Lest we not forget…safety

“A ship is worse than a gaol [jail]. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger.”

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author and philosopher

Samuel Johnson obviously didn?t have a high regard for life at sea. Perhaps, quite rightly so, for he was of a generation where mariners disappeared over the blue horizon to a fate often worse than death. Travelling more in hope than knowledge, many of these gallant (and often unwilling) maritime pioneers were forced to traverse the oceans with little regard for safety, stability or even longitude.

Indeed, it was only towards the end of Johnson?s life that John Harrison successfully mastered the marine chronometer ? thereby enhancing navigational accuracy by 100% ? and almost a century later that Samuel Plimsoll began campaigning for legislation to protect mariners from the unscrupulous overloading of cargo ships. While Harrison was driven by the objective of technical perfection, Plimsoll was simply angry that more than 1,000 sailors were drowning each year as a result of inadequate ship stability. History shows that both achieved their goals, despite the fact that it took a dozen more years and the deaths of 10,000 more seamen, before Plimsoll?s principle of the ?load line? was incorporated into the Merchant Shipping Act.

As I end my tenure as Consultant Editor on The Motor Ship, it would be good to report that twenty-first century seafaring is now a safe and secure profession, and that maritime technical advancement and enhanced ship stability have overcome the traditional dangers of life at sea. Regrettably, present day casualty reports continue to indicate that too many ships still don?t know where they are, and too many ship structures still fail when man or the elements contrive to seek out their weaknesses.

As a young Mate of a bulk carrier, I had first-hand experience of the power of Nature when caught by Typhoon Gilda in the middle of the Pacific. The ship was well found, the equipment modern, the loading in accordance with all regulations. Yet we were equally at the mercy of the elements as our earlier counterparts ? it was just the size and material construction of the ship that was different. That we survived was simply down to the care and skill in which the hundreds of different designers, overseers, welders and fitters had expended, as a whole, on our vessel. We were, in truth, entirely dependent on the quality of the weakest part.

Seafarers do not have a strong collective voice ? their geographic distribution and insular existence ensures that their views are rarely heard. Therefore, I take this opportunity on their behalf, to simply ask all those who design, build, supply, maintain and operate ships, to remember that safety does not end with adherence to regulations alone.

Safety means, in these enlightened times, not turning a blind eye, not cutting a corner, and not accepting that economy always equates to efficiency. It means remembering our responsibilities to protect and secure all those who venture over the blue horizon in ships ? they certainly deserve it and it is about time that we are able to offer it to them. And perhaps, just perhaps, we can leave Samuel Johnson?s words behind in our wake…