983: BalticShipping.com
I inspected her a few times and used her for a tow last time in 2010:
PS> She has been idle for many years now. Still laid up in Batam, I believe.
I liked the UT 704 .
Was Captain of 3 different ones.
One even in the livery of the Mighty Tide although she didnât have the Tide surname.
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When I said basics I was being a bit judgemental in hindsight. She was beautiful to handle with independent rudders ( a learning curve), a powerful bow thruster, sharks jaws, towing pins and two tugger winches.
There was no capstans, communications with the engineers was mostly by hand signal with them poking the head out the door to the engine room when pumping liquids or cement. The crew had to get used to the whistle and hand signals for coms as well.
Mine had fairly decent Comms to ER.
KARM forks as opposed to sharks jaws.
Pop ups with tops on that swiveled.
Wouldnât class the BT as powerful but adequate
No independent rudders much was
a shame.
But those bloody huge funnels were a pain when working cargo alongside.
The 704 s. Were a wonderful step up from what came before.
I was also captain on Offshore Marine s Weather class which were the mutts nuts before the 704 s .
The 704 s were a generation better.