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Necrid1998 t1_j1nhcpd wrote

Reply to comment by buckykat in TIL that in 2003, the chief officer of the German-owned cargo ship RMS Mülheim got into difficulties while on watch. His trousers caught in his chair mechanism and while trying to free himself he tripped and knocked himself unconscious. The ship grounded on rocks while he was out and later broke up by YalsonKSA

Exactly, there should have been a lookout on that bridge

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ostapack t1_j1npak2 wrote

If it was German flagged, Lookout is only required after sunset and before sunrise.

What was missing here was a dead man alarm, which would've informed the next officer and/or eventually the captain. Unless he ran aground before the 10 or 15 minute window of the alarm expired.

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Necrid1998 t1_j1nxtsg wrote

  1. Yes it is correct that a lookout is only required during the night, during the day it's only recommended (depending on the situation)
  2. No it's not German flagged, it was flagged in Antigua and Barbuda, a classic flag of convenience (even though the German secondary register can also be called as such, different story)
  3. It is my personal opinion that a lookout is always nessesary, since the OOW is often times not able to fully concentrate on the watch itself and has additional duties.
  4. It's fairly known that German companies are a bit more stingy in terms of crewing. When I tell my English counterparts that we man a 200m ship with 17 men (of whom only 13 are required by law) I get some funny looks
  5. A BNWAS is always a good system to have, although it can be quite a nuisance in difficult situations
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Nyghtshayde t1_j1paz7h wrote

I know nothing of the sea: what size crew should such a ship have?

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Necrid1998 t1_j1phji1 wrote

That depends, but ideally the lookout and officer would be able to concentrate on the watch duties when on watch. But during the daytime the lookout has to clean the mess, help the cook sometimes, do odd-jobs. In my opinion a steward for the cook would be a great addition und just 1 or 2 additional able seaman would be great. With a smaller crew it is possible to work safely, but you don't have much room for error. Like when some people get sick or when an important piece of automation breaks, and these systems now have to be manned

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buckykat t1_j1p1sz9 wrote

Regardless of the job titles, and regardless of German law, having only one heartbeat between thousands of tons of heavy machinery and disaster is dumb.

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