Captain Ricardo Caballero, Panama Canal Pilot
I have to quote a Norwegian Chief Officer who I worked with over 30 years ago when I was just coming out of the package. Being a "rookie" I was eager to score some points by going the "extra mile" in performing my duties, which weren't specific since I was only a cadet. He said to me "just because it seems as it can be done this time, it does not mean that it should be done all the time ". He said this while I was inside a double bottom tank of one of the lower cargo holds. It was well passed midnight. I had worked all day but I wasn't really tired and I had suggested him that I could finish the task before sunrise. No, he said. It was my first ship, I was being prey by the excitment caused by novelty.
It did not take me too long after I began sailing as a Deck Officer to understand what he had told me. I was on small ro/ro ship that traded in the Caribbean and Central America. The ship sometimes called at tree different ports in less than 24 hours. Dealing with everything that involves calling to a port three times in such a short period could be extenuating for the crew, the officers, and more so for the Captain of the ship. No doubt that, to cope with all that, rest periods are disrupted, creating a rest debt that becomes impossible to repay. Though the crew is tired, business continues as usual and shipowners and authorities ignore or are oblivious to that fact.
Why should they care? As long as there are not serious consequences affecting the operation of the ship all they worry about would be the extra money paid to the crew because of the resulting overtime. If overtime is stipulated in their contracts. And it would only be because profit, the main goal may be slightly affected.
Fatigue has been addressed in different forums and is usually mention in magazines covering issues of the shipping industry. Some companies have their policies outlining the importance of rest periods. I even find signs in the hallways in the accommodations of ship suggesting to keep the "noise down" as there are crewmembers "sleeping".
The effectiveness of these guidelines, I believe, are hardly measured or evaluated in a scientific way. So they are basically timid intentions to say that something is being done to diminish the effects of fatigue, and therefore working conditions of seafarers are not harsh.
There are a few reports in which fatigue have been considered the factor that triggered the actions that lead to a particular accident. But, in my opinion, these reports tend not to tell the whole story, and furthermore offer very little to correct the problem. They don't refer to how, for example, fatigue is an element of a deteriorating health. Or the cause for a poor quality of life. I am not an health expert, but I am certain that fatigue makes us prone to depression, and depression might lead to suicide.
In a 2018 Andrew Russ, Marine Surveyor at Standard P&I Club addressed the issue in the forum Safety4 Sea based in London. The report offers a detailed insight of the causes and effects of fatigue in the shipping industry. It also refers to STCW and ILO regulations. However, my experience keeps telling me that fatigue remains real. I see it everyday at work.
Ships have been getting larger almost at the same rate as crews have been getting smaller. This growing inverse proportionality is often overlooked by the industry since it is believed that technology has eased the workload left by the lack of crewmembers. Like in the case of ports automation, the understaffing of ships hurts working conditions.
Ships have been getting larger almost at the same rate as crews have been getting smaller. This growing inverse proportionality is often overlooked by the industry since it is believed that technology has eased the workload left by the lack of crewmembers. Like in the case of ports automation, the understaffing of ships hurts working conditions.
There is another story behind all this, a single man is, in most cases, up in the ship's bridge in charge of the navigation watch. A man (or woman) not a machine. A man with his own personal troubles an issues, a fatigued man in many cases trying to state alert to stand a navigation watch. That is the real life of today's seafarers.
Today's massive vessels operate with tiny crews. In most cases the average figure is 23. I am talking about ships that exceed the thousand feet in length and have as many as nine decks. Ships that travel across the oceans at speeds in excess of 20 knots, while avoiding traffic and other dangers and dealing with severe weather conditions as well.
After a sea passage the Captain and crew get busier as soon as they near the shore. The rigging of pilot ladders and readying of mooring stations, on ship this size, are tasks that take time and tremendous effort.
For the Captain arriving at a port means going through a long period of restless hours. He needs to have all the documents required by the port authorities while watching that his ship safely navigates towards the pilot pick up zone. He also has to respond to calls from agents, ship chandlers, charters and, of course, shipowners. By the time the vessel is alongside, the Captain has been up for several hours, and still his opinion is several times required during cargo operations.
The Captain will also be up, in most cases, hours before the pilot gets aboard prior to departure. Last minute documents need to be signed, piles of paperwork need to be finished, before the ship finally sails.
I have come up to the bridge, during the hours before sunrise, in which the smell of coffee can't hide the smell of tiredness. Red eyes, poor mood, anxiety, are all sign that the crew is not well rested. These are unequivocal signs of fatigue. Fatigue that won't show in any study and won't make it to the statistics unless, again, a disaster occurs. Fatigue that they have to live with for as long as they are aboard.
Could you imagine how bad the situation is these days in which seafarers have been left stranded aboard beyond the termination of their contracts because of the Pandemic? The levels of frustration have made some of them commit suicide.
Even so, today's seafarers are doing the job in spite of fatigue. They are doing it because they need the job.
It is wrong. Just like I was wrong when I thought that I could finish cleaning the double bottom tanks and was stopped by the Chief Mate, "just because it can be done, it does not mean it can or should always be done." "Fatigue will catch up with you very soon". he added.
Only seafarers understand what is to work in such conditions, what working shifts, sometimes advancing or retarding the clock as the ship sets east or west, does to their circadian cycle. Most of them are citizens from countries with economic trouble who has found in shipping a source to provide for their families. Manning companies, shipping companies. do not only seem to see and advantage in wage savings, but also in the fact that these seafarers are not effectively protected by anybody. And very few would complain. They need the job, even at the stake of being exploited.
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