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CHAPTER 6 - ACTION TO BE TAKEN DURING THE VOYAGE

6.1 Tightening of lashings ^

6.1.1. It is of paramount importance that all lashings be carefully examined and tightened at the beginning of the voyage as the vibration and working of the ship will cause the cargo to settle and compact. They should be further examined at regular intervals during the voyage and tightened as necessary.

6.1.2 Entries of all examinations and adjustments to lashings should be made in the ship’s log book.

6.2 Voyage planning and ship handling ^

6.2.1. The master should plan the voyage so as to avoid potential severe weather and sea conditions. To this effect, weather reports, weather facsimiles or weather routing agencies should be consulted.

6.2.2 In cases where severe weather and sea conditions are unavoidable, masters should be conscious of the need to reduce speed and/or alter course at an early stage in order to minimize the forces imposed on the cargo, structure and lashings. The lashings are not designed to provide a means of securing against imprudent ship handling in heavy weather. There can be no substitute for good seamanship.

6.3 Listing during voyage ^

If a list occurs that is not caused by normal use of consumables (water and fuel), such a list can probably be attributed to one of three causes, or possibly a combination of same.

Cargo shift 

6.3.1 A major shift of deck cargo will obviously be immediately apparent. Deck cargo may however have shifted imperceptibly or there may have been a shift of cargo below decks. An immediate examination should determine whether or not cargo has shifted and if this is the case the master will have several remedies available to him depending upon the exact circumstances.

6.3.2 The ballasting and transferring of ballast or fuel to reduce or correct a list caused by a shifted cargo should, however, be carefully considered since this action would, in all probability, result in a far greater list if the cargo should subsequently shift to the other side.

6.3.3 As any cargo shift will in most cases occur in adverse weather conditions, sending crew to release or tighten the lashings on a moving or shifted cargo may well represent a greater hazard than retaining an overhanging load. A moving or shifted timber deck cargo should only be jettisoned after careful consideration it is unlikely to improve the situation as the whole cargo stack would probably not fall at once. Severe damage may also be sustained by the propeller if still turning when timber is jettisoned.

Water ingress 

6.3.5 The possibility of water ingress should immediately be determined by sounding throughout the ship. In the event that unexplained water is detected, all available pumps should be used to bring the situation under control. Subsequent actions will obviously depend upon whether or not such ingress of water can be controlled by use of pumps.

Angle of loll

6.3.6 If the rolling of the ship prior to the detection of the list has been exceptionally slow and the ship has returned to the upright position in a sluggish manner, this will indicate that the ship has little or no metacentric height remaining. The list is therefore due to the ship lolling to one side and having no righting arm to return it to the upright position. This situation may be rectified by either adding weight to the low part of the ship (ballasting double bottom tanks) or removing weight from the high part (deck cargo). Of the two options, ballasting is usually preferable and if empty divided double bottom space is available, the tank on the lower side should be ballasted first in order to immediately provide additional metacentric height - after which the tank on the high side should also be ballasted. However, special care should be taken in ballasting and deballasting to rectify the situation since this may cause a far greater list to the other side.

6.4 Notification ^

If a whole or partial timber deck load is either jettisoned or accidentally lost overboard, the attention of the master is drawn to chapter V of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which, inter alia, requires a master to communicate information on a direct danger to navigation by all means at his disposal, to ships in the vicinity, and also to the competent authorities at the first point in the country with which he can communicate. It is required that such information should include the kind of danger (in this case a timber deck load), the position of the danger when last observed, and the time and date (co-ordinated universal time) when the danger was last observed.

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