The subject of crewing wheelhouses is a fascinating study in human dynamics. Some say there are too few mates aboard, and therefore they are overworked, so the solution is more mates. Some say the mates are not paying attention to the big picture because the watch changes over so frequently the fast-changing nature of a storm goes unrecognized: in other words, there are too many mates.
Some say the chief mate should stand a watch, presumably because the other mates have lesser experience and may not spot a developing, dangerous situation. Some will argue the chief mate should stay out of the wheelhouse and keep an eye on the fabric of the ship—watertight closures, stability—because the OOWs have to concentrate on navigation, collision avoidance and weather; two different aspects of the total question of ship safety.
Some will say additional mates would allow the captain more time to rest so as to analyze situations with a clear head. Some will say that the captain should be divorced from all duties except 24/7 analysis of the ship’s situation. In other words, be up in the wheelhouse nearly every watch to see what the Hell the situation really is.
As I write this I am involved, in a small way, with an incident where a boat (262’ LOA) ran into heavy seas last night, burying the bow and breaking a wheelhouse window. Wheelhouse and accommodations flooded. No one injured. Steering thought lost, though problem was really a breaker tripping on RAI system. All hands on deck, and excitement and chain-falls in the Steering Room for a few minutes, while rolling in 20’ to 30’ seas. Most wheelhouse electronics toast. Enough operational for boat to divert and arrive safely today in a SE Alaskan shipyard under her own power. She will be towed back to Seattle.
The captain had been skirting bad weather for days, on the 1800-mile run back from Dutch Harbor to Seattle, watching weather mainly via AWT’s weather routing software “Bon Voyage”. Anchoring out in a port of refuge as necessary, continuing on as the weather moderated. Typical drill for PNW tenders and tugs. The first part of the day in question the weather had dropped to near flat calm. But weather came up in a hurry in its usual/unexpected GOA way, despite all forecast and satellite data. By late afternoon winds were 50-70 knots. Sea 20-25’ with occasional 30 footers. As I say, typical GOA winter weather.
6 and 6 watch schedule. Captain and mate rotating. Regardless of the watch schedule the captain was in wheelhouse all afternoon with the mate. They manned the throttle and helm [I]themselves[/I], making sure the bow wasn’t burying itself, speeding up and slowing down as the big ones passed. Even with all that care the above-mentioned damage occurred.
My points follow. I present them only as talking points, not conclusions. You can make those yourself:
1)You can have as many mates as you want rotating. At some point the captain as to be in the wheelhouse for ungodly hours taking the reins in his/her own hands. In that sense the concept of work hours is debatable.
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The captain in question has over 30 years of dealing with weather of this sort. In his personal annals this incident will be minor and nearly forgettable. He’s seen worse. Because he has spent a lifetime of operating in an area where bad weather is the norm he has a sixth-sense about it, and avoided greater damage to the boat. [B]Experience with bad weather is everything[/B]. If the area you normally operate in usually has good weather you are at a disadvantage.
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Satellite weather forecasting software is invaluable. I am dumbfounded that El Faro did not have AWT software. A vessel of that size likely spends more in paper towels each month than the cost of a subscription. Why does a situation like this occur? I can tell you in the PNW captains are fixated on bad weather. It is the norm for them, so they assume the worst and plan accordingly. Other mariners in other oceans? Weather forecasting has revolutionized our operations in the GOA in just a few short years, saving us money in schedule-keeping and loss of damage to ship and cargo, for a trivial amount of outlay. Can’t imagine operating without it now. BUT HERE’S THE RUB: IT IS NOT OMNISCIENT. Man proposes, Nature Disposes. Man may make rules for Weather but Weather doesn’t have to read the memo. To begin a sentence with something like “A storm shouldn’t—“ betrays less experience with storms than others have.
4)The captain in the above-mentioned incident has done everything right. Early and constant weather tracking coupled with a lifetime experience has brought his ship home under her own power, with no one hurt and no cargo damaged. it. No drama. But even then, the incident still happened. [B]Moral: You can do everything right , with the reins in the captain’s hands, and still be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine how much worse it is when the storm is a magnitude stronger and the ship loses propulsion in its path.
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5) I must admit professional exasperation with those of my peers who say , as a [B]blanket[/B] statement, that ships should not operate near storms. Taking that as a [B]categorical[/B] statement commerce would grind to a halt in the GOA and in other high latitudes.Proposed regulatory prescriptions to deal with heavy weather avoidance would have to be so carefully parsed and shot with caveats as to be useless—or destructive of commerce in and of themselves. Better to keep it simple and follow basic tenets of good seamanship: stay out of the path of a hurricane if you don’t need to be there.
- Comparisons to airline operations are as instructional as they are fraught with difficulties. An airplane is aloft for mere hours, making work-hour management easy to deal with. Crew tired? Get another crew tomorrow. Ships are at sea for weeks. Different thing altogether. Planes travel fast enough to fly around weather systems. Some ships on some runs can do this. Others can’t and must be ready to deal with heavy weather. Planes deal with high winds. Ships deal with high winds AND heavy water. The destructiveness of an element that weighs 8 lbs per cubic foot coming at you at several miles an hour in unlimited quantities is something a plane does not need to contend with. Not to disparage airplane pilots. They have their own particular set of dangers.
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