This year sees the compliancedate for cargo ships of 3,000gt and over to ensure that they have installed atype approved bridge navigational watch alarm system (BNWAS). Whilst this isyet another regulatory headache for many ship owners and managers, it is worthconsidering the case of the Karin Schepers to see the importance of a fullyfunctioning BNWAS on your vessels.
Karin Schepers Grounding
Karin Schepers is a7,852 GT, 9,340 DWT Container Ship, built in 2007, registered in Antigua &Barbuda and classed in Germanischer Lloyd. It had a crew of 12 including amaster, a chief officer, a 2nd officer, 3 able bodied seamen and 2 ordinaryseamen.Karin Schepers departedHelsinki, Finland, on 20 March 2009 at 1730 bound for Teesport, England with acargo of containers.
However, on 22 March at0935 Karin Schepers grounded in position 55°39’44 N - 012°42’15 E, 0.9 nm northof Drogden dredged channel in the Sound. The speed when the ship grounded was12 knots. The draft was 6.40m fore and 6.60m aft before the grounding. Afterthe grounding the draft fore was reduced by 1.90m and the draft aft wasincreased by 0.80m.
At highest water in themorning of 23 March at 0820 the ship was refloated by help of a tug and towedinto the Port of Copenhagen.
Causes of the Grounding
Following the groundingan accident investigation was carried out by the Danish Maritime Authority – Itfound that the grounding was caused be the following:
- The chief officer was incapacitated due to intoxication.
- The chief officer fell asleep during his watch.
- There was no look out on the bridge.
- The Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System was off.
- No crewmembers reacted on the various attempts to draw attention to the dangerous path the ship was taking.
In the report theshipping company was recommended to introduce procedures ensuring that watchkeeping on the bridge always is optimal in the prevailing circumstances andconditions including the use of lookout and Bridge Navigational Watch AlarmSystem.
In this incident it was not the fact that there was no BNWAS thatcontributed to the grounding, it was that the crew were able to easily turn offthe installed system, making it useless.
Protect YourVessels - Prevent Your Crew from Turning off BNWAS
Many systems available on the market usesimple key switches which make it far too easy for anyone to turn the BNWAS off,removing vital protection for the vessel.
To prevent this happening on yourvessels and to deter your crew from switching the BNWAS off, Navgard™ BNWAS from Martek Marine requires a master password to switch it off and also confirmscontinuous operation by logging to integral SD-card. Navgard™ also logs all alarmevents in real time, giving you a permanent record of bridge activity.
2012
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