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FRIDAY MAY 30, 2008 Lloyds List 9Insight & Opinion

AS A marine consultant I have the pleas-ure of slowly dragging myself throughthe airport security line.

This provides me with ample time toobserve chipper airline crews with their

roll-on bags and uniforms sail through the crew-only line, and wonder why I, as a paying passen-ger, am not extended the same privilege.

It makes no sense from a business point of view.Why does the service provider enjoy greater privi-leges than the customer? As a customer, I shouldblame myself for not protesting more loudly.

But as a person who serves the marine industry,the crew only line is even more deeply troubling.

Why do aircraft crews enjoy this privilege while

similar privileges are not extended to ships crews?In worth, stress and skills there is no compari-son. Airline officers basically work an eight-hourday, sleep in comfortable hotels and, in essence,have no maintenance, management or operational

worries beyond flying the plane from point topoint with detailed instructions provided throughoutside assistance. If something on the plane doesnot work, they fill in the gripe sheet and leave it tothe ground crew to deal with, without worrying asto whether they can take the plane out the nextday or not.

How sharply this contrasts with ships crews.After slugging themselves across the ocean

standing day and night watches for many days,they arrive in port and are interrogated, inspected,investigated and treated as suspects by the portthey arrive in. They do not get to leave the ship sothey can sleep in a hotel room, but instead worklong hours until the vessel is ready to leave again.They do not get the benefit of repair and groundcrews that ready their ship for the next trip.Instead they stay aboard and do it all themselves.Ships crews are not just ship drivers; they are veryhighly skilled individuals who perform a huge

number of different tasks. While there are ranksand task divisions aboard a ship, in fact, withtodays small crews, ships officers are jacks of alltrades and master of most. What is incredible isthat, considering the number of various tasks thatofficers are engaged in, there are actually peopleout there who can perform all those tasks.

To a large extent this is related to the shipscrews traditional ability to make do, and to bearthe load in silence. Shipboard employment is notfor the faint of heart and those who can handlethe load simply are not the types to complain.Still, as an industry, we know there are rumblingsfrom the crews and our difficulties in attracting

young people into the seafaring profession areprobably a sign of our neglect.

Actually, today we are facing a crisis in ship crew-ing. Some argue that young people are no longerinterested in the hardships at sea. This is possible,but I do know there are still plenty of young people

who are willing to undergo hardship if it includescommensurate respect and compensation. Thereare still plenty of young people who endeavour tobecome astronauts, commandos, firefighters andpolice officers, and none of those professions can be

characterised as high-paying or low-stress.While we know there is a shortage of seafarers,

very little research related to crews motivations istaking place. One exception is the Shiptalk crewsurvey programme that is presently underway*,and hopefully this very worthwhile effort will shedmore light on this complex subject. (If you havecontact with ships crews, please encourage themto do this survey. Our industry desperately needsthe data to be able to attract the next generationof seafarers.)

What does the preliminary data show? It pointsto factors such as increased paperwork, schizo-phrenic job description, lack of shore time, lack oftraining, excessive work hours and lack of rest.

But regardless of the results of the survey, wewill fail in finding the next generation of seafarersif, as an industry, we do not insist on better treat-ment and greater respect for crews.

At this stage there are no simple answers butevery journey starts with the first step and in thisregard let me suggest that at the next ship visit,when you ask to see the master or one of his offic-ers, that you do not judge them by their dirty cov-eralls, puffy eyes and their limited success in mak-ing themselves understood in your native language.

Instead, realise that you are not talking to justsome random labourer, but rather that you aretalking to a hardworking ships officer who, withhis shipmates, has just hauled thousands of tonnesof vital materials across the ocean. That thisofficer is not just a boat driver but a person skilledin foreign languages, works with technologies that

you might have never heard of, is able to performmanagerial, s ecurity, legal, commercial, opera-tional, repair, maintenance and reporting tasksthat you might have never heard of, is able to do itfar from his home and his family and does it 24hours a day, seven days a week.

I cannot think of a way to provide these officerswith crew-only privileges, and I doubt it wouldimpress ships officers, but, as an industry, we willbe well served if we provide them with the respectthey deserve in any other way we can.*http://www.shiptalkjobs.com/common/survey.php

Dirty work: crews were cut thanks to automation, but Hendrik van Hemmen says now is the time to address the extra workload created by green concerns.

Why shipsofficers should

get the samerespect asairline crews

First Person:

Hendrik

van Hemmen

reporting tasks aboard ships. In addition, ships crewsnow also have to understand, operate and maintainthe many new environmental systems and equipmentthat have arrived aboard vessels because of these reg-ulations.

This is where the technical oversight occurred.While we reduced crews when we did not need asmany crew members due to automations, weneglected to increase crew sizes with the increasingcommunication loads, paperwork loads, trainingloads, maintenance loads and operational loads thatresulted from new regulations.

The environmental officer billet would serve toredress this glaring oversight, he suggests. Moreover,the position could also afford the incumbent arewarding and exciting career path in its own right.

As outlined in a technical paper that Mr van Hem-men will present at the Society of Naval Architectsand Marine Engineers Ship Operations Symposiumin Greece this September, a ships officer would needto fill this billet before he or she can advance to mas-ter or chief engineer.

It would be a ship officers first departmental com-mand, and would include a period in the shore oper-ational office that would make the officer familiarwith shore-based procedures and personnel.

This position would provide the chief engineerand master with the skills, time and insight to prop-erly address the much more complex environmentfaced by masters and chief engineers today, Mr vanHemmen says.

A dedicated environmental department aboardmerchant ships will ensure that shipping will success-fully continue to be in the vanguard of humanitysadvance to greater good for all, and we should notwait to make this vital technical adjustment.

instead exist to ensure that the ships impact to theenvironment is reduced to an absolute minimum.

Reducing environmental impact is a noble goal onmany levels and not just from the shipowners pointof view. When ships crews learn to operate systemsthat protect the environment, they will take thatknowledge to the shore in their homelands and thatwill benefit all of us in all the countries of the world.

However, in the rush to ensure the environment isprotected, the industry has not had the chance toevaluate the effect on ships crews, Mr van Hemmensays. Unfortunately, as an industry, we have failedmiserably in providing the ships crews with theproper training, manpower and motivation to operateall the environmental systems that are being installedaboard ships at the direction of IMO, national andstate governments.

This failure to ensure that the crews are properlyintegrated in an industry-wide movement at makingships leading examples of environmental responsibil-ity is not due to any nefarious inaction by regulators,shipowners, or crews, but stems from a simple techni-cal oversight.

This oversight fails to recognise the correlationbetween workload and workforce, Mr van Hemmensuggests.

Ship operators and designers have always strivento greater efficiencies, often with great success. One ofthose successes was the implementation of large scaleautomations in the wheel house and the engine roomin the late 1970s.

This reduced the typical bulker or tanker crewfrom about 40 to about 20 officers and ratings.

However, all the new environmental regulationsthat have come into effect since the late 1980s havenow exponentially increased communications and

R

ADIO officers were considered an indis-pensable beacon for safety and effi-ciency in the aftermath of the Titaniccasualty a century ago, and the use andemployment of these individuals was

actively encouraged and eventually incorporated intointernational regulations.

Is todays surfeit of environmental systems and theworkloads that they spawn a similar tipping point,one that can only be redressed, or even addressed,with the creation of an entirely new position?

A marine consultant and naval architect in RedBank, New Jersey, is making such a case.

Hendrik van Hemmen, principal of naval architec-ture, engineering and consulting firm Martin, Otta-way, van Hemmen and Dolan, has been investigatingthe relationship between increased regulations andincreased workloads.

His conclusion, Mr van Hemmen tells Lloyds List,is that it might be prudent as well as opportune for alllarge merchant vessels to add a dedicated environ-mental department to the ships complement.

The time has come for the industry and the Inter-national Maritime Organization to return shipscrews workloads to a realistic level, he says.

The environmental department suggested by himmight consist of just the environmental officer, or theofficer plus a dedicated rating. Creation of this newposition would allow for the environmental workloadthat has been added to normal shipboard operations

in the last few decades, he suggests.Mr van Hemmen does not make this suggestion to

simply add more cost to ship operators, but comparesit with other manning trends that have taken place inthe history of modern shipping.

Some of these end up in crew reductions and someresult in increases in crew levels. He uses the fate ofthe radio officer as an example.

While a radio officer was meant to increase safetyand efficiency, this position was increasingly seen assuperfluous due to increased automation of radioequipment and was eventually eliminated under theassumption that, if it is in good operating condition,todays ship-to-shore communications equipmentcan be used by anyon e.

As a marine consultant, having seen the stress oncrews aboard vessels, Mr van Hemmen performed ahuman system integration analysis on todays mer-chant vessels. His conclusions are precise and power-ful. As compared to the workload on an automatedvessel 25 years ago, crews simply cannot accomplishwhat they are actually tasked to do, Mr van Hemmensays.

Instead, crews end up cutting corners where theycan, while at the same time providing the appearancethat all is working. This hurts the crews and hurts ourindustry.

Even as ocean trade sails on through the genera-tions with timeless grace and infinite efficiency, themilieu in which modern-day industry operates hasshifted away from the romantic and daredevil days ofyore, Mr van Hemmen says. These changes are mostlyrelated to emerging international environmental reg-ulations.

Our seafarers are centre-stage in some of the mostdramatic developments and changes the professionhas ever seen, he says.

Not too long ago the seafarer just served theowner. Today, the ships crew does not just serve theowner, but also the public.

Besides ensuring that the cargo is properly caredfor and delivered, and that the propeller turns, theships crew and particularly the ships officers are nowalso tasked with the maintenance of systems thathave nothing to do with the cargo or propeller, but

Marineconsultant

Hendrik vanHemmen,right, is on amission toredress thesometimesfatalimbalancebetween workload and

workforce. Rajesh Joshi reports