INTERNATIONAL SEAFARERS DAY - Address by Chief of the Naval Staff

Honourable Union Minister for Shipping, Shri GK Vasan, Secretary, Ministry of
Shipping, Shri K Mohandas, Director General Shipping, Dr. SB Agnihotri, distinguished
members of the shipping industry, fellow seafarers, members of the media, esteemed
guests, ladies and gentlemen.
At the outset, I thank DG Shipping, Dr. SB Agnihotri, for inviting me to deliver the
keynote address today. As a seafarer myself, I am happy to be in the presence of others of the fraternity on this important occasion. As all of you are aware, seafarers have facilitated maritime trade, civilisational contacts and new discoveries since time immemorial, even at the cost of enduring difficult conditions and facing grave physical hazards.
Modern seafarers are no different. They form a crucial element of the global
economic system, while braving risks, pressures and hardships that are unique to a life at sea. As the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Mr.Efthimios Mitropoulos said, without the contribution of seafarers, half the world would freeze and the other half would starve. I am therefore happy that the critical contribution of seafarers to global trade, international stability and the civil society as a whole will be celebrated as the ''Day of the Seafarer'' on 25 June every year. I applaud the decision of the IMO and International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) that made this possible.
You are all aware that historically, India has been a seafaring nation with trade
and commerce at the forefront of her maritime endeavour. In fact, Indian trade was so extensive around 70 AD that the Roman Governor, Pliny the Elder, wrote that as many as 125 Indian ships usually lay in the ports of Egypt and Rome. As late as the fourteenth century, Marco Polo remarked that Indian ships were built to last a 100 years, and that some were large enough to require crews of 150 to 300 men. India’s share of world economy was nearly 30% from 1 AD to 1200 AD. By 1700 AD, it had reduced to 24%, and owing to the measures taken during British occupation, Indian merchant marine declined further. Against about 34,500 Indian ships that entered and cleared Indian ports in 1857, only about 1700 did so in 1900. Mahatma Gandhi summed it up thus: ‘Indian shipping had to perish so that British shipping might flourish’. By 1947, Indian merchant marine had declined to only 11 oceangoing ships and a total tonnage of only about 73000. In retrospect, the decline in maritime activity from about 1200 AD translated into our inability to contest European control of the Indian Ocean in the eighteenth century.
Today, after nearly two centuries, resurgent India marches ahead to reclaim her
historical maritime stature and take her rightful place in the comity of nations. Maritime trade is the key enabler of our economic growth and the modern seafarer as its facilitator occupies centre stage in our nation’s prosperity. Currently, we have a total of 349 oceangoing and 722 coastal ships; nearly 6% of the seafarers plying the ocean routes are Indian; about 90% of our international trade is carried by sea; and millions of Indians rely on ships to transport a great multitude of commodities, fuel, foodstuffs, goods and products that touch their daily lives. It, therefore, gives me great pleasure to pay tribute to Indian seafarers for their substantial contribution to national development.
At the same time, this occasion provides us opportunity to deliberate on a
contemporary issue of great relevance to the seafaring community - the rise of the
scourge of piracy.
Maritime piracy demands concerted international attention today not only because
it enmeshes security perceptions with complex socio-economic, legal and humanitarian
issues, but also because it threatens the shipping industry seriously. It is only
appropriate, therefore, that the IMO has declared "Piracy: Orchestrating the
Response" as the theme for World Maritime Day 2011.
This distinguished audience would know that piracy is not a modern phenomenon.
The Roman lawmaker, Cicero, termed it ‘a crime against civilisation’ about 2000 years ago. While piracy figures prominently in the annals of many European tales, its occurrence off the Horn of Africa finds historical mention, with the classical Greek text,Periplus of the Eritrean Sea, and Ptolemy’s classic, Geographia, revealing its existence in 1 AD and 150 AD respectively.
The Gulf of Aden-Somalia region is notorious once again today, as the dominant
hotspot for piracy. In 2011, there have been a total of 243 piracy attacks worldwide
resulting in 26 hijackings, of which 21 have occurred off Somalia. Today, Somali pirates hold a total of 20 vessels and 451 personnel hostage. Navies of several nationalities have been deployed in the region since 2008 on anti-piracy duties. Today, between 30 and 40 warships patrol these waters, revealing that their presence has brought down the success rates of hijacking in 2009 and 2010.
The economic cost of piracy, from waylaid vessels, delayed shipments and idle
crews is substantial. Ransoms, insurance premia, deterrent equipment, re-routing of
vessels, piracy prosecutions, and running costs of anti-piracy organisations add to the economic burden. It is estimated that maritime piracy costs the world economy about $12 billion each year. This is substantial.
The manner in which the other piracy hotspot - South East Asia - tackled this
problem holds out a lesson for the Horn of Africa. The pirate activity reported in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in the late 1990s and the early part of this century saw significant reduction owing to a series of measures conceived and implemented with the co-operation and support of littoral states. The Malacca Strait Patrols launched jointly in 2004 by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, was one important measure. The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia or ReCAAP, of which India is a member, was another that curbed piracy through effective information sharing. Such initiatives highlight that piracy is best tackled as a shared security threat and a multilateral challenge. That more than 25 countries are participating in anti-piracy efforts
off the Horn of Africa highlights its continuing international character.
The response of the international community on piracy is therefore based on
collaboration, which is best represented by the work of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, or CGPCS, the principal forum for international cooperation and information-sharing, under the aegis of the United Nations. The CGPCS was created in 2009, pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1851. Following its first meeting in 2009, four Working Groups were established to address military and operational coordination, capacity building, judicial matters, shipping self-awareness and public information.
It is widely understood that the ultimate solution to piracy does not lie at sea.
Piracy at sea is only the manifestation of socio-political inequalities and insecurities ashore. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said, “Piracy is not a water-borne disease”, but a spill-over of governance deficit, complex socio-economic dynamics and lawlessness. However, it is a fact that the international community needs to contain the spread of piracy and render the high seas safe from its adverse impacts.
Let me briefly touch upon five issues that need to be addressed in doing so.
The first pertains to legal conviction of apprehended pirates. India is currently
guiding nearly 120 pirates through a judicial process. Whereas naval operations can
prevent piracy attempts or apprehend pirates at sea, their conviction by courts of law is important to reinforce the sense of security amongst those who put to sea legitimately and deter those who do so otherwise. Many navies adopt a ‘catch and release’ methodology that feeds pirates back into the system because they lack legal provisions to initiate action against them. The absence of a common legal policy amongst nations inevitably hinders the international objective of stamping out maritime piracy.
Second, a vast majority of those apprehended constitute lower-end operatives,
whereas there are no means to catch ‘bigger players’. International effort must address this shortcoming and evolve mechanisms to target the handlers, planners, managers and financers of the long and elusive piracy chain.
The third challenge pertains to ransoms. Refusal to pay ransoms is not in the
interest of hostages. However, it is a sad reality that the lure of large sums of money has a corruptive influence and drives the economically or socially marginalised towards crime. It also reinforces piracy and upward spirals of ransom demands. Higher demands lead to protracted negotiation, resulting in increased human suffering. In fact, a striking feature of Somali piracy has been hostage-taking for ransom, which perhaps makes it akin to maritime kidnapping. Unlike pirate attacks in the Straits of Malacca or off the coast of Nigeria, where ships are boarded with the intent of armed robbery, Somali pirates take merchant ship crews as hostage with a demand for ransom. This is possible
because pirates find sanctuary in Somalia and its territorial waters and can hold hijacked ships there for indefinite periods awaiting termination of ransom negotiations. Today, the average duration of negotiation has increased. While the average captivity period was 55 days in 2009, crews are now being held for as long as three to four months. In the recent case of MV Suez, the ship and her crew were in captivity for over 300 days.
While piracy tends to be discussed only in economic terms, of serious concern are
its human dimensions - the trauma experienced by seafarers and their families during
periods of captivity. There is evidence that a number of seafarers held captive are illtreated.
The suffering endured by such seafarers is immeasurable and recent instances
of violent assault and torture deserve the severest condemnation. This is a new trend and a serious concern for us seafarers.
Fourth, hostage situations demand a coherent policy response. However, the
global nature of modern shipping presents to this an unintended challenge. A ship today may be owned by a company in one country, fly the flag of another, charter for a company in a third, and have a crew representing many other nations. Not the most ideal condition. As a consequence, responses to a hijack take more time than desirable to crystallise, owing to complex inter-governmental and interagency consultations.
The fifth issue - one that reveals a sense of encouragement - is that many ships
have escaped capture by implementing preventive and self-protection measures
recommended by the IMO and the shipping industry. The industry needs to ensure that
such measures are widely implemented. Its comprehensive guidance document,
commonly known as "Best Management Practices" for merchant ships, suggests
methods and measures to prevent, deter and defeat pirate attacks. Surveys suggest that ships that conform to these are far less susceptible to pirate attack. For instance, operating at high speeds or with higher freeboards, or with crews taking shelter in "Safe Houses" or "Citadels" during attacks has proven to be successful in preventing hijack in several cases. In fact, in my view, provision of a "Safe House" or "Citadel" is an extremely effective self-protection measure against piracy and I have repeatedly recommended it for implementation onboard all Indian flagged ships. Use of armed guards by ships is another means of improving their onboard security. A policy for deploying armed security guards on Indian flag ships is being examined by the Government and would provide a credible measure of protection, once implemented.
But I emphasise that such personnel will need to be security-cleared and well-trained before being positioned as armed guards on our merchant ships.
While we grapple with these five issues at multiple levels, the Indian Navy
continues to spearhead the nation’s anti-piracy endeavour. The Navy is an active
participant in anti-piracy operations in South East Asia as well as off the Horn of Africa.
We also have a ship deployed continuously in the Gulf of Aden that has escorted more
than 1600 merchant ships safely thus far, including about 190 Indian flagged ships. It is a matter of great satisfaction for us that no ship under Indian Navy escort has been hijacked till today. The Navy collaborates actively with other maritime forces in the region to co-ordinate anti-piracy assistance and provide credible military presence to deter piracy and maritime terrorism.
There may not always be the physical presence of an Indian warship at the scene
of any incident. However, I would like to assure you that our Operations Room is on a 24X7 alert and constantly tracks the movements of merchant ships in the area,
particularly those released from captivity. We are also in constant touch with other
navies operating ships in the region – and the nearest warship, irrespective of
nationality, is requested to offer assistance, when required, and all navies have been most forthcoming.
Our Navy is also an active participant in the Working Group on Military and
Operational coordination at the CGCPS.
In end 2010, it became clear to naval analysts that pirates had changed their
tactics and began using hijacked merchant ships as mother ships to carry out attacks at
ranges as extended as about 1000 nm from the Somali coast. This manifested in the
form of increased piracy incidents in an area West of the Lakshadweep Islands in Nov-Dec last year. In response, the Navy increased its anti-piracy deployment in the area significantly, and as a consequence, intercepted four pirate mother ships, apprehended 120 pirates and rescued 43 hostages in 2011. One can say with certainty today that because of the Navy’s proactive approach, piracy incidents East of 65°E Longitude have decreased by nearly 70%.
We in the Navy understand that as a leading seafaring nation and a net security
provider in the Indian Ocean, India has significant stake in preserving the freedom of the seas. I take this opportunity to assure our seafaring community that the Indian Navy will continue to do its utmost to ensure the safety of our seafarers and our seaborne commerce, and protect national and international shipping and other forms of maritime activity in our waters.
I once again laud the tremendous role played by our seafarers in sustaining the
nation’s economic lifelines and in staying at the frontline of our battle against seaborne threat and piracy. Their welfare and safety must be of priority to us. I commend the DG Shipping for his determination to bring this issue to prominence in 2011 and reiterate my personal support to this important initiative.
With these words, I thank DG Shipping for giving me this opportunity to be here
today and wish the organisers of this important event all success in their endeavours.
Thank you. Jai Hind.

COSTA CONCORDIA - THE ODER SIDE OF TRUTH

What Really Killed Costa Concordia’s Passengers?

Captain Schettino has received a lot of criticism in the mainstream press and, possibly, even more from industry insiders for abandoning ship before the last passenger was safe. An important question is not being asked however… would his presence on the bridge have saved lives?

The answer is likely no.

Abandoning ship may have been unconscionable but it was certainly not a lethal decision. This post hopes to identify those mistakes made which directly resulted in loss of life, but also come to the defense of the Captain by identifying what actions did, in fact, save human lives.

Of note, the following comments are made with input from ship captains and maritime experts based on the evidence now available. But its not until the “black box” is analysed and the investigation complete that we can determine the true causes of this disaster. What you are about to read are the best guesses of ship experts.
The First Fatal Mistake

Accidents are a result of many small events which latch together to form an incident chain. Taken separately, each mistake is minor but when strung together, they lead to disaster. Remove one link, one minor mistake along the timeline, and the chain is destroyed… disaster is avoided. It is beyond the scope of this article to reach back and uncover each mistake that was made, mistakes that reach back well before the vessel was even designed. I only mention this because the first major failing may sound small to some, but it’s critically important to the safe operation of ship.

The first fatal mistake was likely in the training of the bridge crew. The job of the captain is to give orders and the crew must accept even foolish ones, but it’s the understanding and execution of these orders which is most important.

When Captain Schettino ordered a “flyby” of the local port, it was the mate on watch’s responsibility to lay the course line down on the chart, check for hazards and advise the captain of obvious dangers. Once underway, it’s the mate’s job to follow the planned route and monitor any identified hazards.

“Flyby’s” or “showboating” maneuvers are in-fact dangerous, but are preformed every single day by countless ships around the world. So why did this one run aground?

The most likely answer is the mate on watch got distracted and missed the turn. This is easy to do with today’s reliance on a myriad of electronic navigation devices and the distraction that comes from phone calls to the bridge, logbook entries and, yes, sometimes the call of Facebook updates streaming into a cell phone.

We do not know why the mate on watch missed the pre-assigned turn, maybe it wasn’t laid out on the chart in the first place or maybe the Captain ignored the course line, we don’t know, but the turn was missed.

A classic failure of bridge resource management and crew training.
The Second Fatal Mistake

Slow down!

We hear those words everyday, but in our cars and at work, may of us ignore them. Moving fast is ok most of the time, but not when you’re in trouble. Once the turn was missed the ship should have slowed down. This is not a simple task on a 114,147 ton moving object, it requires backing down on engines and can result in uncomfortable motions that would disturb the passengers.

But it’s essential.

Once the turn was made the ship should have slowed down. But it didn’t.
The Middle

Many mistakes were made during the next few minutes but none of them fatal. Cruise ships run into rocks and reefs on a semi-frequent basis (it happened just last week here in the US) and most people survive. Even aboard the Titanic, there was enough time to save most lives if enough lifeboats had been available. Mistakes happen. The captain could have sent out a distress signal, he could have loaded all the lifeboats and taken a number of other positive actions, but I believe those actions would not likely have saved many lives..

The most critical factor in disasters is time. Time slows down in the mind of those witnessing disaster, but the real clock, the one on the wall, keeps ticking. Only so much can be done and the captain himself can give nothing but orders.
The Third Fatal Mistake

One hour and twenty five minutes after the point when the Costa Concordia missed that first critical turn she ran aground on the beach of Giglio island and, in doing so, the third – and possibly most fatal – mistake was made.

A slowly sinking ship that’s relatively stable and close to shore is not intrinsically dangerous. Yes, you want to get the passengers off before she sinks but you still have time to preform the rescue. What is dangerous is a listing ship!

When a ship lists past 5 degrees she becomes exceedingly dangerous (check out this video). The smooth steel decks turn into slides that propel equipment and people down it at a high rate of speed. It’s common practice to beach a sinking ship for two reasons. First, it brings the ship closer to shore allowing people to swim to safety (which they in fact did in this case) and limits the time of those who jump overboard from being in the cold water. Second, grounding the ship prevents her from sinking which can allow you more time to rescue those stuck inside her damaged hull.

Some even praise Captain Schettino for running the Costa Concordia aground, but this decision was flawed.

When a ship is grounded to prevent her from sinking, the typical maneuver is to point her bow toward a sandy point on the charge and drive her ahead. This was not possible here because the ship had lost propulsion. Instead the ship was driven by thrusters (or current, the facts remain unclear) sideways toward the beach. When the keel hit bottom her 114,147 tons of steel continued to have momentum but, because she was moving sideways (all sway with very little surge or yaw), the momentum didn’t propel her further onto the beach, rather it seems to have caused her top-heavy build to “trip over itself”.

The ship’s stability was already reduced by the free communication of water into the ship at the area of damage. Grounding reduced the stability further. When the keel touched bottom the center of gravity moved from inside the ship down to the keel. Just watch a toy ship in the bath as you let out the water… once the toy ship’s keel touches the bottom of the tub the ship tilts over.

Why does a ship list to starboard when all her damage is on the port side? This could have been caused by emergency ballasting procedures (pumping water into the starboard side to compensate for the water entering to port) but the more likely answer is that by grounding her starboard-side-to the beach the ship’s momentum pulled her over to starboard.

This was the most critical mistake!
Cougar Ace

Listing Car Carrier Cougar Ace

In 2006 the massive car carrier Cougar Ace grounded on rocks in a remote section of Alaska. The damage was extensive but all crew members were able to escape to safety. A fatality did happen, as Joshua Davis so eloquently discovered in his article about the disaster, but not for days after the incident. The death did not occur in the storm or escape from the ship, it happened in calm seas when a salvage expert accidentally skid down her heavily listed decks.

Heavy lists aboard ships are dangerous and, in this case, could likely have been avoided if, rather than beaching the ship, Captain Schettino had anchored her in close proximity to the shore.