Contrary to what the Colregs prescribe, a drifting vessel was using a laser light to attract the attention of another vessel as a close quarters situation was developing. In a new Mars Report, The Nautical Institute describes the incident and stresses the right ways to attract another vessel’s attention.
The Nautical Institute gathers reports of maritime accidents and near-misses. It then publishes these so-called Mars (Mariners’ Alerting and Reporting Scheme) Reports (anonymously) to prevent other accidents from happening. This is one of these reports.
Vessel A was undertaking exercises in darkness and, as such, was restricted in its ability to manoeuvre. The vessel was displaying the lights appropriate for this situation. Crew detected a nearby drifting vessel. It was indicating, via its lights, that it was not under command (NUC). The drifting vessel also had deck and accommodation lights, which obscured its sidelights.
As vessel A closed on the drifting vessel, at about 0.6 nm, a green laser was seen shining into its bridge coming from the drifting vessel. The crew contacted the drifting vessel to inform them to stop this practice.
Fortunately, at the time of the lasering, no one on Vessel A’s bridge was looking at the other vessel through binoculars and so the risk of an ocular injury was avoided. At no time did the NUC vessel attempt to use their signal lamp or ship’s horn in accordance with the collision regulations.
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Advice from The Nautical Institute
- Lasering another vessel to attract their attention is not advisable. Not only can this cause eye injuries, it is also a particularly inefficient method of attracting attention.
- The collision regulations (Colregs) call for five or more short blasts of the ship’s horn to indicate to another vessel that there is danger and to attract their attention.
- The vessel’s Aldis lamp or searchlight can also be used to attract the attention of another bridge team.
- A drifting vessel is considered underway and should be ready to act according to the Colregs. In this case it is unknown if the drifting vessel was well and truly NUC (i.e. some exceptional circumstance made it unable to manoeuvre as required by the Colregs). Nonetheless, it is unacceptable to indicate NUC status to ‘exempt’ a drifting vessel from the onus of manoeuvring as per the Colregs.
- The use of a laser to attract attention was also noted in Mars Report 202244.
Mars Reports
This accident was covered in the Mars Reports, originally published as Mars 202533. A selection of the Mars Reports are also published in the SWZ|Maritime magazine. The Nautical Institute compiles these reports to help prevent maritime accidents. That is why they are also published (in full) on SWZ|Maritime’s website.
More reports are needed to keep the scheme interesting and informative. All reports are read only by the Mars coordinator and are treated in the strictest confidence. To submit a report, please use the Mars report form.
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