Recently retired from the Irish Navy, Captain Robinson says that he will work hard to counter mariners’ feelings of “disenfranchisement from society”, particularly where they are treated badly after a genuine accident.

The new President, who spent many years in command of Irish naval vessels, lined up in his sights politicians , some media and ill-informed members of the public, who say profoundly stupid things after a marine accident and deserved to be shot down in flames. And when the ill-informed are holding forth, Captain Robinson will, he says, make sure that people live up to the IMO’s Fair Treatment Guidelines, and make sure that seafarers are able to get a fair hearing at the IMO itself over matters like criminalisation and general bad treatment.

Mariners will wish him well, because somebody needs to bang the drum for seafarers, and when everyone is saying how reprehensible it is that there is oil on the sea, the reality of the achievements of modern mariners need to feature in a powerful counterblast.

Of course it is not news that so many ships arrive in time, their cargo and passengers safe aboard, but to listen to some ill advised folk, you would think it a miracle that they arrive at all. So let’s encourage Captain Robinson to go on the attack, which is the best form of defence, and help to bring seafarers in from the cold.

It can present too-small crews with real problems, as was evidenced from a pilot’s recent comments about a Capesize which had a perfectly adequate number of hands – but only to tie up one end of the ship at a time.

Apparently they tied up the bow, then, as the ship was held alongside in the tide by four tugs, the crew sprinted nearly a quarter mile aft to start hurling the sternlines ashore. Speed over the ground was as important as seamanship on this lean-manned vessel, which, he pointed out, was by no means unique.

But accidents can happen on ships which are being run, as people used to say, “on the smell of an oily rag”. It might seem perfectly reasonable to turn-to all-hands to tie the ship up, if everyone is trained as a seaman.

But there have been fatal accidents and horrific injuries incurred when people whose main task aboard ship is something very different, start to get involved with mooring and unmooring, which is an operation always involving a certain amount of risk to those in the vicinity of moving, unguarded machinery, and ropes under strain.

There have been accidents where cooks or engineroom staff have been required to make up the numbers in a deck mooring gang, and have suffered death and fatal injuries as a result. It’s a warning to the operator that skills are more important than mere numbers.

As one has learned to expect during wintertime, there has been the usual surge in accidents involving ships being blown off their berth by gusts of wind. If they are lucky, there is a big bill for replacement rope and wire, if they are unlucky, there may be serious damage done, and to more than one ship. It is not that long ago that a runaway big containership wiped out a nearby tanker berth, wrecked oil pipelines and severely polluted the waters of a major port. All because of a parting rope.

Are there sufficient moorings between ship and shore? Are the arrangements for accepting moorings sufficient – to put it bluntly – are there enough bollards for the size and windage of the ships that might be expected to use the berth?

There have been criticisms of some ports’ parsimony in this respect, although the harbourmasters may well retort that they never realised the owner was going to double the size of the ship.

And indeed, is the ship designer providing the owner with safe and adequate mooring arrangements? There have been quite modern ships, where the mooring arrangements have been cramped, installed as if as an afterthought, and potentially risky to the life and limb of the crews trying to use them.

All of which is a preface to a useful new book produced by the Nautical Institute which is really designed to provide an up to date review of mooring and anchoring, with the latest thinking on the technology, and the principles and practice.

“Mooring and Anchoring Ships” is primarily a book for mariners, who probably need to know more than they are presently taught, but there is important messages in it for ship designers, and for those involved on the harbour side of mooring and unmooring.

There is a great deal of safety-related information, whether it is in the mitigation of risks to people in an inherently hazardous operation, or the optimum way of laying out a mooring deck.

Ian Clark, who is a mariner of many year’s experience has led this useful project and, as the author, is to be congratulated. A second volume, by Walter Vervloesem, focuses on inspection and maintenance of mooring and anchoring equipment. More details on www.nautinst.org

“Safety culture? – It’s the way we do things around here when nobody else is watching”.

Think about it. It is compliance with safety norms and practices, because you know it makes sense, and because you want to, not because you know that you will get the sack if you are found wanting. You do the right thing, because you know it is right, because you have bought into the process, and you agree with its conclusions.

When things go wrong, Peter Mason tends to blame systems rather than individuals. He suggests that almost all accidents have certain shared characteristics, whether it is the latent conditions, the degradation of norms, flawed thinking or decision making. There will invariably be cultural problems and a lack of leadership, along with an inability to hear the “soft signals” emanating from the shop floor, because the management isn’t listening, or is too high and mighty to open its big ears.

How people behave, he says, is about choice, and personal leadership influences that choice. It is not about reacting to a problem with a deluge of paper and a dozen different checklists, borne by a detached safety officer with a nasty smile on his face. There are certain attributes of a positive safety culture. It is mindful and aware of the realities; it is informed and listening to the workforce, not remote and detached. It is “learning” – which is a social activity requiring a human touch, not merely “sending stuff around”! It is about fairness and balance and respectful of the individual. Is it working? You may tell everyone that “my door is always open” – but does anyone freely approach it bearing bad news? Ask yourself!

We think that we know what a “safety culture” is, but it could be that it is just a lot of fierce instructions, based on ignorance. Here, infers Mason, who was speaking to the Nautical Institute and colleagues in London recently, it is necessary to test one’s attitudes. Do you tolerate unacceptable practices? Do you discourage or encourage the bypassing of procedures in the name of expediency? And, hand on heart, do you read about somebody else’s misfortune and think “it couldn’t possibly happen to me”?