Mayday' Call Over Bulk Carrier Safety

Bulk cargo ships which carry ore, coal and grain around the world sink quickly if they take in water. Because they carry such heavy loads, they can go down in seconds - often before the crew can even send out a 'mayday' distress call.

The crews lost this way from dry bulk carriers - 561 seafarers in the past six and a half years - tend to be the "forgotten seafarers" of merchant shipping, working under little-known flags and plying between distant and exotic ports. But, though their crews may be invisible to most people, the world fleet of 4,600 dry bulkers are the workhorses of the maritime world. And maritime safety experts are trying to reduce their alarmingly high losses, which are higher than in any other category of shipping.

 

The industry is trying to reach some agreement ahead of a meeting in

London this month of the maritime safety committee of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations shipping agency. The eight-day meeting starts on May 28, but the portents are not good.

"These ships tend to fly strange flags, have foreign crews and operate far away between ports and across seas whose names mean nothing to the average person," says William O'Nell, IMO general secretary. "Why should we expect that person to care when one of them disappears?" he added. The problem has puzzled the international shipping community for the past decade. Rapid increases in the size of these vessels has raised questions about their design, while rough treatment when they are being loaded and unloaded in port places heavy strains on their steel frames.

But, partly because of the lack of public pressure for safety improvements, finding a solution has been tricky - creating friction between regulators, shipowners and technical experts. If this month's maritime safety committee meeting can reach an agreement, it will make recommendations to the IMO's full assembly in November. But there is likely to be hard bargaining before then. Opposition from the Greek government, representing the world's largest shipowning community, and others prevented an agreement being reached last year. And even countries which are broadly in favour, such as Japan, are continuing to argue over technical issues.

Inter Cargo, the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners, has been cautious about proposals for change, pointing out the need for measures which are both practical and commercially acceptable.

Tempers have been roused by what some in the industry regard as precipitate action by the classification societies - such organisations as Lloyd's Register - whose experts regularly survey vessels for their seaworthiness. The International Association of Classification Societies, which groups the 13 largest, unveiled proposals in December to strengthen the bulkhead or partition dividing the first and second holds on dry bulk carriers.

The association's research had found that if seawater penetrated the first hold, the bulkhead could collapse and the vessel could founder very quickly. This annoyed the ship-owners, who claimed they were not consulted and complained that the association had failed to produce any costings for its plans.

Some feared the costs could run into millions of dollars for each ship. The societies have since calculated the cost should be between $75,000 and $200,000 per vessel.

"What really got the industry cross was that we put this out in a hurry," says James Bell, the association's permanent secretary. "But we had been asked to clarify the position and we thought we had better do something fast."

The classification societies had already introduced a more rigorous method of inspecting dry bulk carriers, known as the enhanced survey programme, in 1993.

Until February, this appeared to be working because no ship which had undergone such a survey had been lost. But earlier this year disaster struck.