Due to the recent increase in incidents of deck cargoes shifting in heavy weather the London P&I Club has announced its support for a recommendation to appoint a warranty surveyor.
The surveyor will supervise high-risk marine construction and transportation project operations where necessary.
Paul Walton, director of international marine consultant LOC (Hong Kong) said: ‘The attendance of an MWS will ensure that the regular areas of failure within a deck stow such as poor lashing equipment, insufficient use of lashing equipment, and non-compliance with all relevant safety codes will be avoided.’
He elaborated that in the past year the LOC has seen many deck cargoes shifting in heavy weather. Upon further investigation it has been discovered that the stowage and securing of these cargoes did not comply with the ship’s Cargo Securing Manual (CSM) or the practices laid down within the Code of Safe Practice for Cargo Stowage and Securing (CSS Code) or other applicable codes of safe practice.
‘Such losses have prompted the view that a suitably qualified Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS) should be recommended to attend such load-outs. This would ensure that the port captain or supercargo carries out the operation correctly, and that the master is satisfied with the stowage, securing and tensioning requirements, as is his responsibility under SOLAS.’
Reducing the risks
An MWS provides independent third-party technical review and approval of high-value and high-risk marine construction and transportation project operations starting at the planning stage. The objective of employing such a surveyor is to ensure that the risks associated with the specified operations are reduced to an acceptable level in accordance with best industry practice. The role of the MWS is independent of that of the port captain, supercargo.
