Seafarers Fatigue

It is common for a guy on a ship to routinely follow a 100+ hour-week, month after month. It’s not surprising therefore to find serious accidents happening as a result of fatigue.

The well analyzed incident of grounding of Exxon Valdez that happened more than 20 years back had documented the effect of fatigue leading to the great oil-spill. Yet, even now we don’t have a cut and dried solution to address this issue of seafarers’ fatigue.

I mean, by now the authorities should had found some solution like putting more people, giving enough rest hours or compensating for the extra work (not by overtime allowance which will actually encourage working towards fatigue).

Having said that, in my own case I used to find work on board ship was better than say watching a movie in the smoke room or playing a video game. It acted as a balm to the loneliness we suffered on board.

The other day I was browsing through the jottings in my diary. I came across this noting made on 14th Jan 2002. At that point of time I had already spent two months on board the oil-tanker with another 4 months to go. I listed out various methods to overcome the pangs of loneliness:

- look for the company of others
- have lots of friends
- read plenty of books
- how about liquor? A drink or two or a bit more can help in passing the time
- developing a passion

Finally I came to the conclusion that within the limitations that I was in, the best antidote was to immerse myself in work.

As such none of us had come to the ship for a picnic. Once you are away from family and home the overriding aim is to earn the maximum so that we could go back to our lives ashore. That is if your life still existed back there.

A few hardened seafarers do not have any life back home. Some of them are the mal-adjusted people on board. With whom you are confined for months till either you sign off or that fellow goes. It’s quite stressful to say the least.

I remember all of us looked forward to short-hand allowance wherein we could earn the salary of the person temporarily absent from the ship. Nobody ever cribbed or complained on account of the extra work. Most times the company was quite happy to distribute the absent-seafarer's pay to others in a ratio as decided by the master. Less people meant lesser management problems.

Were we stressed? Oh Yes! But, at least in my case, I used to find stress was better than the boredom of doing nothing or suffering from pangs of loneliness. So we used to somehow pull along till the end of our contract. Those days getting a relief was not always a smooth affair. Many times a month or two would pass before we got our reliefs. Those were the toughest times to pass. Stress was high and so was the frustration of being away from the family.

A little stress is good. It puts you on the edge and you actually avoid accidents caused due to callous actions or over-confidence. But how much stress should we take and when do we put a stop to it? Difficult questions to ask to those who consider 105 hour-week normal.

IMO is seriously studying this complicated issue. The Warsash Maritime Academy is launching a project named Horizon under the sponsorship of the European Union. The project will address the concerns over the increasing human, financial and environmental losses of maritime accidents caused due to fatigue.

Its stated objective is ”To provide a realistic, high fidelity, voyage scenario in which watch-keeper cognitive performance can be measured.”

Though, I have my doubts whether it is possible to replicate in a class-room the real stress out there. Most watch-keepers treat simulators as another video game and I dare say so would the on-leave volunteers from the group of young second mates who are going to participate in this project.

How does one replicate job-related tensions, intimidation by seniors on-board and by the shore-staff, tide and weather conditions, inspections, (poor) working conditions of machinery, hawsers or other riggings?

At least a start is being made and the authorities have recognized that stress and fatigue are important factors towards human-errors. For which they should be lauded. After all studies have concluded that 80 percent of all the maritime accidents that are caused are due to human-errors.