5dw. Feb.

21, 23, 25

Name;
Date
Section
Points. 10/10

Test Topic 4. Automatic Identification System.

Type or write your answer with a clean paper, screen shot the answer
and send to my messenger today.

1. A short range coastal tracking system used on ships and by vessel

traffic services for identifying and locating vessels by electronically
exchanging data with other nearby ships and VTS stations.

Radar
AIS
GPS
Gyro compass

2. What AIS information such as unique identification displayed on a

screen or an electronic chart?

Island
Seabed
Speed
Light house

3. AIS is not intended to assist vessel’s watch keeping officers and

allow maritime authorities to track and monitor vessel
movements. true/false
4. Who is the recognized person on board the ship may exercise his
discretion and switch the AIS off, if after a full and detailed risk
assessment, he considers the safety of his ship and personnel on
board are at risk.

Radio operator
Ship master
Ship pilot
Port control

5. When the AIS requirement became effective for all ships?

December 31, 2004

December 30, 2004
December 31, 2014
December 30, 2014

6. All vessel requires Automatic Identification System to be fitted

aboard all ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards engaged on
international voyage, which regulations and chapter of Safety Of
Life At Sea (SOLAS) is applicable.

Regulation 17 of SOLAS Chapter III

Regulation 18 of SOLAS Chapter IV
Regulation 19 of SOLAS Chapter V
Regulation 20 of SOLAS Chapter VI

7. The letters VTS what it mean?

Voyage transfer sector

Vessel traffic services
Voyage traffic services
Vessel transit services
8. Is it true that the AIS information received by VTS is also used for
accident investigations, Yes/No

9. The ship is transiting pirate waters the captain notice a small high speed
boat coming closer, immediately he send message to the authorities for
assistance of pirate attack, name the authority respond the event of attack.

Manning agency
Naval forces
Police forces
Ship owner

10.The Vessel Traffic Services office is station or located at one area.

Air
Sea
Land
Under water

Voyage data recorders (Block box)

Voyage Data Recorders - Black box technology paves its

way into shipping.
Voyage Data Recorders may play an important role in maritime
accidents investigations.

Black boxes in aircraft The so-called “black box” carried by aircraft is

in fact not black, but orange and has reflective strips along its sides.

The reason is to make it more easily identifiable to crash site

investigators.

There are two separate boxes inside the box: a flight data recorder
and a cockpit voice recorder.

Aircraft have had them for many years. The first flight data recorder
was used in 1958 and the first cockpit voice recorder was used in
1965.

Black boxes are standard on both passenger and military aircraft.

For obvious reasons, they have to be extremely strong and capable of

surviving extremes of shock, penetration, pressure, fire and water.

Normally, they are carried in the after end of the fuselage, or the tail,
as this area generally suffers (relatively) less damage than the nose.
The flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) each
serves a different purpose.

The FDR can record hundreds of separate pieces of information about

the technical performance and condition of the aircraft – the position
of the rudders for example.
As its name implies, the CVR records everything that is said in the
cockpit for a 30-minute period before a crash.

The impact on the shipping industry – EU and IMO requirements

Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) are now having an impact more and
more on the shipping industry.

Some ships, mainly passenger ships, have been required to fit a VDR
as from 1st July 2002, the date on which changes to the SOLAS
Convention, approved by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC),
came into effect.

Also required to fit a VDR are ships, other than passenger ships, of
3,000 GT and upwards built after 1st July 2002. Soon the majority of
ships will be required to fit them.

The European Union has already decided on its requirements, which

are set out in Directive 2002/59/EC.1 IMO has agreed to adopt
worldwide carriage requirements which are in line with those
contained in this Directive.

The MSC has also endorsed the findings of a feasibility study

undertaken by another IMO sub-committee, on Safety of Navigation,
which looked into the need for the mandatory carriage of VDRs on
existing cargo ships.

Under a draft amendment to SOLAS Regulation V/20 agreed by IMO,

all cargo ships of 3,000 GT and upwards built before 1st July 2002
must be retrofitted with a VDR no later than 1st January 2008.

Cargo ships of 20,000 GT and upwards must comply by 1st January

2007. However, the EU Directive requires VDRs to comply with more
stringent standards than those proposed by IMO for the “simplified”
VDR.

Whilst IMO has yet to finalize its required standards, it is understood

that the framework so far in place requires the VDR to collect and
store information concerning the position, movement, physical
condition and command and control of a ship.

IMO requirements state that a VDR should be installed in a protective

capsule that is brightly colored and fitted with an appropriate device
to assist location.

It should operate completely automatically.

The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has

commented that VDRs are playing an increasing role in their efforts to
establish the cause(s) of accidents, but they said their investigations
have been hampered by the fact that no less than 13 different models
of VDRs have been or are being developed.

Each of the 13 uses slightly different technology to store and play back
the information.

The MAIB is working closely with IMO in relation to the proposed

standard model.

Practical considerations Not everyone in the industry agrees with the

steps that have been taken.

In a letter to a trade newspaper in July this year, a senior figure at a

shipowning and operating company said: “
It is absolutely ridiculous that the regulations stipulate a type of black
box that will sink with the vessel.

Who will go down 2,000 metres to 3,000 metres to pick the device up
and if so, what will the cost be?”
The writer of this letter goes on to suggest that the answer is that the
box should be “free-floating”, similar to an EPIRB (Emergency Position
Indicating Radio Beacon), but this will still have to be retrieved in
some way.

No doubt the location of the incident will dictate the time and cost
involved.

Black boxes carried on aircraft are fitted with an underwater locator

beacon.

The writer could perhaps have added: “and who will pay the cost?”

Whose property is it?

As part of the ship’s equipment, paid for and provided by the

shipowner, it is presumably the shipowner’s property, at least until
the hull insurers take over title to the ship.

In turn, this perhaps brings us to the question: “

who will benefit from the use of a VDR?” Space does not allow a full
discussion of this question, but in the widest possible sense, one
answer might be “the whole shipping industry”.

In the airline industry, information learned from casualties, especially

information which would not have been available but for the black
box, is or should be used to avoid a similar accident in future.
This is not (yet) the case in the maritime industry.

Unfortunately, however, the very large amounts of money which are

often at stake in high-profile maritime casualties, coupled with the
prevalence of the “blame culture” and the increasing use of criminal
proceedings against both individual crew members and companies,
mean that many shipowners and their insurers are, understandably,
reluctant to disclose information which may be used against them,
not only in civil, but also in criminal proceedings, later on.

Potential benefits?
Nevertheless, Gard Services sees a potential benefit to its members
and clients in the fitting, use and recover of a black box.

Many cases involving significant damage to property and therefore

large sums of money do not hit the headlines.

The black box may be able to provide at least some of the quick and
detailed information which property and liability insurers need,
especially in the early stages of a claim, to evaluate their potential
liability and to plan their strategy for the weeks, months and years
ahead.

For example, in a collision action, it is not uncommon to discover that

a vessel’s course recorder was switched off or was not working.

This may mean that vital evidence covering the period immediately
before the collision has been lost.

Sometimes, the gap can be (partly) filled by the evidence obtained

from the crew, but since humans are involved, there is, inevitably, an
element of subjectivity in such evidence.
The information provided by a functioning course recorder or other
piece of equipment can remove that subjectivity.

If a vessel is lost, or suffers a serious casualty such as grounding,

resulting in extensive damage to the ship and perhaps the cargo,
there are likely to be significant claims arising out of that incident.

The cause of the casualty may be difficult to pinpoint.

From the perspective of the claim under the hull insurance policy,
both the ship owner and the hull insurers are likely to be keen to find
out exactly what happened on board immediately before the vessel
was lost.

The ship owners’ liability insurers will also wish to secure access to
such information, as it will prove vital in their investigation and
decision-making process.

Insofar as the information obtained from a black box may be specific

to a type or size or vessel, or to a particular trade or cargo, it may also
assist those responsible for risk assessment and for setting the
premium for that risk.

Examples Two examples may suffice.

The first incident in question, although serious, did not involve loss of
life or pollution.

Further, immediately after the incident, it was possible for detailed

investigations to be made.
The facts were that the MARIA H, a small (1,300 GT) cargo vessel,
struck a railway bridge over the River Trent in England.

Both ship and bridge were badly damaged.

The master suffered an injury to his leg which, fortunately, was not
serious.

The incident was investigated by the MAIB. It found that a

manoeuvring plan had not been properly agreed and understood
before the vessel was moved in a flood tide.

Among other comments, one of which was about possible

communication problems between the six-man crew, consisting of
three Poles, one Italian, one Brazilian and one Portuguese, the MAIB
said that the lack of a VDR meant that the extent of the agreed
manoeuvring plan could not be verified and they were unable to say
exactly what (if anything) had been agreed.

In the second incident, the cross-channel ferry PRIDE OF

PORTSMOUTH caused severe damage to the frigate HMS ST. ALBANS.
The warship was berthed at Portsmouth when the ferry came in to
berth in bad weather.

Due to a wrong helm order given by the master, the ferry contacted
and badly damaged the nearly-new warship.

The ferry herself sustained relatively little damage, but, as with all
vessels in the fleet in question, she was fitted with a VDR.

Details of the circumstances leading up to the incident and in

particular, the actions taken and orders given on the bridge in the
minutes before contact were thus available to the MAIB when it
carried out its investigation into the casualty.

It is understood that the MAIB relied “heavily” on the information

obtained from the vessel’s VDR.

The MAIB report contains a number of recommendations, especially

concerning the need to improve bridge communication.

Fortunately, neither vessel was insured by Gard Services.

Conclusion

Black boxes are here to stay for most ships.

The benefit of (retro-) fitting these boxes may however be rather

more real and recognisable for owners (and their insurers) than the
benefit which owners have seen from other EU and indeed IMO
initiatives.

The sort of information which a black box will collect is information

which might well otherwise be lost in the event of a serious casualty.

For the reasons explained above, shipowners and their insurers

should be able to obtain, from the black box, technical information
that could prove invaluable to them in trying to reconstruct events
immediately before the casualty.

If this information can be made available to a wider audience than the

shipowners and their insurers, without fear of it being used against
them, lessons can be learned and mistakes avoided.
The industry as a whole should be made safer and the cost of carriage
by sea may be reduced.

The “new” information may even make the resolution of disputes

quicker and cheaper.

The Chief Inspector of the MAIB has recently said that he is ashamed
of how the shipping industry compares with the airline industry in
how it handles safety concerns.

In the fields of evidence recording, evidence recovery and the

opportunity and ability to constructively use such evidence to prevent
a similar accident happening in future, the shipping industry may have
much to learn from the airline industry.

It is a challenge to all concerned to learn that lesson.

Voyage Data Recorder (VDR)

Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) is a "Black Box" for a ship. The VDR collects data
from the sensors and systems on board the vessel in order to store it in an
externally mounted crash survival module (CSM).
The VDR collects data from GPS, speed log, gyro compass, radar, anemometer,
echo sounder, bridge audio, VHF communications, hull openings, rudder,
autopilot, engine / propeller and thrusters.

The VDR is designed to withstand harsh operation environment as well as

accident-related impact, fire, and deep sea pressure.

Beyond its role as an impartial witness in the event of an accident, the system
also provides access to a valuable stream of real-time data that can be used to
monitor the vital statistics and overall health of a vessel, allowing preemptive
action to be taken before breakdowns or failures occur.

Passenger ships and ships other than passenger ships of 3000 gross tonnage and upwards
constructed on or after 1 July 2002 must carry voyage data recorders (VDRs) to assist in
accident investigations, under regulations adopted in 2000, which entered into force on 1 July
2002.

The mandatory regulations are contained in chapter V on Safety of Navigation of the

International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS).

Like the black boxes carried on aircraft, VDRs enable accident investigators to review
procedures and instructions in the moments before an incident and help to identify the cause
of any accident.

VDR requirements
Under regulation 20 of SOLAS chapter V on Voyage data recorders (VDR), the following ships
are required to carry VDRs:

· passenger ships constructed on or after 1 July 2002;

· ro-ro passenger ships constructed before 1 July 2002 not later than the first survey on or
after 1 July 2002;

· passenger ships other than ro-ro passenger ships constructed before 1 July 2002 not later
than 1 January 2004; and

· ships, other than passenger ships, of 3,000 gross tonnage and upwards constructed on or
after 1 July 2002.

VDRs are required to meet performance standards "not inferior to those adopted by the
Organization".

Performance standards for VDRs were adopted in 1997 and give details on data to be recorded
and VDR specifications. They state that the VDR should continuously maintain sequential
records of preselected data items relating to status and output of the ship's equipment and
command and control of the ship. The VDR should be installed in a protective capsule that is
brightly coloured and fitted with an appropriate device to aid location. It should be entirely
automatic in normal operation.

Administrations may exempt ships, other than ro-ro passenger ships, constructed before 1
July 2002, from being fitted with a VDR where it can be demonstrated that interfacing a VDR
with the existing equipment on the ship is unreasonable and impracticable.

Regulation18 of SOLAS chapter V on Approval, surveys and performance standards of

navigational systems and equipment and voyage data recorder states that:

The voyage data recorder (VDR) system, including all sensors, shall be subjected
to an annual performance test. The test shall be conducted by an approved
testing or servicing facility to verify the accuracy, duration and recoverability of
the recorded data. In addition, tests and inspections shall be conducted to
determine the serviceability of all protective enclosures and devices fitted to aid
location. A copy of a the certificate of compliance issued by the testing facility,
stating the date of compliance and the applicable performance standards, shall
be retained on board the ship.

Simplified VDRs
The MSC at its 79th session in December 2004 adopted amendments to regulation 20 of
SOLAS chapter V (Safety of Navigation) on a phased-in carriage requirement for a shipborne
simplified voyage data recorder (S-VDR). The amendment entered into force on 1 July 2006.

The regulation requires a VDR, which may be an S-VDR, to be fitted on existing cargo ships of
3,000 gross tonnage and upwards, phasing in the requirement for cargo ships of 20,000 gross
tonnage and upwards first, to be followed by cargo ships of 3,000 gross tonnage and upwards.

The S-VDR is not required to store the same level of detailed data as a standard VDR, but
nonetheless should maintain a store, in a secure and retrievable form, of information
concerning the position, movement, physical status, command and control of a vessel over
the period leading up to and following an incident.

The phase-in is as follows:

To assist in casualty investigations, cargo ships, when engaged on international voyages,

shall be fitted with a VDR which may be a simplified voyage data recorder (S VDR) as follows:

 in the case of cargo ships of 20,000 gross tonnage and upwards constructed before 1
July 2002, at the first scheduled dry-docking after 1 July 2006 but not later than 1 July
2009;
 in the case of cargo ships of 3,000 gross tonnage and upwards but less than 20,000
gross tonnage constructed before 1 July 2002, at the first scheduled dry-docking after 1
July 2007 but not later than 1 July 2010; and
 Administrations may exempt cargo ships from the application of the requirements when
such ships will be taken permanently out of service within two years after the
implementation date specified above.