Q7. When recruiting a new accident investigator to the team, what skills do you look for and are such individuals easy to find?
The MAIB recruits people with a marine background and trains them to be investigators. Although inspectors will not have an in-depth knowledge of all marine trades, they understand the environment, and this is key to carrying out a good investigation. Most of our inspectors were either senior deck officers or marine engineers before joining, but we also have naval architects, a former trawler skipper and an expert in human factors.
Solid credentials and a good level of experience are essential, but we are also looking for curiosity, empathy and resilience. If you want to know what happened, keep asking questions, don’t be satisfied by the first answer, and check everything. Curiosity is difficult to test for during selection, but we give it our best shot. Empathy is also key. Our inspectors are often dealing with traumatised second victims, be they witnesses, or the colleagues or next of kin of those injured or killed; hearing their story takes patience and understanding. Finally, resilience. While MAIB inspectors are not first responders, they are often on scene with the emergency services, and they have to be able to deal with that. However, being
An MAIB inspector in action.
regularly exposed to the human cost of accidents can take its toll and our inspectors need to remain professional whatever they are seeing or hearing as they carry out their investigations.
And are such individuals easy to find? No: the number of qualified mariners wanting a shore-job in the UK is declining, so we are fishing in a shrinking pool against stiff opposition from the larger commercial companies. That said, there are still enough people who ‘get’ safety and want to work for the MAIB.
Q8. In your opinion, how important is the role of the marine surveyor in helping to minimise accidents and to preserve life at sea?
To misquote football legend, Bill Shankly, good surveying is not a matter of life and death, it is much more important than that! Surveyors check that ‘things’ are fit for purpose, just as a MoT tells us that our cars are safe to drive on the roads. That third party assurance might just be for our own peace of mind, such as when buying a second-hand boat, or it might be an essential part of securing certification that allows us to trade. Anyone who sees securing a surveyor’s sign-off as a compliance activity is missing the point. It is the surveyor’s expert opinion that is the important thing.
Q9. The modern generation seems to see things differently to folks like you and me. For those considering a career in the modern marine world, what advice can you offer to encourage them?
About 95% of the UK’s imports by volume arrive by sea, and around 18 million people travel to and from the UK by ferry each year, so shipping is not going away any time soon. Further, like other transport sectors, shipping has entered a new period of rapid change and development, whether that be in the adoption of decision support aids, automation and AI, or the drive for net-zero and the adoption of novel fuels. Anyone who understands the business of trading by sea is well set for a second career in any of those fast-changing sectors. Consequently, I would wholeheartedly recommend a career in the marine industry, but it does not have to mean a lifetime at sea.
Q.10. Apart from the MAIB’s most recent accident
investigation report, what was your last good read and why did to hold your interest?
Isaac Asimov’s The Complete Robot, which is a collection of 31 short robot stories he wrote between the early 1940s and the late 1970s. Isaac Asimov died in 1992, but his stories were prophetic. If he were alive today, I am sure the tech giants developing AI and advancing robotics would have him on their advisory boards!
THE REPORT | MAR 2025 | ISSUE 111 | 145
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