A N E W s t u d y h a s h i g h l i g h t e d t h a t there is no common

standard for the training and certification of ships’ cooks, something that will be required by the impending I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a b o u r Organisation’s Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC 2006). The European Union- funded Seachefs project warns that the situation is made worse by the diminishing number of qualified cooks on the maritime employment market at a time when the fleet is continuing to grow.

MLC 2006 requires own-ers to “ensure that seafarers engaged as ships’ cooks are trained, qualified and found competent”. The convention’s guidelines state that seafarers should only be qualified as ships’ cooks if they have passed an examination prescribed by the competent authority, or passed an equivalent examina-

tion at an approved training course for cooks.

At a recent International Chamber of Shipping/Inter-national Shipping Federation conference, Professor Ralph Becker-Heins of Bremen Ship-ping University said that nearly all flag states had ig-nored the existing legal basis regarding standards for cooks

aboard ships. Now, with the ratification of MLC 2006 likely this year, all flag states will have to take action.

In the past, ships’ cooks underwent lengthy training at sea schools and emerged with certificates allowing them to run the galley and be respon-sible for ensuring the crew were properly fed. Over the

years this system has largely fallen into disuse as much of the world’s merchant fleet now flies the flags of open registers.

Professor Becker-Heins warned that it was totally unclear what certificates were needed. He said that “flag states urgently need to define regulations for ships’ cooks and put them in force to meet the demands of MLC 2006. The current reality is that owners and managers have little evidence that the cooks they employ really do have cooking and hygiene skills and are not going to poison the crew.”

A spokesperson for the Seachefs project told The Sea that it was not being claimed that most cooks would poi-son the crew and he noted that many shipowners and managers now had high qual-ity, in-house, cook-training schemes.

Issue 214 nov/dec 2011

Los artículos en español aparecen en las páginas 6 y 7

The Sea Editor: Gillian EnnisNews: David HughesIt is distributed free to seafarers through chaplains and seafar-ers’ centres. However, if you want to receive it regularly, send us £3.50 or $5 for post and packing and we will mail it to you for a year (six issues).It is available from:Kathy Baldwin,The Sea, The Mission to Seafarers, St Michael Paternoster Royal, College Hill, London EC4R 2RL. Tel: +44 20 7248 5202Fax: +44 20 7248 4761 Email: pr@missiontoseafarers.orgWebsite: www.missiontoseafarers.org

�

Confidence levels plungepage 8

New advice on lifeboat hookspage 4

Статьи на русском языке приводятся на стр. 6 и 7

Message in a bottle helps to save crew

MLC will force states to implement training schemes

Ships’ cooks – common standards are needed

Courage and seamanshiprecognised

Lastingimpactof 9/11 4/5

Registered in England and Wales: 1123613 The Mission to Seafarers in Scotland: SC041938

Northern Sea Route brings significant savings

Founded in 1856, and entirely funded by voluntary donations, today’s Mission to Seafarers offers emergency as-sistance, practical support, and a friendly welcome to crews in 230 ports around the world. Whether caring for victims of piracy or providing a lifeline to those stranded in foreign ports, we are there for the globe’s 1.2 million merchant seafarers of all ranks, nationali-ties and beliefs.

TRAINEE ships’ cooks at the Bernhard Schulte Shipman-agement Training Centre in Limassol, Cyprus.

A MESSAGE in a bottle thrown out of a porthole let the British and US naval forces, which had been sent to the rescue of a vessel seized by Somali pirates, know that the crew were safe. The 23 seafarers on the bulk carrier Montecristo had locked themselves into the 2011-built ship’s citadel when it was hijacked.

A Royal Navy team then boarded the 55,675 dwt, Italian-flag vessel, meeting no resist-ance. The 11 pirates, who were subsequently detained, had disabled the ship’s communica-tions equipment when they boarded the ship 620 miles off the Somali coast, but the crew were able to steer and control the engine from the citadel.

Italy’s foreign ministry expressed “great satisfac-tion” at the rescue. All the crew – ten Indians, seven Italians and six Ukrainians – were reported to be safe. More on piracy P2

AN award which recognises extraor-dinary courage and seamanship has been presented to two vessels which came to the rescue of a party of students after their sailing ship sank.

The Amver-assisted Rescue at Sea Award was presented to woodchip carriers Crys-tal Pioneer and Hokuetsu Delight, both owned by Mitsui OSK Line. The two vessels rescued all 64 people adrift from the sail training ship Concordia, which capsized in the Atlantic Ocean 330 miles south-east of Rio de Janeiro.

At the awards ceremony, one judge said that “the op-eration to save such a large group of student sailors was a deeply impressive display of skill and bravery by all involved. The actions of the Crystal Pioneer and the Hokuetsu De-light offered a perfect display of international co-operation and a shining example of best practices.”Continued on P3

TWO ships operated by shipmanager Marinvest, the 74,898 dwt tankers M a r i l e e a n d M a r i a n n (above) , success fu l l y transited the Northern Sea Route Passage (right) this summer.

The company said that using the route saved eight days and 580 tonnes of bunkers, compared to sailing through the Suez

Canal to the Far East. “We are proud and glad to participate in the opening

of a very interesting and promising new ice class route,” said Lars Mossberg, Marinvest’s CEO.

The company claims to be the world’s leading ice class, panamax product tanker operator, with six LR1 (long range 1) ice class 1A, DNV classed sisterships, built by the Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia.

The vessels are winter-ised and prepared for cold-climate operations and have crews with experience of such conditions.

The ships have been used for trading in ice conditions in China, Arc-tic Canada, the St Law-rence area of Canada, the Baltic Sea, the White Sea and on the Northern Sea Route.

2 the sea nov/dec 11

‘Shipping industry needs to rethink approach to hostage negotiatons with pirates’

Programme to help piracy victims launched

Boycott of danger area discussed

Situation is ‘spiralling out of control’ say shipping bodies

Call for UN anti-piracy force to tackle crisis

Monsoon brings lull in hijacks

THE Round Table of international ship-ping associations has

called for the establish-ment of a United Nations (UN) force of armed military guards to tackle the piracy crisis in the Indian Ocean which, it says, is “spiralling out of control”. The move comes as more shipping companies are routinely tak-ing on private-sector armed guards for ships transiting the danger areas in the Gulf of Aden. While there are now industry guidelines on the use of private guards, there is still widespread un-ease about carrying them on merchant ships.

In a hard-hitting letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Bimco, the International Shipping Federation, Inter-tanko and Intercargo, which make up the Round Table, have demanded a “bold new strategy” to curb rising levels of piracy which have resulted in the Indian Ocean resem-bling “the wild west”.

In the letter they say that

“it is now abundantly clear to shipping companies that the current situation, whereby control of the Indian Ocean has been ceded to pirates, requires a bold new strategy. To be candid, the current ap-proach is not working.”

Regretting the increasing necessity for shipping compa-nies to employ private armed guards to protect crew and ships, the letter goes on to say it “seems inevitable that lawlessness ashore in Somalia will continue to breed law-lessness at sea”.

Asking the UN to bring the concept of a UN force of armed military guards to the attention of its Security Council, the letter says the shipping industry believes that the situation can only be reversed with a bold approach that targets the problem in manageable pieces. “We believe”, the letter continues, “that an important element in this approach would be the establishment of a UN force of armed military guards that can be deployed in small numbers on board merchant ships.”

Captain Keith Blount of the British Royal Navy has, however, raised a prob-lem with the deployment of such military teams. Cap-tain Blount, who is serv-ing at the EU Naval Force’s headquarters in the UK, told an ICS conference that military units worked to rules of deployment, which included maximum times to get casualties to adequate medical facilities. In practice that meant that warships would have to be close by to provide medical support for any ships with military units on board.

Meanwhile, responding to “changing circumstances”, and especially the widespread use of private armed guards, the main shipping industry bodies have jointly launched a fourth edition of the Best Management Practices for Pro-tection against Somalia Based Piracy (BMP4).

BMP4 is endorsed by the relevant military authorities, Interpol and The Mission to Seafarers. The ICS says that, since Best Management Practices was first published,

the implementation of these guidelines has consistently proved to be the best de-fence against Somalia-based piracy.

Changes to the new edi-tion include a section on the three fundamental re-quirements of BMP4: an aide mémoire on how to avoid being a victim of piracy; a checklist for company plan-ning; and expanded guidance on the possible use of private guards.

The ICS has also produced a list of the policies and rules of flag states on the carriage of arms and private armed guards on board their vessels.

While some flag states openly allow private armed guards, Netherlands law firm AKD says that Dutch ship-owners who directly hire armed personnel themselves could face criminal prosecu-tion. The warning follows an independent report recom-mending that the Nether-lands Government provides Dutch shipowners with better levels of protection against piracy, including the hiring of armed guards.

THE shipping industry needs to rethink its approach to negotiations with pirates and ensure the speedier release of ships and crews, according to lawyer Stephen Askins of London-based solicitors Ince & Co.

Speaking at an International Cham-ber of Shipping conference in London in September, Mr Askins said the pay-ment of the ransom normally fell to the hull and cargo underwriters while the liability insurers, the P&I clubs, were not usually involved. He went on to say that the negotiators “are usually skilled and experienced but with little understand-ing of the shipping industry, and are briefed to settle for as low a payment as possible”.

According to Mr Askins, this meant that negotiations dragged on for longer than necessary, resulting in increased suffering for seafarers, not only because they were deprived of their liberty for longer but also because the pirates were

resorting to torture and bad treatment to put pressure on the owners to pay up. Tactics employed included telephon-ing family members and letting them hear seafarers being beaten up and also posting clips of the captives being mis-treated on YouTube.

Quite apart from the humanitarian aspect, Mr Askins argued, long drawn-out negotiations were costly to the industry. Last year the average time a ship was held by Somali pirates was 201 days and a typical ransom paid was US$4.5m. Mr Askins calculated that in the case of one vessel the loss of earn-ings during that time would have been US$13.9m.

There was a need, he said, to speed things up. Right at the beginning of the hijacking, he went on, all parties involved should get together and decide what the ransom amount should be. Then the negotiations should be aimed at achieving that without delay.

He also said there needed to be some sort of safety net in place to enable ran-soms to be paid where hull and cargo in-surers had no obligation to pay. He said the P&I clubs needed to be involved and the industry needed to work out how to put a safety net in place. He added that there could also be a big problem if the value of ship and cargo was less than the average ransom being paid for other vessels. And, he said, the situation was even more difficult where seafarers had been taken ashore and kept there when the vessel was released.

However, Nigel Russell of insurance brokers RFIB said later that most, but not all, ships going through the areas at high risk of hijacking by Somali-based pirates were covered by kidnap and ransom (K&R) insurance. Some own-ers, however, chose not to buy K&R insurance because of the cost although charter parties now often passed the cost of K&R to the charterer.

AS of mid-October no successful hijackings by Somali pirates had been reported for about two months. According to security experts, this was due to a combination of the rough monsoon conditions in the Indian Ocean, the widespread implementation of the shipping industry’s Best Management Practices for Protection against Somalia Bas ed P i r a cy and the increasing use of private armed guards.

While there has been a reluctance among industry bodies to assume that the pirates’ lack of success is any-thing but temporary, there were signs that the gangs were finding merchant ships tougher prey than previous-ly. In early August, a product tanker was hijacked within the limits of the Omani port of Salalah. The 25,400 dwt Fairchem Bogey was preparing to enter port to load and her crew were clearly not expect-ing an attack. Ironically, the tanker’s manager had been taking every precaution to prevent a successful pirate attack and the vessel had carried armed guards during what was thought to be the dangerous part of her trip within the region. However, security experts and others

in the industry regard the pirates venturing into an anchorage where there are effective naval patrols as a sign of the pirates’ reckless desperation.

In September, two kid-nappings of tourists from beach resorts in northern Kenya, were thought to have been committed by Somali pirates. Again, these inci-dents were taken by some as evidence that the pirates were finding it difficult to capture ships.

Meanwhile, the high-profile, shipping-industry ant i -p i racy campaign, SaveOurSeafarer s , has been stepping up efforts to increase public awareness and to put more pressure on governments for action. Among other initiatives, it has launched a short video highlighting the human and economic cost of Somali piracy. The video, which is also being posted on YouTube, uses a mixture of hard-hitting real life interviews and the latest technology to create a “Hollywood-style” action sequence in which a ship is captured and hostages taken.

More information on the campaign and the video can be found at www.saveourseafarers.com

A PROGRAMME to help seafarers and their families cope with the physical and mental trauma caused by torture and abuse at the hands of pirates was launched in London in October. Noting that pirates are routinely using extreme brutality and the threat of killing seafarers, the new Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) is intended to help those seafarers and their families to cope with the resulting pain and anguish.

Funded by the Interna-tional Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Seafarers’ Trust charity and the TK Foundation, and chaired by Peter Swift, formerly manag-ing director of industry body Intertanko, the new pro-

gramme speaks for an alliance of shipowners, trade unions, managers, manning agents, insurers and welfare organisa-tions, including The Mission to Seafarers. It represents the entire shipping industry, from crews to owners. Its mission is to aid seafarers who have been or may be subject to pirate attack.

Roy Paul, of the Seafar-ers’ Trust, and MPHRP pro-gramme manager, said that “until now, there has been little co-ordinated help for those who are suffering. Now that will change. With the help of those in the industry who want to do their best for those involved, we intend to build up a network of first responders and get psy-chosocial help for affected crews.”

THE threat of piracy has be-come so bad that seafarers should seriously consider a boycott of the danger areas, according to John Epsom, a former chairman of seafarers’ union Nautilus. He told del-egates at the union’s meeting in Rotterdam in October that if they were “to start stopping the world’s oil supply there would soon be some action. The power is in your hands and it would make a lot of difference very quickly.”

However, the union’s gen-eral secretary, Mark Dickinson, questioned whether unions could deliver a global boycott of the danger areas. “There are plenty of shipowners who

will be prepared to put their vessels into harm’s way if there is money to be made,” he pointed out. “But I call upon the good shipowners to join with the ITF and Nautilus in considering how we can deliver a very firm message to governments that we have had enough and that the problems need to be resolved quickly and in a decisive way.”

Several speakers raised concerns about seafarers be-ing forced to serve in high-risk areas, but Nautilus senior na-tional secretary Allan Grave-son said the union would sup-port any members who were threatened by their employers in such a situation.

THE MV Pacific Express (left) was set alight by pirates armed with rocket propelled grenade launchers in an attempt to force the crew out from their locked safety zone. The pirates fled on the arrival of the Italian navy vessel Andrea Doria which picked up an alert activated

by the vessel. All the 26 crew – 25 Filipinos and one Ukrainian were unharmed. They were rescued by a boarding party from the Andrea Doria (right) and sub-sequently taken to Mombasa on board the KMC Eland. (Photos: Nato)

piracy round-up

Rescue for crew after pirates set fire to their vessel

nov/dec 11 the sea 3

Onboard failures factor in fatality

DRI cargo danger warning

Milestone for medical checks

Owners must plan for ECDIS

‘Seafarers should get respect and protection’

Crew get wages owed in double book-keeping case

‘Gibraltar registry swift to act,’ says union

Approval for hygiene course

Recognition for work on MLC training

Continued from P1

Common standardsfor ships’ cooks

V I D E O T E L Tr a i n i n g Services has obtained approva l f rom both the UK Maritime and Coastguard Authority and the Liberian flag to carry out hygiene training, using its key training programmes for ships’ cooks and galley staff, so that staff

standards will comply with the Maritime Labour Convention 2006.

V i d e o t e l ’ s c h i e f executive officer, Nigel Cleave, said there were many hazards on board ship but hazardous food was one of the easiest to avoid. “Food hygiene standards const i tute

an important part of MLC 2006 regulations. A vessel’s crew is often made up of a number of different nationalities, with a wide range of d e m a n d s a n d f o o d cul tures – but good hygiene practices must always be at the heart of any galley.”

THE Videotel training programme includes a guide to good housekeeping in accommodation and the galley. This raises awareness of the importance of good housekeeping and shows how to make it a vital part of everyday shipboard life.

Nevertheless, he said, there were health issues surrounding the lack of accepted standards for cooks.

The Seachefs’ research shows that despite pre-employment selection, a large proportion of seafarers have signs of poor health, probably caused by diet and lifestyle.

Eugen-Henning Adami, president of Mastermind Shipmanagement, said that “today a cadet is on average 21-years-old when joining ship. By age 45 the first prolonged problems with diet-related diseases appear, like high blood pressure, cholesterol etc. The cadet and officer will have actually served 18 years on board our ships and spent only six years on vacation. We actually made him sick.”

The Seachefs project, launched by the EU Cyprus Agency in 2009, focuses on delivering a standardised, fast-track system for training a seagoing cook.

Professor Becker-Heins’s recipe for achieving a common standard in time to comply with MLC 2006 is to make use of the existing, non-marine, International Cooking Certificate (ICC) which, he said, was setting new industry-derived standards for cooking worldwide.

The proposal is for shipping to en-rich the ICC syllabus with a maritime module. According to the Seachefs project, the ICC already largely covers the core curriculum now used at mari-time cooking centres. The key subjects to be added are provisioning, menu planning, hygiene and ship safety.

TH E c r e w o f t h e Gibraltar-registered containership Philipp

have f inal ly been paid wages owed to them after intervention from the seafarers’ union, Nautilus International, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the Gibraltar registry.

According to Nautilus and the ITF, the German operator of the 8,971 gt Philipp (ex-Beluga Meditation) had been operating a double book-keeping system on the vessel in order to pay the Filipino crew less than ITF rates. The union also alleged that the owner, having paid the seafarers the wages that had been held back in order to make up the discrepancy, then put pressure on them to “voluntarily” hand back the additional money.

The alleged scam was dis-covered by ITF/Nautilus union inspector Tommy Molloy dur-

ing a routine inspection of the vessel in Liverpool, UK. “We often suspect double book-keeping is being operated on vessels we inspect,” said Mr Molloy, “but it is unusual to get both sets of accounts – the fake accounts showing what the crew should be getting paid, and the real accounts which show that they actually get paid approximately a third of what they should. I was also able to get hold of home allot-ment records – showing wages paid into banks – which were much less than those shown on the fake accounts.” Accord-ing to Mr Molloy, the crew had been underpaid by more than US$230,000.

Confronted with the evi-dence, Mr Molloy said, both the owner, Vega Friedrich Dauber, and its Philippine sub-sidiary, Vega Manila Crewman-agement, had no option but to admit to the discrepancy. They

agreed to make the necessary payment in Liverpool in early October. Mr Molloy oversaw payment of the owed wages but said he was so concerned by “the overbearing presence” of the Manila-based crewing agent that he re-boarded the ship some hours later to discover that the money had been taken back from most of the crew.

According to Mr Molloy, the company did not deny it had received the wages back but insisted that the seafarers who had returned the money had done so voluntarily. All but two of the 15 crew told Mr Molloy they had voluntarily returned their wages as they did not want them. But he believed the crew had been intimidated into returning the money.

The Gibraltar registry, he said, had been swift to respond to the situation saying it was “appalled at the reports” and would investigate fully to es-

tablish whether any action by them was necessary. Mr Molloy said they clearly did not want to be associated with behaviour of the type that he believed had taken place. Fol-lowing the Gibraltar maritime authorities’ intervention, the company was forced to hand back the money to the rest of its rightful owners, said Mr Molloy, who returned to the vessel in mid-October to again oversee the payments. “This time we hope the company and their crewing agent are smart enough not to try to steal the money back again.

“We have correspondence from the Labour Attaché at the Philippines Embassy in London stating that the matter is to be investigated in the Philippines via the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration and that no action against the crew, such as blacklisting, will be tolerated.”

THE Liberian registry has awarded an honorary master’s licence to the Revd Canon Ken Peters, director of justice and welfare at The Mission to Seafarers, in recognition of his work in support of Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006) inspector training courses run by the registry.

Presenting the award at a Mission to Seafarers reception for World Maritime Day, the registry’s senior vice president Michalis Pantazopoulos paid tribute to Canon Peters for his contribution to the global training of Liberia’s inspectors as the registry prepares them for the task of helping Liberian-flag shipowners implement MLC 2006.

CANON Ken Peters (centre) receives his honorary master’s licence from Michalis Pantazopoulos (left) and Jonathan Spremulli of the Liberian registry.

THE London P&I Club has warned of an “emerging trend” in Brazil for crew members to be required to obtain visas for up to 30 days in order to enter Brazil-ian waters. The club says it understands that such visas are only required for tourists and are in fact completely un-necessary for members of a ship’s crew.

Nevertheless, there have been in-stances where unexpected delays to ships have meant that the crew have remained within Brazilian territorial waters after their visas have expired, resulting in fines being levied on ship operators for a breach of immigration regulations.

Brazil visa problems

IT WAS time for govern-ments and industry to give maritime profession-als the protection and respect they deserved, Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson said at the union’s meeting in Rotterdam in October. He said that “protect and respect”, the confer-ence’s theme, should be bywords for the shipping industry and those who regulate it. “In fact,” he said, “the industry should treat seafarers as a pre-cious resource.”

A recent union survey of members had shown there had been some positive developments. But there were plenty of negatives: poor standards of training and compe-tence among many of the crews supplied to mem-bers’ ships; poor onboard communications and patchy internet access; declining social interac-tion on board, fuelled by “dry ship” restrictions and pick and mix nationality policies; poor standards of accommodation; noise; security restrictions and lack of shore leave and the “ever-present” threat of criminalisation. “Protect and respect” underpined the union’s response to these, Mr Dickinson said.

A UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report says that poor seamanship was a key factor leading to the death of Polish AB Boguzlaw Kopec on the Briggs Marine Contrac-tors’ landing craft, Forth Guardsman, in March. Failures on the UK-flag vessel included not using a stopper on the mooring line, lack of manpower, inadequate supervision and poor station-keeping. Mr Ko-pec was caught between a taut mooring line and a stanchion when moor-ing to a buoy. The wire pulled him overboard and the MAIB says there were delays in calling for assistance although he would not have been saved by earlier recovery.

THE London P&I Club has issued a warning that a Trinidadian company has tried to get round the strict rules on the car-riage of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) cargoes. The insurer cautions against accepting exemptions from the International Maritime Solid Bulk

Cargoes (IMSBC) Code when carrying DRI.

Under the IMSBC Code, DRI cargoes should have a maximum moisture content of 0.3 per cent and be carried under an inert gas blan-ket, and ships carrying DRI should be capable of maintaining oxygen levels of below 5 per cent throughout the voyage. Attempts to allow certain grades of DRI – princi-pally those shipped from Venezuela and Trinidad – to be carried with sig-nificantly higher moisture contents and/or without the need to deploy inert gas, have been rejected by the International Mari-time Organisation.

LIABILITY insurer the Standard Club has warned owners that they must act now to comply with training require-ments for the Electronic Chart Display and Infor-mation System (ECDIS). New International Maritime Organisation legislation, making the carriage of ECDIS man-datory on most ships, is being phased in over the next few years. The club is distributing two train-ing CDs to explain ECDIS and to simulate how it operates.

The club advises its members that they need to understand that “ECDIS is radically changing how ships are navigated”. It adds that this “quantum change” needs to be understood primarily by those on the ship’s bridge but also by those mariners in marine and safety departments ashore.

THE UK P&I Club says its Pre-Employment Medi-cal Examination (PEME) Programme recently completed its 250,000th seafarer examination. Garry Jose G Ramos, who first went to sea in 1997, was checked at the scheme’s accredited Angelus Medical Clinic in Makati, Philippines. An engineer employed by Döhle-Philman Man-ning Agency, Mr Ramos passed the examination with no problems, as he has done on nine other occasions over 14 years, and is free to continue his sea career.

The agency said that PEME offered a regular health check-up that could catch illnesses in the early stages, increasing the likelihood of a quick and full recovery after treatment. It also reduced the worry of becoming ill far from home and, if at sea, far from professional medical attention.

THE Maritime and Port Au-thority of Singapore (MPA), the Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union and the Singapore Or-ganisation of Seamen, jointly distributed 600 hampers to ships that called at Singapore on World Maritime Day.

This initiative, which was started in 2003, recognises the important contributions that seafarers make to the maritime industry, according to the MPA. The hampers, which contained gifs such as food, film DVDs, and shoe bags, were expected to reach around 12,000 seafarers.

At a ceremony to present the hampers, MPA chief executive, Lam Yi Young, also handed over S$100,000 to the four seafarers’ missions in Sin-gapore: The Mission to Seafar-ers, the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission, the Danish Seamen’s

Church, and the International Lutheran Seafarers’ Mission.This annual grant supports a wide range of welfare services

for seafarers, ranging from ship visits to counselling services and pastoral care at the mission centres.

THE name of the 44-year-old Filipino master of the 3,032 teu containership Rena (above), which went aground on a reef off the North Island port of Tauranga in New Zealand in early October spilling a quan-tity of oil, was withheld at the request of his lawyer, when he appeared in court charged with causing unnecessary danger or

risk to a person or property. The request for anonymity

was made because local people “might want to take matters into their own hands”, said his lawyer. He was granted bail but faces a maximum penalty of a NZ$10,000 (US$7,882) fine or a year in prison. The second officer was later charged with the same offence. The authori-

ties said further charges could follow.

There were no injuries among the 25 crew who were rescued and taken to a hotel ashore.

Officials said the fuel oil leaking from the ship had caused the country’s worst envi-ronmental disaster in decades, with birds and sea life affected. Containers falling from the ship’s deck also posed an envi-ronmental threat. By mid-Oc-tober it was clear that the vessel had suffered structural damage and was likely to break up.

The Liberian-flag ship is owned by Greek-based Cos-tamare and operated by Ciel Shipmanagement. The Liberian registry said it was investigating the casualty and co-operating with the maritime authorities and emergency response teams in New Zealand.

4 the sea nov/dec 11

NEWS MICHAEL GREY

nov/dec 11 the sea 5

Hampers for ships to mark World Maritime Day

Rena master charged over grounding

Industry issues lifeboat guidelines

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Praise for seafarers’ role on 9/11

‘A hostage’s job is to survive – don’t be a hero’

Long-lasting impact of 9/11Seafarers are still suffering from the security fall-out from the events of ten years ago. Isn’t it time, asks Michael Grey, to see what can be done to make their lives more tolerable?

IN the various items on the radio commemo-rating the 10th anni-versary of the attacks on America on Septem-

ber 11, 2001, one interview in particular stood out. The subject was the way in which security had to be ramped up after the attacks. But the speaker, a security expert, as-serted that our freedoms “had not been materially handi-capped” by all the checks that had been put in place. Curi-ously, nobody was on hand to contradict the view and the listener was left with the impression that any delays and inconvenience were minor nuisances that one gets used to, and, ten years on, are of small importance to most people.

Seafarers, on the other hand, who have quite literally been on the front line in the “war against terror” unleashed by the attacks, will have rather different views. Since the attacks, these “world travellers” who happen to travel in ships for a living, have seen many, if not all, of the freedoms which they previously enjoyed, reduced or removed by the institutions of security.

It has often been pointed out that it was not bulk carriers but aircraft which were the terrorists’ weapons of choice on that fatal day, and that seafarers are part of the defences against attack, rather than part of the problem. Nevertheless, these truisms seem to have had little effect upon the US authorities. While airline passengers and aircraft crew arriving in the US were, within a reasonable period after the event, treated with dignity and respect, seafarers have had a much harder time.

Controls on shore leave have been rigorously applied, often with no logic or apparent reason behind the restrictions or prohibition of shore leave. People with a perfectly legitimate reason to visit ships have been denied access. Seafarers who were aware that their ship was bound for US ports have been forced to jump through hoops to obtain visas, while those who might have been on a ship which just happened to be switched to a US destination would be forced to stay aboard. It is not much fun, after a long sea voyage,

to be treated like a dangerous criminal, in sight, or sound, or smell of the land but confined in your steel box.

In a letter to Lloyd’s List, Mission to Seafarers’ secretary general, the Revd Tom Heffer, suggested that seafarers had become “collateral damage” in the war on terror, and most seafarers will agree with him. The past ten years have not seen a great deal of improvement in the various controls that regrettably have been copied by other countries, despite a lack of any evidence that seafarers represented any risk whatsoever to the security of any country. It has also been a fact that the various prohibitions on access or shore leave have often been quite unnecessarily employed by private wharves or terminals because of convenience and because their managements cannot be bothered to put in place safe systems to enable people to go to and from ships.

Seafarers remember the seemingly ridiculous incidents of wild overreaction by the authorities. The officer going ashore to read the vessel’s draught being arrested, held in prison and then deported

for his crime. The master who made a remark to some ponderous official about

“putting a bomb” under the immigration officers that were delaying his clearance, and

being promptly arrested and deported. Other seafarers who were lucky not to have been

arrested and packed off to Guantanamo Bay after making jokes or sarcastic comments to humourless officials. Those who have found themselves in trouble after officials “testing” the ship’s security system have tried to trick their way aboard, or refused to identify themselves. Seafarers doing their essential work shouldn’t have to “dread” a voyage to the US, but too many do.

The International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code was rushed through the International Maritime Organisation in the wake of 9/11, driven hard by the US, with the proviso that whatever was put in place to improve maritime security, it should not harm global commerce, because if it did, the terrorists would be able to claim a victory. It may not have harmed trade, but elements within the code have undoubtedly made the lives of seafarers a lot more unpleasant. It has meant more work for those aboard ship, with no additional staff to double up on the gangway watches, and while ports were supposed themselves to become more secure, seafarers

tend to think that it is they who have borne the chief burden of all the additional security.

Is it not time for a reappraisal of the ISPS Code which was implemented in such haste, to see what works and what does not, what is just paper-shuffling bureaucracy, and what can be done to make the lives of those at sea rather more tolerable? And is it not time that all the work that was done (once again with great haste) to produce an International Labour Organisation agreed Seafarer Identity Document was put into practice? The prospects don’t look good, with the US administration now looking to further tighten controls on the identification of foreign seafarers.

There is a self-defeating element to this trend, which sees seafarers being treated more harshly and bureaucratically than other visitors, and in rather too many countries, with scant respect for the essential job they do. But then, this increase in hostility and suspicion was probably one of the terrorist aims, all those years ago.

US Coast Guards conducting a security check on board a ship in Galveston, Texas (left) and carrying out a crew visa inspection in Miami (right). Since 9/11, seafarers “have seen many, if not all, of the freedoms which they previously enjoyed, reduced or removed by the institutions of security”. (Photos: US Coast Guard)

RECENTLY, the secre-tary general of the International Maritime

Organisation (IMO) called on the world to do more to tackle piracy in the Indian Ocean. Speaking on World Maritime Day in September, Efthimios Mitropoulos said that the international community should co-ordinate its efforts more effectively against those determined to disrupt the safe passage of merchant shipping.

“No effort should be spared,” he said in his World Maritime Day message. “Ship-ping companies must ensure that their ships rigorously apply the IMO guidance and industry-developed Best Management Practice in their entirety. And,” he continued, “governments need to back up their oft-stated concern over the situation by deploying military and other resources.”

Such powerful rhetoric from the outgoing secretary general will no doubt have been politely acknowledged by world leaders, but despite the numerous summits, confer-ences and action plans, the harsh reality remains that at any one time, 100,000 seafar-ers are either in pirate waters

or sailing towards them. For them, the pressure of double watches, security patrols and ship-hardening measures is an additional heavy burden mixed with blood-chilling fear.

Earlier this year, I trav-elled to the port of Mombasa, Kenya, to see for myself what life was like for the crews on this “front line”. During my two-week visit, I had the op-portunity to visit seafarers on board their ships who were visibly relieved to have made it through the waters unharmed. Grown men, who no doubt could steer a safe passage through the most terrifying storm, did not bother to dis-guise their fear when describ-ing the pressure of life under the threat of kidnap.

“With this trip, there’s a chance we will be caught,” said a chief officer resignedly, as we talked about the risk. “All we can do is pray.”

“I don’t like to have this experience – believe me,” said a Russian captain. “They are attacking everywhere. Nobody really knows which parts of the ocean are safe anymore.” And that just about sums up the problem. In an area 1.5 times the size of the European

landmass, seafarers are rou-tinely terrorised by the threat of organised lawless thugs.

“The violence towards crew members has got worse,” says hostage negotiator Suzanne Williams. “From the debriefs I have done with released seafar-ers and the reports I read, it would appear that physical as well as mental torture is on the increase.”

Suzanne Williams has been a hostage negotiator since 1991. During her long and distinguished career with the London Metropolitan Police Service, she has travelled the world to conduct negotiations and investigate the deaths of British citizens abroad.

“I fell into piracy negotia-tion by accident,” she says. “A British ship’s master had died in suspicious circumstances and I was asked by the UK’s Foreign Office to visit the region to investigate what had

happened. Initially, the verdict was that he had been killed by a mutinous crew, but from my investigations, it soon became clear that his ship had been boarded by pirates who had murdered him for refusing to open the strongroom.”

Initially, piracy off the coast of Somalia was a small problem, with a handful of attacks every year. Few predicted that it would grow into such big business.

According to Ms Williams, the kidnappings seen today

are completely different from land-based ones. “For one thing, the number of people involved is far greater. If I was called to release a business-man from a South American country, I would probably only deal with his company and the family. When trying to free a ship, there is a large group of people who need to be con-sulted and thought about.”

Industry figures paint a depressing picture of the world’s attempt to save sea-

farers from this scourge. In 2010, nearly 1,050 people were taken hostage by pirates. Over 4,000 were attacked as they travelled through the region and over 500 were used as human shields. Today, over 290 people are being held either on board their ships or somewhere in the Somali bush. Such figures, coupled with a change in pirate tactics, has prompted some shipowners to place armed security guards on board their vessels, a move which even the most seasoned commentators didn’t think would actually happen.

“I have certainly changed my position over the last year,” says Ms Williams in reply to a question about letting companies take matters into their own hands. “I was very worried at the beginning about armed guards being a trigger for escalating the problem, but I think with the way things are going, it was an inevitable next step.”

Such inevitability was something that The Mission to Seafarers was quick to confront when it became one of the first welfare organisations to call upon the industry to use all appropriate means to protect

seafarers. As Mission secretary general, the Revd Tom Heffer, wrote in the shipping news-paper, Lloyd’s List, “the most precious cargo aboard any ship is its crew”.

Not enough has been made of the horrible reality of mod-ern-day piracy in comparison to the way pirates from the past are portrayed so often today – parrots, wooden legs and “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum”. And Ms Williams points out that, until people make a clear distinction between the “comedy” pirate and the real one, then the wider public will continue to be blind to the problem.

“The fiction of Hollywood is just that,” says Ms Williams. “Modern piracy is a sophisti-cated operation. In the early days, the pirates tried to justify their actions by claiming their livelihoods had been damaged by illegal fishing or a lawless society. They don’t trouble to do that any longer because the process is now a simple busi-ness transaction.”

IMO’s 2011 World Maritime Day theme of “orchestrating the response” against piracy was met in January with a fan-fare of praise and welcome by

politicians the world over. Dur-ing the year, ideas have been floated and exchanged, infor-mation has been issued, and guidance given, although it is worth noting that in the case of the latter, it is only guid-ance. Debating chambers have regularly discussed what more can be done to bring about a successful resolution, with many – including Ms Williams – believing that until Somalia is brought under control the pirates will continue to rule the waves.

But, until that time, the fact remains that seafarers still feel isolated and powerless as they make the voyage through the Indian Ocean’s frightening waters.

“The most important thing seafarers can do if they are taken hostage is to remain calm and unnoticeable,” says Ms Williams in conclusion. “If they obey orders and keep out of the way, then there is a far greater chance that they will survive. Seafarers should know that when a kidnapping takes place there are a great many people who will be working to secure the ship’s release. A seafarer’s job in this situation is to survive. Don’t be a hero.”

Ben Bailey talks to piracy hostage negotiator Suzanne Williams

SUZANNE Williams (left) talking to Mission to Seafarers’ president, the Princess Royal, at the Mission’s World Maritime Day reception. (Photo: Andrew Dunsmore)

NEW shipping industry guidelines advise owners and masters to select lifeboat hooks with secondary safety systems to prevent accidents involving the unintentional operation of on-load release hooks. The advice goes further than recently updated International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations and guidance.

The industry guidelines have been produced by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) with the support of a large number of other shipping industry and professional nautical organisations.

They note that IMO is continuing to consider on-load release hook safety. The ICS says that “this ongoing consid-

eration reflects in part concern raised by the shipping industry that not all effects, including the effect of vibration on on-load release hooks, have been fully considered by IMO”.

The shipping industry asso-ciations advise that designs in-corporating a permanent “sec-ondary safety system” should be considered when selecting new or replacement on-load re-lease hooks. “One example of an acceptable secondary safety system,” say the guidelines, “is a locking pin that can only be inserted or removed when the hook is correctly reset.”

The ICS adds that the design of a secondary safety system should ensure that, when used, the hook is locked closed and cannot open

until the secondary system is released or unlocked. It adds that ships’ masters should ensure that when a lifeboat hook with a secondary safety system is fitted, the system is used during all drills, both launch and recovery, and specifically at all times when the lifeboat has crew aboard.

The guidelines advise that, particularly on tankers, the remote release of secondary safety systems should be from inside the lifeboat, but recognise this is not always the case. “Consequently,” the ICS says, “the master should always assess, on a case by case basis, whether or not a secondary safety system should be used when launching a lifeboat in an emergency.”

MPA chief executive, Lam Yi Young, presents a S$100,000 mock cheque to Lee Wai Pong of The Mission to Seafarers in Singapore, watched by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister of State. The grant will go to the four seafarers’ missions in Singapore.

THE US Department of Transportation has publicly praised the role played by merchant mariners during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Those working on vessels on that day are singled out for special recognition. A short video on the role of seafarers on 9/11 has been posted on the internet at www.dot.gov/affairs/2011/marad1011.html

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В начале этого года моряк с судна, стоящего в порту Соединенных Штатов, на короткое время покинул судно, чтобы купить телефонную карту у продавца на пристани рядом с его судном. У моряка не было разрешения на увольнение на берег, выдаваемого таможенно-пограничной службой США (US Customs and Border Protection — CBP), и его транспортная компания была оштрафована на 3000 USD. Транспортная компания затем вычла эту сумму из заработной платы моряка. Поскольку зарплата моряка составляла всего 450 USD в месяц, он работал совершенно бесплатно более шести месяцев.

Иммиграционные законы США, как и многих других портовых государств, предъявляют множество требований к операторам судов, прибывающих из иностранных портов. Операторы судов, к примеру, обязаны сообщать CBP имена всех иностранных членов экипажа и не разрешать покидать судно всем членам экипажа до того, как будет проведена их инспекция сотрудниками CBP, и будут выданы разрешения на увольнение на берег. Члены экипажа, которым сотрудниками CBP не было выдано разрешение на увольнение на берег, не могут ступать на территорию США ни по каким причинам, запрещен даже кратковременный выход на причал. Закон также требует от операторов судов сообщать о любых незаконных выходах на берег членов экипажа.

Законы США возлагают на владельцев

судов ответственность за то, чтобы члены экипажа не выходили на берег, не имея на это надлежащего разрешения. Следовательно, долгом судовладельца является обеспечение понимания членами экипажа любых ограничений, которые могут быть наложены на возможность покинуть судно, и установление контроля, гарантирующего невозможность покинуть судно любым из членов экипажа, не имеющим соответствующего разрешения. Если член экипажа выходит на берег, не имея разрешения CBP, то именно владелец судна нарушил иммиграционные законы США, и на него налагается штраф в сумме 3000 USD за каждого из членов экипажа, совершившего выход на берег без соответствующего разрешения. Закон совершенно конкретно возлагает ответственность за удержание членов экипажа на борту судна на судовладельца, агента, грузополучателя, капитана или командира любого судна. Законы США в равной мере конкретизированы в отношении наложения штрафов за нарушение только на эти стороны.

Когда закон был введен в действие Конгрессом США, он никоим образом не предусматривал наложения штрафов на отдельных моряков. Владелец судна, принуждающий моряка выплачивать штраф, нарушает американские принципы и законы.

Древние морские законы позволяли владельцам судов и капитанам вычитать ущерб, причиненный вследствие

невыполнения моряком своего долга или нарушения дисциплины, из заработка моряка, и штрафовать моряков за дисциплинарные проступки. Однако по причине множества злоупотреблений современные законы морских государств не признают такую практику.

Для защиты моряков от эксплуатации недобросовестными судовладельцами, современные законы морских государств строго ограничивают удержания, которые могут быть сделаны из заработной платы моряков. Хотя определенные требования могут различаться в различных государствах флага, общие характеристики законов включают перечень видов вычетов, которые могут производиться из заработка моряков и запрет на любые удержания, не включенные в этот список.

Также современные законы морских государств учреждают дисциплинарные стандарты для моряков. Законы обычно определяют наказуемые проступки и очерчивают границы взысканий, налагаемых в случае совершения проступка. Капитаны продолжают нести ответственность за сохранение дисциплины на своих судах, но их полномочия в назначении наказаний строго ограничены законом. Большинство государств флага не разрешают капитанам налагать штрафы на моряков. Некоторые из государств флага, продолжающие разрешать капитанам штрафовать моряков, налагают ограничения на суммы штрафов и требуют

6 the sea nov/dec 11

JUSTICE MATTERS BY DOUGLAS STEVENSON

Las multas de inmigración en Estados Unidos: ¿quién las paga?

US immigration fines: who pays?

Продолжение на стр. 7

Штрафы за нарушение иммиграционных законов США — кто платит?

EARLIER this year, a seafarer on a ship in a United States port briefly left his ship to buy a telephone card from a vendor on the quay next to his vessel. The seafarer had not been authorised shore leave by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities and his shipping company was fined $3,000. The shipping company then deducted $3,300 from the seafarer’s earnings to cover the fine. Because the seafarer earned only $450 a month, he worked without wages for more than six months.

US immigration laws, like those of many port states, place a number of require-ments on ship operators

arriving from foreign ports. Ship operators, for example, must inform CBP of the names of all their foreign crew members, and they must detain all crew mem-bers on board until after they have been inspected by a CBP officer and authorised shore leave. Crew members who have not been authorised shore leave by CBP are not allowed to set foot in the US for any purpose, even to go on to the quay for a short time. The law also requires ship operators to report any illegal landings by crew mem-bers.

US law makes the shipowner responsible for making sure that crew

members do not go ashore without proper authority. It is therefore the shipowner’s duty to ensure that crew members understand any restrictions they might have on leaving their ship and to have controls in place to make sure that no crew members go ashore without authorisation. If a crew member goes ashore without CBP authorisation, the shipowner has violated US immigration law and is subject to a fine of $3,000 for each crew member who goes ashore without authorisation. The law is very specific in placing the obligation to detain crew members on the owner, agent, consignee,

master, or commanding officer of any vessel. US law is equally specific in assessing fines for violations only against the same parties.

When the US Congress enacted this law, it never intended that individual seafarers should be fined. A shipowner who makes a seafarer pay the fine violates American law and policy.

Ancient maritime law allowed shipowners and ship-masters to deduct expenses caused by seafarers’ neglect of duty or misconduct from seafarers’ earned wages and to fine seafarers for discipli-nary infractions. However, because of the many abuses against seafarers, maritime

nations’ laws now condemn such practices.

In order to protect seafar-ers from exploitation by unscrupulous shipowners, modern maritime nations’ laws strictly limit what de-ductions can be made from seafarers’ earned wages. Al-though specific requirements vary from flag state to flag state, common characteristics of the laws include listing the types of deductions that can be taken from seafarers’ wages and prohibiting any deduc-tions that are not on the list.

Similarly, modern mari-time nations’ laws establish disciplinary standards for seafarers. The laws usually define punishable offences and delineate sanctions that may be imposed for infrac-tions. Shipmasters continue to be responsible for main-

taining discipline on their ships, but their authority to impose punishment is strictly limited by law. Most flag states do not allow shipmas-ters to impose fines against seafarers. The few flag states that continue to allow ship-masters to fine seafarers place limitations on the amount of the fines and require that the fines be paid to the flag state. Ship operators and masters are not allowed to keep the fines they impose against seafarers.

National law determines the legality of any deduction from seafarers’ wages. Ship operators are not permitted to deduct anything from seafarers’ earned wages, even expenses caused by seafarers’ actions or omissions, unless the deduction is specifically authorised by statute.

A PRINCIPIOS de año, un marinero de un barco que se encontraba en un puerto de Estados Unidos bajó a tierra brevemente para comprar una tarjeta de teléfono en una tienda del muelle que estaba al lado de su embarcación. El marinero no contaba con el permiso para bajar a tierra, que debía ser otorgado por el Servicio de Aduanas y Protección de Fronteras de Estados Unidos (CBP, por sus siglas en inglés), y su compañía naviera recibió una multa de 3.000 dólares. Entonces, la compañía dedujo de su sueldo 3.300 dólares para pagar la multa. Dado que el marinero solamente ganaba 450 dólares al mes, tuvo que trabajar sin sueldo durante más de seis meses.

Las leyes de inmigración estadounidenses, al igual que las de muchos otros estados portuarios, imponen ciertas normas a los barcos que llegan de puertos extranjeros. Por ejemplo, que den a conocer al CBP los nombres de todos los miembros extranjeros de la

tripulación, y que mantengan a todos los miembros de la tripulación a bordo hasta que un funcionario del CBP los haya inspeccionado y autorice su desembarco. Aquellos miembros de la tripulación que no hayan recibido autorización para bajar a tierra no tienen permitido pisar suelo estadounidense bajo ningún concepto, ni siquiera para una rápida visita al muelle. La ley también exige a los encargados del barco que informen sobre cualquier desembarco ilegal por parte de los miembros de la tripulación.

La legislación estadounidense hace al armador responsable de impedir que los miembros de la tripulación bajen a tierra sin la debida autorización. Por lo tanto, el armador debe asegurarse de que los miembros de la tripulación entiendan las posibles restricciones sobre el desembarco y de que existan los controles adecuados para garantizar que ningún miembro de la

tripulación baje a tierra sin permiso. Si un miembro de la tripulación desembarca sin la autorización del CBP, el armador habrá violado la ley de inmigración estadounidense y recibirá una multa de 3.000 dólares por cada miembro de la tripulación que baje a tierra sin permiso. La ley es muy precisa en cuanto a que la obligación de retener a los miembros de la tripulación recae sobre el armador, agente, consignatario, capitán o comandante del barco. La legislación estadounidense también es muy clara en cuanto a que las multas por infracciones se deben imponer únicamente a esos responsables.

Cuando el congreso estadounidense promulgó esta ley, su intención nunca fue que se impusiesen multas a los marineros. Los armadores que obliguen a un marinero a pagar la multa estarán violando las leyes y políticas norteamericanas.

En el antiguo derecho marítimo se permitía a los armadores y capitanes

deducir de los sueldos de los marineros aquellos gastos causados por incumplimiento del deber o mala conducta e imponer multas a los marineros por infracciones disciplinarias. Sin embargo, debido a la gran cantidad de abusos que se cometían contra los marineros, en la actualidad las leyes de los países marítimos condenan esas prácticas.

Con la finalidad de proteger a los marineros contra la explotación por parte de armadores sin escrúpulos, la legislación actual de las naciones marítimas limita las deducciones que se pueden realizar de los sueldos devengados por los marineros. Aunque los requisitos específicos son diferentes en cada país de abanderamiento, todas las leyes incluyen una lista de los tipos de deducciones que se pueden realizar de los sueldos de los marineros y prohíben cualquier deducción que no esté en esa lista.

Del mismo modo, las leyes actuales de las naciones

marítimas establecen normas disciplinarias para los marineros. Las leyes por lo general definen las faltas punibles y las sanciones que se pueden imponer por las infracciones. Los capitanes siguen siendo responsables de mantener la disciplina en sus embarcaciones, pero su autoridad para imponer sanciones está limitada de forma estricta por la ley. La mayoría de los estados de abanderamiento no permiten que los capitanes impongan multas a los marineros. Los pocos estados que todavía permiten a los capitanes multar a los marineros establecen límites en cuanto al valor

de las multas y exigen que las multas se paguen al estado de abanderamiento. Los operadores y capitanes de barcos no pueden quedarse con las multas que impongan a los marineros.

La legislación nacional determina le legalidad de las deducciones de los sueldos de los marineros. Los operadores de embarcaciones no tienen permitido realizar deducciones de los sueldos devengados por los marineros, incluso cuando se trate de gastos causados por las acciones u omisiones de los marineros, a menos que dichas deducciones están específicamente autorizadas por ley.

If you have any questions about your rights as a seafarer, or if you want more information or help, you can contact:Douglas B Stevenson, Center for Seafarers’ Rights, 241 Water Street, New York, NY 10032, USA. Tel: +1212 349 9090 Fax: +1212 349 8342

Email: csr@seamenschurch.org or Canon Ken Peters, The Mission to Seafarers, St Michael Paternoster Royal, College Hill, London EC4R 2RL, UK.

Tel: +44 20 7248 5202 Fax: +44 20 7248 4761 Email: justice@missiontoseafarers.org

nov/dec 11 the sea 7

FOCUS ON FAITH BY GEOFFREY MOORE

Christmas – a time for beginnings

La Navidad, una época de nuevos comienzos

Рождество — время начинаний

Продолжение со стр. 6

IN the northern hemisphere, the summer is now well past and, as winter approaches, out come the woollen hats, gloves, scarves and heavy coats to keep us warm. The change in the weather reminds us that Christmas is coming, followed by the end of one year and the start of another.

I always look forward to Christmas, not because of the decorated trees, the tinsel and the presents but because it is the time we in the Christian Church celebrate the birth of Jesus, and the hope that brings, not only for the new year but also for all those that follow. One aspect of Christ-mas that I don’t like is the commercialism that now sur-rounds it. For me this flies in the face of its true meaning.

St Luke’s Gospel, chapter 2, tells of the birth of Jesus

and how there was no room at the inn for him, Mary and Joseph. This “unwelcoming” foreshadowed what was to happen to Jesus later in his life.

The other day I was talk-ing to the grandmother of an eight-year-old boy who told me how, last Christmas, her grandson had said to her: “Grandma, Jesus didn’t just stay as a baby, but grew up to be a man”. What a marvel-lous thing for a child to real-ise – that Jesus grew like the rest of us to become an adult. For the woman’s grandson, the image of the babe in swaddling clothes was gone, replaced by the image of the man, Jesus. If you are a Christian, can you remember when you first realised the baby in the manger became the grown man, Jesus?

To some, Jesus will always

be a tiny baby in a manger. But those who read in the Bible of his birth, his life and his death on the cross, and who grow in faith, find they are given a solid grounding in the way he wished us to live out our lives.

Seafarers don’t need to be reminded that being away from home and loved ones at Christmas can be extremely difficult. There is a great sense of loneliness, and of missing family and friends, and for those who are Chris-tian of not being able to go to church at Christmas. There is little time on a working ship for Christmas celebrations: all the routine, but essential work that must be done each day continues.

In Felixstowe, where I am The Mission to Seafarers chaplain, we always deliver Christmas presents to all the

ships visiting the port during Christmas week. This usually totals some 1,500 gifts, all of which have been parcelled up by our centre staff and volun-teers on a Saturday early in November, when a real party atmosphere prevails.

Delivering the Christ-mas presents gives me great satisfaction because I know that wherever a ship is on Christmas day and however hard the crew are work-ing, when the presents are opened the seafarers will receive a small token of our Christian love to show them that people care about them, even if they don’t know those people. The presents may be small, but are given freely to everyone, to people of all faiths and nationalities. As St Francis of Assisi said: “For it is in giving that we receive.”

En el hemisferio norte ya se acabó el verano y, a medida que se acerca el invierno, empezamos a sacar los gorros de lana, los guantes, las bufandas y los abrigos gruesos para mantenernos calientes. El cambio de clima nos recuerda que pronto llegará la Navidad, a la que seguirá el final de un año y el comienzo de otro.

Siempre me emociono cuando se acerca la Navidad. No es por los árboles con adornos, las guirnaldas y los regalos, sino porque es cuando en la Iglesia cristiana celebramos el nacimiento de Jesús y la esperanza que eso trae para el nuevo año y los sucesivos. Lo que no me gusta de la Navidad es el mercantilismo que la rodea y que tanto se aleja de su verdadero significado.

En el capítulo 2 del Evangelio según San Lucas se narra el nacimiento de Jesús

y cómo no había lugar en la posada para él, María y José. Ese rechazo fue premonitorio de lo que le sucedería más adelante.

El otro día estuve hablando con la abuela de un niño de ocho años que me comentó cómo, la Navidad pasada, su nieto le había dicho: «Abuela, Jesús no fue siempre bebé sino que creció y se convirtió en hombre». Me parece maravilloso que un niño se dé cuenta de eso, de que Jesús creció como el resto de nosotros para convertirse en adulto. Para el nieto de esa señora, la imagen del bebé envuelto en mantas había desaparecido y fue reemplazada por la imagen del hombre, Jesús. Si eres cristiano, ¿recuerdas la primera vez que te diste cuenta de que el bebé en el pesebre se convirtió en Jesús, el hombre adulto?

Para algunos, Jesús será siempre ese pequeño bebé en un pesebre. Pero aquellos que leen en la Biblia sobre su nacimiento, vida y muerte en la cruz, y que profundizan su fe, encuentran una base sólida en la forma en que él quiso que viviésemos.

A los marineros no hace falta recordarles que estar lejos de casa y de sus seres queridos durante la Navidad puede resultar extremadamente difícil. Se tiene una profunda sensación de soledad y se echa de menos a los familiares y amigos. Quienes son cristianos también echan de menos no poder ir a la iglesia en Navidad. En una embarcación de trabajo hay poco tiempo para las celebraciones navideñas. Todo el trabajo rutinario, pero esencial, que se debe realizar cada día continúa durante esos días.

En Felixstowe, donde ejerzo como capellán de The Mission to Seafarers, siempre entregamos regalos de Navidad a todos los barcos que visitan el puerto en esa época. Por lo general, esto supone 1.500 regalos en total, los cuales son envueltos por el personal de nuestro centro y por voluntarios un sábado a principios de noviembre, cuando se respira una auténtica atmósfera festiva.

Me da mucha satisfacción entregar los regalos porque sé que, sin importar donde esté un barco en Navidad ni lo duro que esté trabajando la tripulación, al abrir los regalos los marineros recibirán una pequeña muestra de nuestro amor cristiano que les hará saber que los demás nos preocupamos por ellos, incluso aunque no nos conozcan. No se trata de regalos caros, pero se entregan con generosidad a personas de todas las fes y nacionalidades. Tal como dijo San Francisco de Asís: «Es al dar cuando recibimos».

В северном полушарии лето осталось уже далеко позади, и с приближением зимы мы достаем из шкафов теплые шапки, перчатки, шарфы и пальто. Изменения в природе напоминают нам о скором наступлении Рождества, и последующем окончании одного года и начале нового.

Я всегда с нетерпением жду Рождество. И не потому, что мне нравятся празднично украшенные ели, мишура и подарки, а потому, что в этот день наша христианская церковь празднует день рождения Иисуса и возрождение надежд, связанных с ним, не только на наступающий год, но и на все последующие. Лишь одно не нравится мне в рождественских праздниках — это окружающий их

коммерческий ажиотаж. Для меня это полное искажение подлинной сущности этих дней.

Во второй главе Евангелия от Луки описывается рождение Иисуса. В ней говорится о том, что на постоялом дворе не нашлось места для него, Марии и Иосифа. Эта «неприятие» омрачило своей тенью всю дальнейшую жизнь Иисуса.

Недавно я разговаривал с бабушкой восьмилетнего мальчика, которая рассказала мне, что в прошлое Рождество внук сказал ей: «Бабушка, Иисус не остался ребенком, он вырос и стал мужчиной». Удивительная вещь, которую понял ребенок! Иисус рос, и, как каждый из нас, взрослел с годами. Для внука этой женщины образ младенца в

пеленках сменился образом мужчины — Иисуса. Если вы христианин, можете ли вы вспомнить, когда в первый раз осознали, что младенец в яслях превратился во взрослого мужчину — Иисуса?

Для некоторых Иисус навсегда останется крошечным младенцем в яслях. Но те, кто читал в Библии историю его рождения, жизни и смерти на кресте, а также те, кто вырос в вере, всегда найдут твердую почву под ногами, соблюдая его заветы о том, как прожить свою жизнь.

Моряки не нуждаются в напоминании о том, как тяжело быть оторванными от дома, родных и близких людей в дни Рождества. Их охватывает величайшее

чувство одиночества, они скучают по семье и друзьям, а те, кто принадлежит к христианской вере, страдают от невозможности посетить рождественскую службу в церкви. На судне, находящемся в плавании, для празднования остается совсем немного времени. Продолжается ежедневная, рутинная, но такая жизненно важная работа.

В Феликсстове, где я служу капелланом «Миссии для моряков», мы всегда доставляем рождественские подарки на все суда, заходящие в порт в течение рождественской недели. Обычно это около 1500 подарков. Их упаковкой занимаются сотрудники нашего центра и добровольцы в одну из суббот в начале

ноября, когда воздух наполнен настоящей праздничной атмосферой.

Раздача рождественских подарков доставляет мне колоссальное удовольствие. Я знаю, что даже если работа на судне не останавливается и в день Рождества, и экипажу приходится тяжело трудиться, в тот момент,

когда они откроют свои подарки, моряки получат маленький символ нашей христианской любви, которая покажет им, что о них заботятся другие люди, пусть и совсем незнакомые им. Возможно, подарки невелики, но они дарятся всем, независимо от их веры и национальности. Как говорил святой Франциск Ассизский: «Только отдавая, мы получаем».

выплаты штрафов непосредственно государству флага. Операторам судов и капитанам не разрешено сохранять для себя штрафы, наложенные на моряков.

Законность любого удержания из жалованья моряков определяется национальным кодексом. Операторам судов не разрешается удерживать какие-либо суммы из жалованья моряков, даже убытки, причиненные вследствие каких-либо действий или бездействия, за исключением вычетов, непосредственно разрешенных законодательными актами.

Штрафы за нарушение иммиграционных законов США

8 the sea nov/dec 11

Flag error could result in jail

New system ‘boosts port safety’

Shortage of officers not as predicted

Successful protest over memorial

Union calls for report into sinking of Danny F II

Collisions partly due to fatigue

Updated advice on stowaways

Confidence levels in industry fall away

Overtonnaging and economic gloom main reason for decline

THE International Maritime Employers ’ Committee (IMEC) has been investing in hi-tech equipment (right) to enhance the training facilities at two Philippine institutions, the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific and the University of Cebu.

IMEC’s operations and training manager, Adam Lewis, said that over the past 12 months it had invested heavily in computer-based training. Mr Lewis went on to say that the unique funding of the programme by the International Mari-time Training Trust (IMTT) had meant that IMEC had been able to buy comput-ers loaded with the Seagull

programme and had then installed these at both of the colleges. “This investment has been made,” he said, “to ensure our cadets have the

very best resources available to them during their indi-vidual study periods.”

Last year the IMTT approved a grant at the University of Cebu

for hydraulic and pneumatic training laboratories, a GMDSS simulator and an engine simu-lator with a connection to the bridge simulator.

IMEC invests in hi-tech training equipment

AMID reports of sev-eral shipowners run-ning into financial

trouble, very low freight rates, more vessels being arrested for unpaid debts and confidence levels in the shipping industry at their lowest for more than three years, tanker owners’ group Intertanko has warned that tanker market rates are consistently below shipowners’ operating costs.

Intertanko’s chairman, Gra-ham Westgarth, warned that if these low rate levels continued for a long period, it could lead to a situation where sustain-ability of the oil transportation industry was threatened. “Our members operate tankers to the highest standards and will continue to do so. Operating for a prolonged period in an environment where tanker owners are not even covering their operating costs is obvi-ously not a situation that can be maintained.”

The Intertanko warning reflected the findings of the latest shipping confidence survey by shipping accountant Moore Stephens. It found that overall confidence levels in the shipping industry had fallen to their lowest level for three-and-a-half years in the three months up to the end of Au-gust 2011. The firm said that fears about overtonnaging, and continuing uncertainty about the global economy, were the main reasons for the decline in confidence. It added that the rising cost of marine fuels was also a cause for concern.

The firm’s shipping part-ner, Richard Greiner, said “the drop in shipping confidence to a record low is a disap-pointment. But it has been coming. Given what has been happening in the world, and in the industry, confidence remained surprisingly high last year, but it has started to

TRAINING film company Videotel has updated its package to help seafarers combat the threat posed by stowaways. The new version of Coping with Stowaways contains new interview footage, reflecting recently revised management and security information.

“In recent years we have seen an upsurge in stowaway incidents and an increase in the levels of violence encountered by crews dealing with the problem,” says Videotel’s chief executive, Nigel Cleave, adding that the updated programme identifies the best practices to prevent stowaways getting on board and the procedures for dealing with them if they do.

slip in 2011. Indeed, in many ways, it is back to the levels of two years ago.”

He added that the indus-try was starting to see what many had predicted would happen much earlier. Banks were calling in their loans, shipping companies were fil-ing for bankruptcy protection, ships were being arrested and auctioned around the world, and the courts and arbitration tribunals were starting to see an increase in their workloads. He went on to say that lenders wanted their money back and were ready to take what they could straight away rather than wait, in the hope that the mar-kets would recover and enable them to achieve a return on their investment. “This results in a situation in which every-body loses something.”

Some respondents referred to “the most unpredictable period since the beginning of the global financial crisis” and suggested that the mar-ket was “back to levels last seen in 2001”. Few could see a short-term solution to the difficulties.

Moore Stephens said that overtonnaging was a recurrent theme throughout the respons-es. A typical view was: “Markets are at rock-bottom and will stay

there for some time because of the large number of new ves-sels due to come into service. Older vessels and speculative investors, as well as low-grade operators, will have to disap-pear before the situation can start to improve.”

A small chink of light in the gloom came from Lon-don-based shipping servic-es group Braemar Seascope, which said its demolition brokers were working extra hard this year and this “may be good news for everyone”. It said the growth in dry cargo demand was strong, driven by industrialisation and urbani-sation in emerging markets. However, Braemar cautioned, the massive amount of vessel ordering during and after the boom has led to the currently depressed freight market for dry bulk carriers.

Meanwhile, Braemar has also revealed that container-ship orders are increasing at a “dramatic rate” even though container lines are once again cutting services and laying up ships. Its figures show that 52 containerships of 10,000 teu or larger have been ordered since the beginning of this year – compared to just ten such vessels in 2010 and none in 2009.

THE US National Transpor-tation Safety Board (NTSB) has found that a collision in January between the 95,663 dwt tanker Eagle Otome and the moored 24,856 gt general cargo vessel Gull Arrow in the Sabine-Neches Canal in Port Arthur, Texas, was most likely due to “uncorrected sheering motion, fatigue and distrac-tion”. The tanker then hit the tug, Dixie Vengeance.

The NTSB report said that several factors had contrib-uted to the collisions: the

first pilot’s fatigue, caused by his untreated sleep prob-lems and his work schedule, which did not permit time for adequate sleep; his dis-traction from conducting a radio call, which the second pilot should have handled in accordance with guidelines; and the lack of effective bridge resource management by both pilots.

The incident caused an estimated 462,000 gallons of crude oil to be spilled into the Sabine-Neches Waterway.

SEAFARERS’ union Nau-tilus International has called for the immediate publication of a report into the sinking of the livestock carrier Danny F II. In letters to the Panamanian Embassy and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), delivered on World Maritime Day, the union has repeated its concerns over the condi-tion and operation of the Panama-flag vessel, which capsized and sank 11 miles off the coast of Lebanon in December 2009, with the loss of 44 lives.

Soon after the ship’s loss, a number of con-cerns were raised, includ-ing its port state control record and references to deficiencies concern-ing, among other things, stability, structure and re-lated equipment. Danny F II was originally built in 1976 as a car carrier, and was converted in 1994 in Singapore for use as a livestock transporter.

Nautilus says it has continually requested information about the progress of the inquiry into the incident and has not received any firm information. It is asking that the questions that continue to be unan-swered in the case are openly and thoroughly addressed.

THE master and crew of the South Korean-owned tanker Yong An were reported to be facing up to two years in jail in September for flying the Malaysian-flag upside-down. Malaysian authorities also said the ship did not have permission to anchor off Tanjung Piai.

EXPECTATIONS five years ago of a substantial shortage of ships’ officers by 2010 have not been borne out, according to the 2010 Industry Update on the Global Seafarer, which has just been released by the Interna-tional Shipping Federa-tion. It found that there were about 1.4 million seafarers employed on the world fleet last year: 626,000 officers and 747,000 ratings.

The study shows that demand has grown strongly despite the financial crisis and the

worldwide recession, and that supply and demand are in approxi-mate balance. There is a slight shortage of officers, 2 per cent, but that is not as severe as envisaged by the previ-ous, 2005 update.

The study also pinpoints some recruit-ment and retention problems. Shortages are more acute in special-ised sectors such as tankers and offshore support vessels. Signifi-cant supply increases in some countries are due to improved training and recruitment but the study says levels must be maintained to avert future problems.

A RESEARCH project has completed initial sea tri-als of a prototype vessel-management system in Dublin, Ireland. SafePort is said to offer the first advanced vessel-traf-fic-management system designed for constrained ports, or waterways with high traffic densities, which has integrated portable pilot units.

SafePort is intended to deliver accurate, se-cure and reliable naviga-tion and positioning in-formation, which in turn enables safer and more efficient navigation and berthing. THE UK-BMT Group led a consortium of nine organisations from across Europe in the European Union-funded project. SafePort is designed to address the need to maintain safety standards as the size of crews and their relative experience di-minish, while capacity is increasing in constrained waterways.

A PLAN to hold office parties at the site of the UK’s Merchant Navy War Memorial on Tower Hill in London over the Christmas period is reported to have been withdrawn following an outcry from maritime organisations.

The Merchant Navy Association, the Hon-ourable Company of Master Mariners, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and Trinity House all protested against plans by a caterer to hold the parties in a big tent in the gardens beside the War Memorial. It lists the names of almost 36,000 men and women of the Merchant Navy and fish-ing fleets who died at sea during the First and Second World Wars and the Falklands conflict.