EMSA- MARITIME ACCIDENT REVIEW 2007

European Maritime Safety Agency has released (October 2008) a maritime accident review for the year 2007, first of a series to be published annually.

Maritime Safety Regulation-Australia

At a meeting of the Australian transport ministers (ATC) on the 25th July '08 to discuss the modernisation of the national transport industries, it was agreed to recommend to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), due to meet in October '08, the establishment of a single national system of maritime safety regulation administered by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), subject to the outcomes of a regulatory impact assessment.

The sinking of the passenger ferry ESTONIA

Container Ship Napoli

Capsize of the Bourbon Dolphin

Following the capsize of the  anchor handling tug supply vessel BOURBON DOLPHIN, while conducting deep water anchor handling operations to the west of Shetland in April 2007, a commission of inquiry was established in Norway. The report and its findings will be of interest to naval architects. In particular, those involved in the design, construction and operation of anchor handling vessels, and in the planning of anchor handling operations.

Vessels operating in hours of darkness without a "permanent substantial enclosure".

International Chamber of Shipping - 2008 Annual Review

The International Chamber of Shipping's 2008 Annual Review includes a comprehensive review of maritime regulatory developments. 

View Report (pdf file)

Code of Practice for Fishing Vessels

The IMO Secretariat during the meeting of SLF 51 in July 2008 has presented a draft document summarising safety recommendations for decked fishing vessels of less than 12 metres in length and undecked fishing vessels.

Click here for IMO document SLF 51/5.

Fishing Vessels Safety

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch published in July 2002 a report on the analysis of fishing vessel accident data (1992 to 2000).

Click here to download the report.

Passenger ship safety

The Explorer, an expedition cruise ship, sank in Antarctica on 23rd November 2007. All 154 persons aboard safely abandoned the ship and were subsequently rescued by the Norwegian vessel NordNorge. Andy White, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, was a passenger aboard the vessel and attempts to use his first hand experience to draw some conclusions about the incident.

Report of the sinking of the MS Explorer

Weight of Persons on Board, Calculation of Intact and Damaged Stability

Recent passenger vessel accidents in the United States and in Great Britain have raised concerns with regard to passenger weight figures used in the calculation of vessel stability. In recent marine accident reports, passenger weight has been identified as a contributing factor.  Transport Canada has issued Safety Bulletin No.:05/2007 which advises of a change in the weight to be used for all persons on board (passengers and crew) when calculating stability. This change will bring the weight of persons in the Stability, Subdivision and Load Line Standards (1975) (TP 7301) in line with current demographic data and increase consistency of stability information across all types of vessels.

Improving the Safety of General Cargo Ships

A progress report by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects' Safety Committee

What are General Cargo Ships?
The term "general cargo ship" covers many different ship designs that do not fit into other more specialised dry cargo types such as bulk carriers, container ships and Ro-Ro ships. In general, their distinctive feature is an ability to carry diverse types of lift-on/lift-off cargo. They include multi-purpose cargo ships, traditional tween-deck designs, and many small coasters [1].

IMO's work on goal-based new ship construction standards

Presentation given by Dr Heike Hoppe, Senior Technical Officer at IMO, at the 2007 Annual Meeting of RINA

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  Quite a few of you will know that IMO recently started work on Goal-based New Ship Construction Standards and I'm going to give you an overview today on how far we have come, what are the results, and what is there left to be done, which is quite a lot." 

Goal Based Ship Construction Standards

Report of the correspondence group on Goal Based Ship Construction Standards to the Maritime Safety Committee in its 81st session.

• Download Report of the Correspondence Group(68.2KB)
• Download Annex 5 (564KB)

2006 President's Invitation Lecture - I Nov 2006, London

In presenting the 2006 President's Invitation Lecture " A Shipowner's View of Standards", David Koo, Chief Operating Officer of Hong Kong based Valles Steamship Company, stated his belief that the different sectors of the maritime industry needed to work closer together to improve the industry's image.

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