Great Lakes Art Database

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), October 1924, p. 400

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Y How To Reduce Ship Accidents Campaign of Education Necessary To Safeguard Men ‘on Ships — Management and Officers Must Help BY ROBERT F. HAND Assistant Manager, Marine Department, Standard Oil Co.,, (Ned) ITH the development of the W modern steamer and the grad- ual disappearance of the fine old wind jammers, an equally marked change has taken place in the type of ‘men who follow, the sea, as a means of earning their livelihood. Seamen in the not very distant past took such pride in their calling that even an in- different ship was trim and taut from truck to keel, and it was a poor sailor indeed who could not handle himself sufficiently well to keep out of care- less accidents. This type, however, is passing with the sailing vessel and tke frequent recurrence of preventable acci- dents is conclusive proof of the fact. Many of those who call themselves sail- ors today—I am speaking now of the average seaman, rather than licensed personnel—would be far better adapted and eminently safer elsewhere. It thus not infrequently results that thought- Yess and inexperienced men aboard ship endanger not only their own lives but the lives of the entire ship’s company by careless handling of machinery or lines, or by performing im an unseaman- like manher, the various duties which are assigned to them. Must Educate Men It is true, of course, that the very development in steamship building, of which I speak, has brought with it many new hazards to replace those en- countered in sailing vessels, and it is also true that the conduct of routine work incidental to the operation of steamships will continue to result in accidents, some of them unavoidable and of a nature peculiar to the sea. It is, nevertheless, apparent that the mani- festly increasing need for intelligent safety supervision in our merchant ma- rine is primarily due to the failure, and in many cases, inability on the part of the individual member of the crew to take care of himself, and on the part of his superior officer properly to pro- vide for the safety of those under him, and that, therefore, the problem of greater safety becomes essentially an educational, rather than an administra- tive one. Careful analysis of the nature of acci- dents to seafaring personnel, which occur Paper presented at the Louisville, Ky., meet- ing of the National Safety council, Sept. 29- Ootr.3. obackcs. and with greatest frequency, has led me to this conclusion and a brief review of some of them will perhaps serve to illustrate my point to. better ad'vantage. Undoubtedly a large percentage of per- sonal injuries aboard ship results from falls, either on deck or below, many of which might be prevented by due pre- caution in the matter of rigging, gang- ways and pilot ladders, providing proper protection from open hatches, and in the installation of hand rails, foot guards, engine-room gratings and floor plates. Next in importance from the stand- point of their numerical recurrence are accidents due to falling objects. Such casualties result in many instances from careless operation of cargo handling ma- chinery and other hoisting gear, thought- less handling of tools at elevated points without due regard for the safety of those below, and only too frequently from lack of supervision on the part of the officers in charge of such work. Many engine room injuries, which oc- cur with almost as great frequency as those in the preceding group are of a nature that might be avoided by timely and proper instruction of watch officers to inexperienced men on_ their "watches, and the same may be said of a large proportion of burns. and other boiler room casualties, which result from flare similar causes through im- proper operation and dangerous prac- tices in the fire room. Few Unavoidable Accidents As a matter of fact, when viewed from this ‘standpoint, unavoidable acci- dents are relatively surprisingly few in number, for what has already been said of certain forms applies to almost all of the long list of casualties connected with the operation of steamships; thus, accidents caused by deck machinery may often be traced to the removal of guards or toan inexperienced operator; injuries sustained while handling mooring lines, to the lack of watchfulness on the part of the mate in charge; injuries to the eye while chipping or scraping, to the failure to provide or wear goggles; infection of minor wounds due to ig- norance of the consequences thereof, or failure to administer aid or _ report promptly for first aid treatment. There does not seem to be any doubt, therefore, that the question of practical 400 safety supervision reduces itself pri- marily to one of educating both offi- cers and men to the point where they think and automatically act in accord- ance with established safety principles, for safety regulations mean . nothing if the safety thought is not implanted in the mind of the individual. This brings us logically to the important step of determining the most advantageous form or forms in which safety in- struction may be brought to the at- tention of the seagoing personnel in a manner best calculated to accomplish its purpose. In the case of licensed offi- cers, who, of course, are in a position to profit by a more direct and personal relationship with management, the prob- lem is not such a difficult one, but the necessity of focusing the attention of all hands in the forecastle to the ques- tion under consideration still remains, and constitutes, in my opinion, by far the harder job of the two. Channels for Safety Expression In any event, however, the simplest and most readily available methods by which seagoing personnel may be reached for purposes of safety education are, to my mind, three in number, name- ly; personal instruction, accident bulle- tins and safety illustrations, and I feel that by the judicious handling of these three modes of expression, properly co- ordinated, much can be accomplished toward, the elimination of preventable accidents. The last of these being ob- viously best suited to reach all mem- bers of the crew, permits of the use in a more restricted manner of the for- mer two, provision of which, as a re- sult, may be confined to licensed offi- cers. Referring, for the moment, to the need of personal instruction, I believe it is a mistake, for example, to place a complicated device such as a gas mask in a ship and expect the officers to guide themselves by printed instructions thereon in cases of emergency. Wher- ever the use of such a piece of gear is considered advisable, at least one and preferably several of the, ship’s offi- cers, in addition to the master, should receive detailed instructions regarding its use from experts ashore, and there should be stipulated a fixed interval at which such apparatus should be thor-

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