Disqus - Latest Comments for Bob Couttie

Re: Cosco Busan - Bridge Resource Management

Bob Couttie — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:01:11 -0000

I hate to sound quibbely but I would suggest that there is a difference between bridge team management and Bridge Resource Management. The former is largely about the management of the human element, the wetware on the bridge, the latter would include the management of other resources such as radar, GPS, and all those things that go beep.

Having read more than the average number of accident reports I fully agree, the key problem is bridge resource management especially the relationship between the pilot and the OOW.

Re: Cosco Busan - Bridge Resource Management

Bob Couttie — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:43:14 -0000

Aha, good old parallel indexing, prominent by its absence on so many incidents, along with constant radius turns.

Much would depend on the radar signature and ranges, I suspect.

Looking at the animation of the AIS data it looks almost as if it was trying to get through the other span.

This one will run and run.

Re: The Dangers of CO2 use in Firefighting - Videos | gCaptain.com

Bob Couttie — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:03:19 -0000

If I can add my thruppence worth: It's a good ideato ensure that CO2 is the right technology and in the right place. On the Maersk Doha a fire broke out in the EGE and the CO@ drench system was fired in the Engine room. CO2 is heavier than air and the EGE was in the funnel casing above the engine room. It wouldn't have worked anyway because the EGE fire was over 1,000 c and was being fed by water already there (water dissociates into hydrogen, a fuel, and oxygen, which is what a fuel needs to burn) so it was self-sustaining.

Oh, and only 7 out of more than 200 cylinders of CO2 actually went off.

Re: Proposed Bill Mandates An Increase Of VTS Authority

Bob Couttie — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:48:23 -0000

IMHO vessel control by VTS is inevitable, whether we like it or not. Indeed, it may be that crew will be taken off of ships entirely and they'll be sailed on instruments, once head offices can figure out who to blame when something goes wrong.

Technology alone, which is all VTS had going for it, isn't the answer. Fred Fry rails at idiot drivers blindly following their GPS, it happens at sea, too (ie. The Case Of The Wandering Monarch - a day and half navigating with a GPS that wasn't even connected to a satellite!)

"Good seamanship", with or without technology, is the way to go.

Having some familiarity with the workings of the the legislature of our cousins (And former owners of this benighted archipelago), obviously the Pelosi-Boxer laws have a way to go yet. The sort of knee-jerking voting that created the Patriot Act hopefully won't happen this time - it's not remotely on the same scale.

Yes, it does have some good points, the improvement of VTS capability gets an uptick, so does the idea that pilots should have laptop GPS displays.

I have to say, it didn't occur to me that in what claims itself it be the most technologically advanced nation on earth someone earning $500,000 a year wouldn't already have one.

Re: Cosco Busan - ECDIS Tracking w/ Google Maps

Bob Couttie — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:10:43 -0000

I hope it can get adapted for NASA's World Wind, since I find Google Earth's licence restrictive (I use my computer in an office. Whether or not I use Google Earth for business I'm supposed to pay a licence because I'm forbidden from using the 'free' version in the office.

Re: RescueSim - Virtual Fire Team Traning | gCaptain.com

Bob Couttie — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:54:23 -0000

My favourite is Virtual Sailor, http://www.hangsim.com/vs/, which I not only use for fun but also to make up storyboards for my video work, as well as simulator for maritime accidents.

Re: Proposed Bill Mandates An Increase Of VTS Authority

Bob Couttie — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:41:05 -0000

The issue of VTS as traffic control is a fairly frequent feature of proposed 'solutions', check out the responses following the Norwegian Dream/Ever Decent collision in 1999.

I'd again bring up the Bridge Team Management/Bridge Resource Management issue, whih isn't ouched by the Pelosi-Boxer legislation as far as I can see. Such training must be mandatory for all pilots - in response to an earlier comment, there is lready a bridge team for the pilot already on the bridge but pilots don't make enough use of them, AND there should be similar training for VTS operators because when a vessel is in their area of responsibility, by extension they become part of that ship's bridge team.

Re: The Filipino Monkey Strikes Again (and again and again…)

Bob Couttie — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:55:23 -0000

The term 'monkey' is considered exceedingly derogatory by Filipinos. The line from an old American song: "The monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga is often trotted out as an example of a racial slur (Wrongly as it happens). I know of a bookstore clerk who nearly got punched after, quite innocently, referring to a mischievous Filipino child as 'a little Monkey'.

I have no doubt this tale will be picked up by the press here and blown out of proportions.

Yes, Filipinos are oversensitive, I'll admit that, but this sort of bilge goes beyond the pale.

Bob

Re: Cosco Busan Crew Detainment - Commentary by John Denham | gCaptain.com

Bob Couttie — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:55:36 -0000

Since the detainees don't have US visas it's unlikely they'll get anywhere near Disneyland or anywhere else. It was a US court that enforced the detainment so neither the PRC nor the owners have much to do with it (. If the crew were at sea they'd be earning a lot more more money for both. Having a crew shut up in a secret location, not running your ships, isn't good business sense.

I wonder how the US would have reacted if the master, chief engineer et al aboard the Global Patriot were detained by the Egyptian authorities under the same conditions, pending a court hearing that might not happen for a year or two?

What's good for the goose...

Re: Not Being John Cota | gCaptain.com

Bob Couttie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:01:32 -0000

The rush to criminalise seafarers (and demonise those who don't happen to be American) unfortunately gets in the way of the sort of examination of the systems failures that need to be fixed.

Re: Was the titanic sunk by a small key?

Bob Couttie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:46:42 -0000

In the past I've used 'error chain' and 'domino effect when discussing accidents but, at the risk of getting too theoretical I think both are inadequate since they are basically descriptions of single-point failure (A chain fails when a single link fails, a domino falls over when its neighbour hits it).

The best physical description I think is the wooden tower game, "Jenga" or "Topple" in which players take turns removing blocks from a stack. The first few extractions don't do much harm but as the process continues the stack becomes more and more unstable until one reaches a point where removing any block at all will cause the stack to fall over.

If you think of the tower as 'safety' and the individual blocks as the elements, precautions, procedures that make up safety, you've got a fairly good visual model for how accidents happen.

Re: Was the titanic sunk by a small key?

Bob Couttie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:45:56 -0000

The point that John makes "listen for the voice in the back of your mind" is very true. If something 'feels' wrong, it probably is.

Re: Cosco Busan - ECDIS Tracking w/ Google Maps

Bob Couttie — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:30:11 -0000

Dr. Kersandt makes interesting points, accidents are usually more complex than often assumed and human beings are almost inevitably a part of that complexity.

One must always, however, err on the side of caution. The ship's passage plan itself is in question with Fleet Management having been charged with falifying it after the incident. This is the result of poorly trained USCG investigators in the first instance who failed to secure documents on the bridge, thus there is a question regarding their evidence trail.

Unfortunately, given the enthusiasm for throwing cluster-bombs of criminal charges around, it is unlikely that the depth of information will come to light to contribute to navigational safety.

Let me make it clear that in what follows that I intend to make no assumption of liability on behalf of the pilot or the master. I am merely considering how Dr. Kerstandt's views might play.

If Dr. Kersandt will permit me a moment of being a hypothetical prosecutor. I accept, hypotheically,his comments on the visibility of the racon, the change of signal and the quality of the display and the potential interference of the VTS. All this would have been apparent to the pilot. The question for me would be whether the pilot took appropriate action, was the vessel's speed appropriate to the conditions, which include his uncertainty?

Did he do his due diligence and adhere to Rule 6 of Colregs?

Dr. Kerstandt will need to demonstrate that the pilots decisions were appropriate to the situation.

One of the functions of good bridge team management is to mitigate an individual's loss or lack of situational awareness – did the pilot, or the master, use the good bridge team management principles?

Let me return to the issue which Dr. Kerstandt begins with – the passage plan. When a pilot boards a vessel ut is good practice for the pilot and the master to discuss the passage plan and for the pilot to explain what his intentions are, where he intends to make his turns and so forth, so that at least the master knows what he's up to and, in a best case scenario, the rest of the bridge team know what to expect.

If that was done, then the pilot would be in a position to confirm or deny the allegations against the ship manager, Fleet Managemnt, that the ship's passage plan was not in accordance with US law. If he was aware, and said nothing, then he is complicit in an illegal act, if he wasn't aware because he had not followed good practice, again he's in trouble. If he saw the plan and it was in accordance with US Law then Fleet Management is off the hook on at least one if its indictments.

As I suspect any pilot might tell you, ship's passage plans are often inadequate within an area of compulsory pilotage, especially when the person responsible is inexperienced in that particular port. It is the pilot's job to make sure the necessary adjustments are made. Indeed, Pilot's usually have their own passage plan for the area of their responsibility, or a simulacrum thereof.

In brief, it is not the ship's passage plan which informs the pilot but the pilot who informs the ship's passage plan in the area of his responsibility.

What changes to the ship's passage plan did the pilot make? Did he communicate those to the bridge team? Did they fully understand his intentions?

Pilots do not meekly follow the ship's passage plan, nor does the wise master meekly follow the pilot's advice.

While a pilot may only be an 'adviser', I would say that he has what is in effect a fiduciary duty towards the safety of the vessel. Did he carry out that duty?

I would reiterate, my intention is not to discuss liability but to demonstrate the complexities of the issues involved. Recently, the US courts have decided that a government official cannot be indicted on criminal charges for making poor decisions because the legal situation is 'too complex'. I leave you to comment upon that.

Re: Cosco Busan - ECDIS Tracking w/ Google Maps

Bob Couttie — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:18:19 -0000

Let me start off by saying that I don't believe bringing criminal charges was wise or helpful, but I suppose lawyers have to earn their nexy Bermuda holiday home somehow.

The influence of the human element is long recognised. That is precisely what bridge team management is intended to address. It is also what Colregs are about, to mitigate the effects of false cognition.

(I've very aware of cognitive psychology/neurology. You might consult a book called "Forbidden Knowledge", by Lutterworth Press)

Did Cota, or the master, act appropriately under the conditions?

Knowing that the radar is faulty, do you then continue to proceed at full manouvering speed in fog?

Frankly, it sounds to me you've got Cota bang to rights!

Re: Casualty Outlook

Bob Couttie — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:58:26 -0000

Thanks for pointing that out,Peter. I should have known better.