201837 Bent ship’s crane

The Master of a bulk carrier, newly arrived on board, noticed the starboard provision crane was not straight but slightly bent upward. A closer inspection showed cracks on the paint surfaces of the stoppers. Additionally, limit switches were found in disrepair; the crane had obviously been misused.  

 

It appears that the damage had occurred some time earlier but had not been reported.

Lessons learned
- Limit switches should always be operational and tests should be done by a competent person in line with the vessel’s PMS.
- Within a strong safety culture, immediate and transparent reporting of incidents should be the norm.
- Leaving equipment in less than optimum state endangers crew and is negligent behaviour.
- Crane operators need to be given the proper training before they use lifting equipment.

Editor’s note: We recently received this note from another NI member: ‘’I sailed for 16 years and have now been working in ports for the last 10 years. During my sailing, I never noticed that the limit switches of the cranes were tested even once, although I started getting this done at least once during my contract. “I have many times seen accidents happening in the port because the limit switches had not been tested or the setting of the limit switches was wrong or they were bypassed. At times, I have even noticed that the crane limit switch is missing altogether. All ships are reminded that many accidents occur due to faulty or wrongly set limit switches and these must be tested regularly.’’