97021 Out of the Skeleton Cupboard

Out of the Skeleton Cupboard

­ Assumptions are Dangerous

Australia
REPORT No. 97021

I don't think that dangerous assumptions like the one related here canever be over stressed. This happened many years ago when I was a young chiefofficer and I hope that the master and pilot concerned, if they are stillalive, will not take offence if they recognise themselves. I have recountedthe incident many times when I have found watchkeepers making assumptionsand not checking them out.

We were en route from Singapore to Noumea, had passed through ThursdayIsland Passage off North Australia and were approaching Port Moresby todrop the Queensland pilot. It was barely daylight on the 4-8 morning watch,the master was on the bridge and the pilot had just come up. We were fullyloaded and the rough seas on the passage had prevented the pilot ladderbeing rigged which meant that it had to be done as quickly as possible whenwe reached the sheltered waters off Port Moresby. Then everything happenedat once. The standby man came up drunk and had to be sent down again. Itook over the wheel so that the helmsman and the watch cadet could rig thepilot ladder. I was also handling the engine room telegraph and the movementbook. We were, after all, only dropping off the pilot and then continuingon our way!

The pilot was looking for the pilot boat in the normal position but couldnot see it. The he saw it, way out of position on our starboard side. "What'she doing right out there?" he said and then turned to me and askedme to come to starboard and put her fine on the port bow. I swung the wheelover and was just settling down on the new course when there were exclamationsfrom the pilot and the master. "What's he doing, he has gone 90 degreesto starboard, bring her round to port Mister Mate". As I did so theother boat altered again, this time frantically to port. I won't repeatthe expletives but I was told to chase after him so I put the wheel overto starboard again.

By this time we were getting pretty close and suddenly saw that it wasnot the pilot boat after all. It was a small coaster that slid by very closeon our port side with someone on the bridge looking up at us and shakinghis fist. He must have thought that we had gone mad and were trying to sinkhim. In fact, to this day, I am amazed that we missed him. The real pilotboat was where he should have been all the time and was watching our anticswith some concern.

This was a silly, almost farcical, incident which very nearly ended indisaster. The result of a false assumption becoming a fixed idea. We wereall to blame. The pilot had told us this was the pilot boat and we firmlybelieved him, even when the vessels strange manoeuvres should have alertedus. Instead we just assumed that the skipper was playing around. In thosedays, VHF was in its infancy and I am not sure if we even had one. As OOW,I should never have been messing around with the steering, telegraphs andmovement book. We should have called another sailor or cadet and waiteduntil he came to the bridge