Welcome to the latest edition of Alongside, the Solis Marine Consultants regular newsletter.

We begin this edition with a look by Senior Partner, John Simpson, at Solis Marine’s involvement in a project to restore ‘VIOLA’, a former British steam trawler with an interesting back story which includes active service in WW1. We then go on to confirm that Ros Blazejczyk, our Managing Partner, signed on behalf of Solis Marine the “Women in Maritime Pledge”

supporting greater diversity in the maritime workplace.

We also reflect on our hugely successful half day seminar on current and future trends in the use of marine data technology. Held on May Day, the event was co-hosted with Reed Smith at their London offices and supported by Maritime London. Which then leads rather neatly into our announcement of an award of an important contract with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency to work on their initiative to explore how a range of maritime data sets can be made available to support the further development of autonomous and smart shipping. Working in partnership with a number of industry leading experts, Solis Marine now enjoys an established and growing reputation for its consultancy work in relation to the use of marine data

technology and autonomous shipping.

In June, the 5th Greek British Shipping Forum was held at the British Ambassador’s residence in Athens, and on the panel to discuss and debate “innovation in marine insurance” was our UK General Manager, Richard Meikle. Richard has also

contributed an interesting article looking the role of Voyage Data Recorders (“VDRs”) in on board and navigational assessments. Then finally Simon Hindley updates us on developments within Solis Marine Engineering.

We hope you enjoy this latest edition of Alongside.

Nigel ClarkChairman.

s lism a r i n e c o n s u l t a n t s

ALONGS IDEnews, reviews and updates from solis marine

JULY EDITION 2019

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It is not often that the opportunity arises to become in-volved in the potential salvage of a workhorse and war veteran that ploughed some of the most hostile waters in the world for over 60 years.

Solis is proud to be involved with this fascinating project and was fortunate to be able to carry out the inspection and survey in 2016 to establish the feasibility of the proj-ect. We remain closely connected and look forward to the day when the salvage work can commence.

Figure 1:‘VILOA’ / ‘DIAS’ alongside the abandoned whaling station of Grytviken, South Georgia

‘VIOLA’ is the subject of a fundraising effort to finance a salvage operation to return her to her original home port of Hull. Following that operation there will be an ex-tensive restoration project to install her as a permanent memorial to the merchant seamen lost during the Great War and to become part of the resurgence of Hull as Yorkshire’s maritime city.

http://cityplanhull.co.uk/index.php/hull-yorkshires-maritime-city

This unique survivor spent the years before 1914, fish-ing in the North Sea spending more than 300 days a year on the grounds. That was followed by four years of strenuous Admiralty service as a minesweeper in WWI where she saw action on an almost daily basis, including involvement in the destruction of at least one German U Boat.

The former British steam trawler ‘VIOLA’, also known un-der her later name of ‘DIAS’, was built in 1906 at Bever-ley in East Yorkshire for the Hellyer Steam Fishing Com-pany of Hull. Today, accompanied by other old whalers, she lies rusting at Grytviken, a short distance from the grave of Sir Ernest Shackleton, at the deserted whal-ing station on the remote sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia.

Figure 2:‘VIOLA’ departing for the fishing grounds before WWI

VIOLA SALVAGE OPERATION

The story of ‘VIOLA’ is unique: a remarkable tale of fish-eries, whaling, sealing, war and exploration during which she both weathered and witnessed many aspects of mankind’s twentieth century struggles on the sea. ‘VIOLA’ is now the oldest surviving former steam trawler in the world.

Following the armistice in 1918, ‘VIOLA’ was released by the navy and sold to Norwegian interests to resume fishing. During the 1920’s she was sold again and took up whaling in West Africa which then led to a transfer to South Georgia and the next chapter of her long life.

‘VIOLA’ had been renamed ‘DIAS’ and worked as a seal catcher in South Georgia which involved the hunting of elephant seals around the coast. That brutal and de-manding work continued throughout the seasons until the whaling industry finally ceased in the early 1970’s.

Figure 3:‘VIOLA’ as the seal catcher ‘DIAS’ in South Georgia during 1959

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The years of hunting were also interspersed with work as a support ship for a number of Antarctic expeditions.

Laid to rest in the whaling station at Grytviken during the 1970’s, together with ‘PETREL’ and ‘ALBATROS’, the years went by and ‘VIOLA’ eventually sank along-side under the accumulation of melted snow which flooded her hull.

It was not until 1982 that the world became aware of events in South Georgia as the Falklands conflict ran its course with ‘VIOLA’ as a witness of events and as a survivor of the torches of the Argentinian scrap mer-chants.

Today, the ‘VIOLA’ Trust is raising funds with wide-spread support, in order to ensure that she is returned to her home port that she left in 1914. The goal of the Trust is to ensure that she completes her final voyage to enjoy a long and well earned retirement. Solis is grateful to be a sponsor of the Trust and will be as-sisting as far as possible to ensure that her trip home takes place as soon as it possibly can.

We are very pleased to announce that Solis Marine is has joined the growing list of maritime organisa-tions to have signed the Women in Maritime Pledge with Maritime UK. In doing so, we are making clear our support for creating positive change to promote diversity both within our own organisation and across the maritime sector.

Commenting on the need for greater diversity in the maritime industry, Managing Partner Ros Blazejczyk said “as an organisation we recognise the benefits of a balanced work force both culturally and in terms of productivity and profitability.

As one of the few companies in our field with anyfemale senior management we are committed to work-ing towards greater balance at all levels of seniority”.

For more information on the Women in Maritime Pledge see:

www.maritimeuk.org/programmes/women-maritime/pledge

To learn more of the history of this remarkable ves-sel, try the links below and discover the efforts being made to secure her future. Also see if you can find the remarkable product that has been distilled in Yorkshire to raise funds for ‘VIOLA’ and that you might wish to consider as something very special indeed to go with your tonic.

www.violatrawler.net

John SimpsonSolis Marine

SOLIS MARINE SIGN THE WOMEN IN MARITIME PLEDGE

Solis Marine’s Ros Blazejczyk signing up to the Pledge with Shipping Minister Nusrat Ghani and Roger Evans of the ISU

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In association with Reed Smith LLP and Maritime Lon-don, Solis Marine Consultants celebrated Mayday this year by hosting a half-day seminar looking at current and future trends, developments and uses of marine data technologies. Primarily focussing on the use of ves-sel tracking via AIS data in loss prevention and casualty investigation, the seminar also considered its use in eco-nomic modelling and as a key driver in the development of autonomous vessels.

Held at Reed Smith’s London office, and with Maritime London helping to organise the day, the event attracted a cross section of delegates from the shipping, marine insurance, maritime legal and marine data sectors. The seminar began with a welcome address from Solis Se-nior Partner Captain John Simpson and Richard Gunn, Partner and mariner from Reed Smith , before getting underway with the first of three presentations, with each presentation leading into a panel discussion with ques-tions from delegates.

Duncan used recent cases to show how data recon-struction is used to analyse collisions, allisions and groundings, unsafe port claims and reef damage claims. An interesting case study, of a collision between a tank-er and a tug in an anchorage, showed that the original video evidence of the collision was contradicted by the data that was later used to provide a reconstruction of the events. Duncan discussed how data can now also be used for vessel traffic analysis, with an example given of 12 hours of AIS data for the Singapore Strait showed how a temporary traffic separation scheme, had been effectively deployed after a large vessel sank.

Richard Gunn opened the panel discussion that followed with his take on the use, and current acceptance, of AIS data and reconstruction in legal proceedings. Paul Amos, Senior Claims Handler at The London P&I Club, commented on the effectiveness of AIS data in assist-ing P&I Club Members to review incidents following a potential claim, and the issues that this raised. Duncan Campbell joined the panel and outlined the envisaged future developments in data use in investigations and explained the methods used to ensure the integrity of the data provided to Courts. The moderator for the opening session of the seminar, which included a lively exchange of views from the panel and the attending del-egates, was Captain Richard Meikle, General Manager of Solis Marine’s London office.

MARINE DATA TECHNOLOGIES SEMINAR 1ST MAY 2019

SOLIS MARINE CONSULTANTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH REED SMITH AND MARITIME LONDON

The opening presentation of the Seminar, on Electronic Navigation Data from Initial Investigation to Litigation, was given by Duncan Campbell who is a Naval Architect at Solis Marine Consultants Singapore office. Duncan described the various sources of data used in marine investigation with particular focus on AIS and VDR evi-dence. Duncan explained the process of decoding data to provide animated reconstructions and demonstrated how this then allowed for further analysis to be made.

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The next presentation of the afternoon was given by Mark Williams, Managing Director of Shipping Strategy. Under the heading of Big Data Mark looked at the use of AIS vessel traffic data in particular to assist in both eco-nomic modelling within the freight market and with risk analysis primarily within the marine insurance sector. Mark looked at traditional methods of market modelling and risk-analysis and explained how both were changing rapidly to reflect the greater use and availability of data.

Joining Mark on the panel to discuss his presentation and to look at how underwriters could use vessel track-ing data in risk analysis and some of the challenges they may face, and to consider the wider question of eco-nomic modelling using AIS data, were; Philip Thomas, Partner within the IP, Technology and Data Division at Reed Smith; Tom Owen, Managing Director and Found-er at MariTrace; and Nick Taylor, Underwriting Director within the International Division at The Standard P&I Club. Nigel Clark, Solis Marine Consultants’ Chairman moderated this session.

During their discussions the panellists debated the po-tential for real time risk analysis which would allow un-derwriters to alter premiums during a voyage, data pro-tection issues, the difficulties associated with a ship’s AIS system being switched off - or even “spoofed” - and how, via AIS, interested parties can track the move-ments of cargo and commodities to inform investment and trading decisions.

The third and final presentation of the day was given by Simon Hindley, Managing Director of Solis Marine Engi-neering, the design and engineering arm of Solis. Simon concentrated on providing an overview of the Current Status of the Autonomous Vessel Industry in the UK and discussed how the use of tracking data was being used to assist with innovation in that sector.

Simon focused on the technical issues of determining the level of autonomous control that certain vessel types might have and how that was challenging operations, the Classification Societies and the insurance market.

Simon was joined by a panel comprising; Dan Hook, the founder and former Managing Director of L3 ASV who has worked with autonomous vessel data at the sharp end; Captain Richard Meikle, the General manager of Solis Marine’s London office who provided his practical vessel command and accident/incident investigation ex-perience; Britt Pickering, the Claims and Legal Director at Shipowners P & I Club, who outlined the perspective of insurers of autonomous vessels; and Marcus Dodds, a Partner and mariner at Reed Smith who was able to draw together some of the legal issues that will be en-countered and discuss how they might be addressed.

The moderator for the session was Captain John Simpson. A lively debate followed the talk with many questions from the floor which kept the panel on their toes addressing topics including manning afloat and ashore, training, the level of automation for various ship types, how they are insured and some of the legal issues that might arise.

John Simpson wrapped up the seminar by thanking Reed Smith for their hospitality in agreeing to hold the seminar in their offices, and Maritime London for their help in organising the day as one of their events.

Presenters, panellists, moderators and delegates then continued their discussions for some time while enjoying a glass or two of something refreshing.

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Solis Marine Consultants is pleased to announce that they have recently been awarded a contract to explore how a range of maritime data sets held by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) can be made available to promote innovation and development in the smart and autonomous shipping sector in the UK.

Solis Marine is a technical marine consultancy employ-ing maritime experts from a variety of backgrounds in-cluding master mariners, naval architects, engineers and data analysts. Since 2012 Solis Marine has been working with many types of maritime data, primarily for shipping incident investigation and also to support loss prevention, and are therefore well placed to provide a multi-disciplined solution for this exciting and innovative project.

The project lead for Solis Marine is Ros Blazejczyk, Man-aging Partner and Naval Architect. Commenting on the contract award Ros said; “We are delighted to have been awarded this important contract and we are looking forward to working with all the stakeholders to deliver an innovative solution. The continuing development of autonomous and smart shipping will undoubtedly play a major role in the future of the shipping industry as a whole and we are excited to be supporting the MCA to help encourage further innovation in the UK”.

Partnering Solis Marine on this project is MariTrace Ltd who are specialists in the field of collection, analysis and distribution of maritime data.

The key objectives of the project will be to assist UK industry in realising its ambition to test and operate au-tonomous vessels in UK waters by creating a platform through which it will be possible to share various data sets held by the MCA.

For further information contact:Ros Blazejczykr.blazejczyk@solis-marine.com+44 (0) 20 3794 3076

Solis Marine Consultantswww.solis-marine.com

CONTRACT FOR THE EXPLORATION OF DATA FOR AUTONOMOUS AND SMART

SHIPPING

2ND MAY 2019: ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONTRACT AWARD FROM

MARITIME & COASTGUARD AGENCY

GREEK BRITISH SHIPPING FORUM

On 26 June 2019 Richard Meikle, Solis Marine’s London General Manager, was in Athens for the 5th Greek British Shipping Forum which was held at the UK Ambassador’s Residence.

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Co-organised by Maritime London and the Department for International Trade in Greece, the seminar consisted of two sessions, ‘Innovation in Marine Insurance’ and ‘Assessing Ship Finance Options’.

Welcome addresses for the event were made by Her Excellency Kate Smith the UK’s Ambassador to Greece and Maritime London’s Chairman Lord Mountevans.

The ‘Assessing Ship Finance Options’ panel considered how the ship finance market was becoming increasing-ly diverse: private equity, institutional investing, leasing and capital markets which are all pitching for shipown-ers’ business. This panel also assessed the various op-tions in the market, their strengths, weaknesses and how London based firms have the knowledge and expertise to advise and facilitate finance in what is an increasingly complex market to navigate.

The event concluded with a networking lunch where the discussions continued in the suitably impressive sur-roundings of the Ambassador’s Residence.

The discussion included the impact of blockchain, big data and virtual reality which are changing the nature of marine insurance as well as how virtual reconstructions, such as those provided by Solis, can accurately replay the events leading up to a marine causality, speeding up the claims and dispute process.

Richard was a panellist for the discussion on “Innovation in Marine Insurance” discussion which brought together leaders in the marine technology, consultancy, legal and insurance industries form the London market, in order to dissect the technological revolution occurring within the sector and to analyse how it will improve vessel efficien-cy. The other panellists were Simon Lockwood, Senior Director, Marine, Willis Towers Watson, Nick Maddalena, Head of Insurance Business, Windward; the session was moderated by Gordon Robertson, Director (Greece) of the North of England P&I Club.

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Captain Richard Meikle, Solis London, looks at how we can use VDRs as a cost effective method for navigational assessments.

The VDR, fitted at the back of the bridge continuously and quietly monitoring how we usually go about our pro-fessional work, is an invaluable tool that can help us to better understand exactly how we work. The VDR can be be used by the bridge-team as an effective resource to review their own operations. This practice increases their familiarity with the routine removal of data, provides a check on the quality of the data being recorded and of-fers the opportunity for self-analysis and improvement.

Attitudes to the routine use of VDR, beyond accident investigation, varie greatly across the industry. Some cruise-ship owners already transmit VDR data from their ships back to operations rooms ashore for real-time review and storage, which ensures that information is saved and fit for purpose.

However, many marine managers ignore the potential for a system that is already fitted, but perhaps without a functioning playback facility on-board, or an effective method of reviewing the data in the office to ensure that the system is working as expected.

LOSS PREVENTION:THE ROLE OF VOYAGE DATA RECORDERS

IN NAVIGATIONAL ASSESSMENTS AND ON-

BOARD SELF-ASSESSMENTS

I was recently invited onto the bridge of a large passen-ger ferry during a scheduled crossing and the master was chatting to me about the company’s safety manager who was on the ferry ahead of us. The master comment-ed, “If he had been onboard for this crossing we would have all had to have been in ‘Audit Mode’”.

This off-the-cuff remark made me think about how we carry out navigation assessments and particularly the role of the voyage data recorder (VDR). We all heighten our performance when we know we are being observed. We do it during audits, superintendent’s visits, or indeed whenever we are trying, rightly, to show the ship’s oper-ation at its best.

However, that may not be how we routinely behave while navigating on the bridge. To ensure that bridge opera-tions are effective, and areas for improvement identified, we need to understand how bridge teams operate during routine operations.

VDR playback has many advantages when used as an auditing tool by managers ashore, either as part of a wider navigation assessment process or as a stand-alone auditing tool. An auditor attending a deep-sea vessel could take around four or five days to witness the performance of bridge teams, whereas by using the VDR an arrival, departure or a drill can be analysed for content and behaviour within a day, or even less.

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The cost of reviewing bridge team management in this way has the potential to significantly reduce audit costs, or more importantly, increase the frequency of assess-ments that can be carried out across the fleet. A combi-nation of both on-board and remote VDR assessments appears to be the preferable solution.

Resistance to VDR remote assessments, mainly due to the potential for the misuse of information recovered from ‘the spy in the cab’, is understandable. Masters, officers and company managers need to un-derstand these concerns when establishing how VDR analysis will be used and how this process could impact on those being assessed. It is therefore essential that the assessment is transparent, documented and fully understood by everyone involved.There are further advantages when VDR assessments are carried out by a third-party.

Personality and bias can be removed from the assess-ment process and an impartial assessment of both com-pany procedures and bridge team performance made. Analysis of the assessment and recommendations for improvement can then be made to managers ashore as well as to masters and officers at sea. The benefit of understanding how we work when not in ‘Audit Mode’ is an essential part of improving how the on-board teams operate.

Analysis of routine operations can consider the man-agement systems in place, how these systems are being used and how improvements to either could be achieved. When VDR is used to its potential it can become an es-sential part of how bridge operations are reviewed, with significantly more advantages than drawbacks. Managers, masters and officers should consider how best to use their VDR data and playback systems to en-sure that safety-critical bridge operations are effective, especially when no one is looking.

For more information on the use of VDRs for navigational assessments please contact Richard Meikler.meikle@solis-marine.com.

Managing Director, Simon Hindley, provides and update on one of the innovative projects that Solis Marine Engineering have been working on recently…

SOLIS MARINE ENGINEERING UPDATE

SME have been working with WITT Ltd to sup-port development of their subsea energy harvester, which is suitable for areas with marine currents. This unique device enables charging of subsea equip-ment to achieve savings

The project was supported by InnovateUK and SME look forward to supporting WITT in several applications of the device and eventual in field testing.

in relation to the cost usually associated with battery pack replacement. SME have provided performance prediction through simulation in OrcaFlex and model testing in the Solent University Tow Tank.

For more information see; www.witt-energy.com/