Taken from the nautical institute's MARS report no. 200119 -(collected by Captain Beedel)- after asking permission from Julian Parker / June Miller - Publication Sales Manager. (See her message below)
Contributor's Page - MARS - Nautical Institute
This incident happened 35 years ago, but is still fresh in my memory and I feel it is worth reporting.
The ship, a 10,000grt cargo vessel was on passage from Rio de Janeiro to Santander. On the day in question, the ship had been at sea about 5 days. It was a fine tropical morning, with calm seas, blue skies and clear visibility. At 0800 the 3rd Mate relieved the Chief Officer, who left the bridge at around 0815 to go to breakfast. The important point here is that the bridge was then manned by one person only, the 3rd Mate - this ship was one of the first in the fleet to be fitted with that wondrous new gadget, the "auto-pilot".
The dread word "OMBO" was still decades away, but the practice of dispensing with a rating on the bridge had already started. At 0900 the Junior Apprentice reported to the bridge as emergency steering drills were scheduled for shortly after that time. He found the bridge deserted, with the ship sailing unattended through an empty sea, under the sole command of the auto-pilot.
Aware that the Captain was due to appear shortly, and assuming that the Third Mate had "nipped down" for a minute, maybe to the toilet, the Apprentice then went in search of him. By the time he returned, about 10 minutes later, the Captain and Chief Officer had appeared and were busy preparing for the steering drills. It took until about 0930 until the penny dropped that the OOW was actually missing, whereupon the ship was turned around, the appropriate radio messages sent, lookouts posted, lifeboat made ready etc.
With all spare crew members lining the rail, the ship steamed up and down until nightfall in a flat calm sea. Various bits of rubbish jettisoned by the ship were seen again and again (would this be called pollution today? Ed.) but no sign of the missing officer. After dark, hope was abandoned, and the ship resumed her voyage.
THE LESSONS?
Undoubtedly time was lost while the realisation sunk in that the 3rd Mate was missing. Whether this affected the outcome will never be known. The large crew (50 odd) carried by such a ship meant that there were plenty of spare eyes to act as extra lookouts (stewards, firemen, etc readily volunteered for this), although to no avail.
Surely an important point is the lack of adequate bridge manning. If a rating had been on duty on the bridge, in all likelihood the OOW would not have gone missing and a tragedy would have been averted. This is very much relevant today when the emphasis is to reduce manning.
On 16 Jan 2002, Julian Parker sent me this e-mail, which I reproduce ad verbatim..... I think you get the message!
Dear Rajagopal,
Thank you for your e-mail 13 Jan. MARS is an open site and we are not restricting copyright. If you can use your web site to encourage other
members to contribute to MARS that would be valuable. Please use the items.
Sincerely, Julian Parker - June Miller
Publication Sales Manager-The Nautical Institute
202 Lambeth Road, London SE1 7LQ, England
Tel: 44(0)20 7928 1351 Fax: 44(0)20 7401 2817
Go Astern
Full Ahead to the next yarn
Just WHO the *&%$#@! is this Sriram ?!
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