Fatigue
Fatigue on board ships exists, leads to accidents and incidents and left unchecked, will create an environment where the retention of qualified crews will be increasingly difficult. Due to a culture where there can be a general disrespect for regulations (not to be confused with the compliance culture) and a ‘can do’ attitude of seafarers, it is difficult to gauge the extent of the problem because work/rest hour logs do not reflect a problem. However, anecdotal evidence constantly reported to The Nautical Institute indicates that fatigue and manning levels are of major concern to mariners. In response to this the Institute has begun work on a programme to raise the awareness of fatigue on board and promote best practices for management and mitigation techniques.
The purpose of this website is to facilitate this by providing links to reports and resources concerning fatigue and its effects on mariners, and by providing a means for mariners to express some of their concerns in a safe environment. The reports of on board fatigue on this website are to illustrate the types of environments some mariners are facing. These reports are simply illustrative and should be taken as ‘hypothetical examples’ so as not to appropriate any blame on specific individuals or organizations.
All mariners are encouraged to report issues relating to fatigue to The Nautical Institute either as a hypothetical example and/or confidentially. We also encourage all those in the industry to use these reports to better acquaint themselves with these realistic situations in order to promote practical solutions.