A brief checklist would be as follows:
The Surveyor
PPE equipment; - Safety helmet with lighting and comms.
- Gas detector. - Safety Harness - Emergency Escape Breathing Apparatus.
The Ship
- Tripod or winch arrangement for recovery
- Resuscitator - Two BA sets suitable for entry at the entry point.
- Stretcher suitable for space being entered..
- Guardian at the entry point, - One responsible crew member to accompany the person entering.
- Rescue party of at least two persons capable of entry and carrying a stretcher.
Viewed Documentation; - Risk assessment of the space - Work Permit - Record of ventilation - Record of gas testing of the space
A surveyor may consider this excessive. If this is so, then he can decide what he requires, is it his life? However, I would point out that if I were the Captain, I would insist that this be followed.
As all of us concerned with ships know, the standard of professionalism and seamanship is in decline, and the manning is minimal. These factors may lead such precautions to be declined, especially as the manpower requirement could well take all the deck crew away from any other work. That is not the surveyors concern, going off the ship safely is, and that of course is his option.
The more those visiting a ship from ashore require that the safe and proper precautions that they would expect ashore are taken on board, then the more the ship owners and managers will be required to treat the possible
dangers of these spaces with the seriousness they deserve. As they find that the delays incurred by surveyors refusing to enter a space or the cost of hiring standby rescue teams and equipment from ashore accumulate, they will realise that it is better to train and have the correct equipment and procedures on board.
It is surely ridiculous that what is considered to be normal precautions to take ashore in industry is considered not to be required on ships. The sooner we all work together on this problem, both those ashore and those at sea, the sooner we will solve this last vestige of safety hazard deniability in the shipping companies and in the IMO, where the real responsibility lies for the failures to stop the unnecessary deaths that are occurring with such frequency in these spaces.
It is surely ridiculous that what is considered to be normal precautions to take ashore in industry is considered not to be required on ships.
The Report • March 2017 • Issue 79 | 59
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