Safety News

Issue # 03/02

We encourage all employees to pay attention to these broadcasts, and discuss how best we can improve the way we do
our business. A copy of this broadcast should be posted on the ships notice board.

Piracy off Somalia

The Princess Sarah, a general cargo vessel with 18 crew on board, was boarded by pirates off the Somalian coast as she
headed for Aden after completing a discharge of fertiliser cargo at Mombasa.
The Somalian coast, notorious for its pirate attacks, would have been given a wide berth by the Princess Sarah, were it not
for the unfortunate circumstance of a main engine turbocharger failure just then. The Master, having little choice in the
matter, had to stop to carry out repairs.
Soon after the vessel stopped, 5 boats surrounded the vessel, and the pirates who came aboard carried automatic weapons,
including rocket-propelled grenades. Prudence dictated the actions of the vessels crew in not offering any resistance and the
pirates, following a recently emerging trend in such attacks, held the ship and the crew for ransom.
A local Somali trader was enlisted by the owners to carry out negotiations with the pirates. This man was assisted by some
Ukrainian diplomats from the Beirut embassy. Their combined persuasive skills secured the release of the hostages and the
vessel without incident. But not without some money changing hands, thought to be in the region of $200,000.

IMO gets tough on stowaways

The IMO Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, commonly known as the FAL Convention, is to adopt
new standards and recommended practices for dealing with stowaways. These amendments are expected to come into force
on the 1st of May 2003.
The new measures stipulate that Flag States will require ships to carry out a thorough search in accordance with a specific
plan or schedule whenever departing from a port that could present a risk that stowaways may board.
The amendments will place an onus upon port authorities to provide regular patrolling of port areas and the establishment of
special storage facilities for cargo particularly susceptible to stowaway access. Persons or cargo entering this special area are
to be continuously monitored.
Vessels calling at ports with a stowaway risk will be required, as a minimum:

to keep all stores locked;

restrict access to the vessel and keep these points under supervision;

deny access to the vessel from seaward

Upon the question of disembarkation of stowaways, the amendments will require Governments of States to urge shipowners
to instruct their masters to not deviate from their planned voyage, if the vessel is already beyond the territorial waters of the
country where the stowaway was embarked. A Government may grant specific permission, but this must be obtained before
the vessel decides to deviate to a port of that country to disembark a stowaway.

Safety News

Issue # 03/02

Incidents in the fleet

Nil

Injuries in the fleet

Minor head injury
An AB, working within a team bringing up an export hose, had cause to put his head through a Panama fairlead below the
hose rail to secure a rope to the thimble of a snubbing wire on the hose. The hose was swaying gently due to a low swell. The
chief officer, overseeing the operation and a co-worker warned the AB to watch for the hose and not put his head out beyond
the shipside. The warnings apparently went unheard. The hose hit the left side of his helmeted head, resulting in a rather
harder impact on the right from the fairlead.
His helmet saved him from serious injury, even as his own acts left him vulnerable to it.
Mild eye injury due to thinner
A deck cadet, cleaning a paint brush with some thinner, dropped the brush on the deck, causing some of the thinner to splash
back up into his eyes. Fortunately, it was only small droplets of thinner that entered his eyes and he was able to flush them
out with water without suffering much discomfort.
Safety goggles or glasses, standard PPE when working with chemicals, would have spared him even this mild discomfort,
while protecting his eyes from possible serious injury.
SAFETY IS OUR BUSINESS.
Best regards from the Safety and Quality Department
09 February 2002