Stories from the sea: how improving safety strengthens crew wellbeing

I grew up at sea. In fact, I was almost born on a ship. My father was a captain and I was sailing with him from the age of three. Sometimes, I spent my school holidays on board with him. On my father’s final voyage, I was his chief mate. It was the longest time we had together and was beneficial personally and professionally. I was always able to approach him with questions and learnt a great deal from him.

When you are on board you must be cautious. You are facing the water, the wind and the elements. You need to perform and deliver the cargo in a safe way. When you’re working on shore, you have an eight-hour day, but once you are on board you are always alert.

I have sailed on transloaders in difficult environments in the Persian Gulf – panamax-sized vessels geared with four eccentric cranes and longitudinal, cross and boom conveyors. We had tight schedules with no idle time, and it was very important to keep it in an excellent technical condition. We’d have six hours of work and six hours of rest. Even a small job should be planned beforehand and include briefing and supervising of people. Rest is as important as work. If people are not well-rested it can lead to mistakes and mental health concerns.

Learning from mistakes

When I was third mate on a general cargo vessel, in 1993, we had a faulty lifeboat. There was a sophisticated system that allowed us to disengage but it wasn’t working properly. The hydrostatic interlock was malfunctioning, and no one knew until we started lowering the lifeboats. The system released the hooks prematurely and the lifeboat fell 4.5 metres, with 16 people in it.  Luckily both hooks were released simultaneously; if only one hook released it would have been left hanging. There were no serious injuries, but it was a good lesson in doing everything possible to prevent such an incident from occurring again.

Although no one was hurt, the 16 people were shocked and became distrustful of lifeboats. It takes a long time to re-built trust and confidence in people after such an incident, which also has an impact on mental wellbeing. We held extra safety meetings to explain how the system was repaired, tested and made fully functional again, to ensure the crew felt safe.

We completed a proper investigation into the releasing of the hooks. We shared the issue with the entire fleet. This was checked and we discovered the same situation on another vessel. We informed the lifeboat makers. We introduced the corrective preventions and made a change in inspection routines.

When I returned to shore-based work, I completed a ship management course at Lloyd’s Maritime Academy. I’m also a member of the Nautical Institute in London. I have always believed in increasing my professional knowledge. When you are sailing you have certain skills, but when you go ashore it’s different.

I have been fortunate to travel the world doing ISM code audits. Meeting people from several regions with different cultural backgrounds, I began to understand how people interpreted and fulfilled procedures differently. I was always interested in cultural differences and people’s approach to safety or taking shortcuts.