200642 Ship-shore communications
| A gas tanker was discharging at a terminal of a well-known oil major company in an Asian country. In the ship-shore checklist, it was agreed that the language of communication would be English using the portable VHF radio sets provided by the terminal. A terminal representative, who was fairly fluent in English, led the initial boarding party. After all pre-discharging checks and formalities were completed on board, the chief officer attempted to call the terminal on the VHF several times to indicate his intention to start discharging, but got no response. Finally, after a lot of difficulty, the gangway security watchman was persuaded to summon the English-speaking terminal representative. After more delay, he was successfully located and re-boarded the ship. He indicated to the chief officer that although he was the only person in the terminal who could communicate in English, his workstation was not the terminal control room but elsewhere, where the VHF radio was not provided.
After much debate and on the ship's insistence, an alternate interpreter was assigned to the ship during the entire cargo discharge operation, which was completed without incident. |