Ships Of Shame: Take Aim - ships sink off coast of Australia - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Business Asia, May, 2001

SHIPS OF Shame was the magnificent title coined for the report on ship safety by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure in Australia a decade ago.

The hard-hitting report was released in December 1992, and a sequel in November 1995. They still make compelling reading today, and I quote key statistics and various sections.

In 1990 and 1991, there were six bulk carriers which sank off the coast of Western Australia over a period of less than 20 months.

In 1990, it was 149 ships worldwide with 807 lives lost. This moved through to 118 ships lost in 1994, but a staggering increase of lives lost to 1478. The figures in more recent years are still being finalised, but for 1996, in relation to cargo carrying ships, only 25 vessels were lost with a total of 710 lives lost, 1997 23 vessels with 248 lives lost, 1998 52 vessels with 552 lives lost, and 1999 again (for cargo carrying ships only) no less than 74 ships lost with 403 lives lost.

Clearly there can be no complacency, with yet another oil tanker sinking off Dubai in the middle of April 2001 leaving an ugly trail of pollution impacting on water desalinisation plants and coastline. There are simply too many ships sinking too often in the 21st Century. There is a combination of factors which have led to a culture of excessive cost cutting, lack of maintenance and, worst still, a lack of training for ship crews plus high levels of abuse.

During the Committee deliberations evidence was presented which painted a chilling picture of life on board many a big bulk carrier or oil tanker, although things seem a little better in relation to the modern panimex size fast container ships.

The core problem relates to supervision and a lack of adequate supervision, with many short cuts being taken under the screen and umbrella of so-called flags of convenience. This means that ships are often registered with countries that have less stringent obligations on ship owners and ship operators. In turn, inevitably this results in too many failures and total loss of ships on far too many occasions.

Governments around the world are starting to become more ruthless in relation to these issues, insisting on a raft of accurate survey papers and other credentials being kept up-to-date by ships operating in their area. Some lateral thinking has also been applied including the simple procedure at some bulk despatching ports that no ship can come alongside until it has been actually able to open all its hatches. Whilst this may seem a simple enough exercise, it is lack of maintenance in the relatively unimportant area of hatches and covers which leads to bigger problems, which if they get out of hand, can lead to disasters.

Clearly, waste management is becoming a very critical area especially with the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in Argentina and Britain and elsewhere. The Australian Parliament is currently considering legislation introduced by the Government to raft up scrutiny and punishment for reckless or negligent conduct with regard to oil or garbage and other material being dumped at sea.

Whilst there is enormous focus on aviation standards and aviation safety, including airport waste disposal from long haul aircraft, equally the shipping trade of the world also requires comprehensive scrutiny. This scrutiny must encompass the very structural safety of the ship, the crew conditions, training and culture of command, and the question of waste disposal and all its ramifications.

The continuing loss of quite large ships at sea and resultant pollution is absolutely unacceptable in 2001. The most recent figures referred to earlier are a sharp reminder that we now have a case of ships of shame continuing inflicting damage and loss of life around the world. Whilst there always should be a sensible balance and sensible approach with regulation and control, this is a case where self-regulation simply would not work, and where the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and other relevant organisations for each country around the world must do their job.