legislation in place means that any ship operator trading with them must follow their rules and regulations. This does not, however, mean that every port or terminal in the world will have the same requirements. Many countries are examining their specific practices regarding dockworker safety and may not arrive at the same conclusions as the USA or Japan, so ship operators need to be aware of the varying regulations in each port.
Because national legislators are keen to ensure that none of their countrymen are injured during the loading or unloading of a ship, does not mean that the ship’s crew should consider doing any part of the job that would normally be done by dockworkers. The correct fixing and lashing of containers, irrespective of whether they are on or under deck, is a specialised job and should always be left for the specialists to do. Ship’s personnel, who ultimately have the responsibility for the safe carriage of the cargo, should oversee the fixing and lashing onboard.
Any ship that does not have the particular equipment in use for a specific country’s requirements should never consider trying to do releasing or lashing work whilst at sea, in coastal waters or manoeuvring in port limits as this would be very dangerous both for the crew and the cargo.
Despite various countries operating ‘safe dockworker’ principles, there should still be facilities to handle all ships that call at their ports. There should be other methods of ensuring that their dockworkers operate in a safe way, even if this means going on the tops of containers to release twistlocks (assuming that the ship has not been re-stocked with automatic or semi- automatic units). How they do this work is not the direct concern of the ship, as long as the ship is loaded or unloaded effectively.
As dockworkers are provided with appropriate safety equipment, such as fall-arrester harnesses and ancillary equipment, there is every reason to ensure that similar safety equipment is provided for ships’ crews, even though this may only need to be used in an emergency. If it is considered dangerous for a dockworker to go on the top of a container stack whilst the ship is moored against a wharf without safety equipment, then it is far more dangerous for ship’s crew to do this whilst at sea, and life threatening to do so without proper safety equipment. Safety equipment is often available onboard but its use, at every opportunity is not always enforced.
Good practice minimises accidents and can save lives, good intentions do neither.
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Hong Kong
Stowaway problem areas as seen by the UK Club
Area of stowaway origin Area of disembarkation
Australia
Stowaways and containers
Weekly Loss Prevention Bulletins 118 – 11/99 Smuggling of Chinese Citizens and 123 – 1/00 Chinese Stowaways – Canada/USA highlighted the development of organised smuggling of Chinese citizens into North America. Recent incidents have involved the use of containers and enquiries by the investigative organisation Signum Services Ltd have given the Club an insight into the methods being employed by the criminal organisations responsible. New information is now available on the very real threat of sustained attempts to smuggle stowaways in containers and ships in general. Accordingly, the Club has taken the opportunity to revise its loss prevention advice for all categories of ships. The suggestions made within this bulletin will assist ship operators and their masters to develop their own procedures aimed at reducing the opportunities for stowaways to be smuggled onboard ship or by means of containers. The Club will continue to review the situation and issue further guidance when appropriate.
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