An accident waiting to happen...
Piotr’s wife agreed it was unlucky that the accident which has blighted his career happened when he was on watch; he was a good man trying to do a good job. In the same circumstances it could have happened to anybody.
Piotr’s wife agreed it was unlucky that the accident which has blighted his career happened when he was on watch; he was a good man trying to do a good job. In the same circumstances it could have happened to anybody.
That particular ill-fated watch had started promisingly. At midnight the sky was clear and the moon, sinking in the west, left shimmering silver traces right ahead of the vessel on the mirror calm sea. Piotr felt relief - the preceding days of gales and hellish seas had meant hours spent wedged into a corner staring bleary eyed through the bridge front windows with wipers whirring and the occasional thump of heavy water pounding against the glass.
There had been no respite below, wakeful hours had been spent clinging on to the mattress, hoping that the Captain was alert on the bridge and trusting that the naval architects and designers had done their work properly. The small bulk carrier had been tracking westwards in the Channel when they had encountered the severe gale two days ago. They had made little useful progress since that time. Now, miraculously, only a large lazy swell remained, gently moving the ship which was back on course and heading towards the alter course position to the south east of the Scillies.
The Captain had left the bridge almost as soon as Piotr had arrived to take over, grateful at last, for the promise of 6 hours of quality rest. Before leaving Piotr alone he had pointed him to his night orders and alerted him to two ships that had recently passed them on nearly reciprocal courses. Their stern lights could be seen receding into the blackness astern. There was no seaman lookout, of course - there never was: with a total crew of only six there was more pressing work for their attention.
Piotr had glanced at the chart and noted the Captain’s midnight fix. The vessel was on the newly drawn track and two or three hours from the alter course position: a glance at the GPS confirmed his assessment.
Largely because of the poor weather Piotr now had a backlog of paperwork to deal with including chart corrections, passage planning and unanswered emails from the company. The 6 hour watch was a good opportunity to tackle some of it. The Captain was a hard taskmaster and fair but he had no sympathy with complaints about tiredness or overwork. Piotr, for his part, was hard working, conscientious and diligent. So, he made himself a cup of coffee, scanned the horizon ahead, glanced at the radar and set to work at the chart table.
Although he was desperately weary he wanted to please and to be seen to be capable and efficient. He knew the importance of keeping a proper lookout and resolved to check the instruments and the horizon frequently. All went well. He had not noticed any
other traffic and, as he plotted the ship’s position at 0100, he noted that they were making good progress and were still on track. He turned back to his paperwork.
Some time later, he woke with a start as his lolling head hit the shade of the anglepoise lamp. He made himself another cup of coffee and walked around the small wheelhouse. For a fleeting moment he thought about calling the Captain but immediately discounted the idea - after all he too needed sleep to be fit to take over again at 0600. Feeling slightly more alert he returned again to his work.
He was thrown forcefully forward at the moment of grounding hitting his head on the GPS before falling to the deck. The cold coffee spilled across the chart and the gentle buzzing coming from the GPS was drowned by a multitude of other alarms.
