Mike Compton
Mike Compton is the proproeter of Circlechief AP. He has written this column since 1976.
Email: mike@portsafety.demon.co.uk
Health & Safety
New safeguards for dockers Analysis
As an IMO correspondence group works to recommend changes to the organisation's Resolution on the subject of enclosed spaces on board ship, it is perhaps worth recapping what this subject means to cargo handlers and other shoreside employees concerned with cargo.Read More | 01 May 2010
When the wind blows Analysis
We know about the power of the sea but the power of the wind is sometimes hard to believe. When Typhoon Maemi hit Busan in 2003, the port found with that it was possible for the wind to lift container cranes out of their storm pin sockets, albeit by the highest wind speed ever experienced in that part of the world. There is now news of a container crane being blown over backwards in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific. I recall that in 1976 in the Dundalk Terminal in Baltimore, a container crane with its boom up was hit face on by a local Chesapeake Bay squall and collapsed on itself. But this new incident was with the boom down Ð or at least that is what a recently seen photograph shows.Read More | 01 May 2010
WhoÕs responsible for checking box tops? Analysis
Here is a very practical question for those involved in container terminal operations: Who in a terminal has the task of checking the tops of containers coming to the terminal, whether by land or by sea and, if there is such an arrangement, what are they checking for?Read More | 01 May 2010
Some advice on crane inspections Analysis
I wonder how many sharp eyes there were reading the last edition of Cargo Systems. In my article Learning from past mistakes, reference was made to ILO Convention 152 and its core requirement that lifting appliances should be thoroughly examined at least once in every 12 months. For ships' cranes this is supplemented by a test every five years and both these provisions should be reflected in national port state labour laws as well as flag state laws. Separately, in the same edition there was a most thoughtful article To spend or mend that examined the case for refurbishment of lifting appliances rather than replacement. In it, a visual inspection of critical areas of the crane was recommended should be undertaken once every six months, with additional NDT testing once every two years and, in addition, a total comprehensive structural inspection including internal inspection every five years.Read More | 01 May 2010
Learning from past mistakes Analysis
Accidents will always happen, but we should not keep repeating them. Mike Compton examines one case and considers what lessons should be learntRead More | 01 Mar 2010
Weighty issues must be addressed Analysis
Arising from the MSC Napoli report and supplemented by the MARIN research, under-declared weights of deck containers (or even over-declared weights) can affect the dynamics of the stow and the behaviour of the ship. In extreme cases when aboard in quantity they could affect the safety of the ship. Accordingly, much has been written recently on this subject.Read More | 01 Mar 2010
Proposals expected from three years of lashing research Analysis
Four years ago, three large container ships coming down the English Channel lost substantial numbers of containers off their aft end. This prompted concerns about the twistlocks used to secure them and also, coming as it did on top of other deck losses, wider concern about the whole question of deck stows. This was the genesis for the Dutch Government, together with the British and Swedish Maritime Administrations, classification societies, shipowners and lashing equipment manufacturers, to join together with the Maritime Research Institute of the Netherlands (MARIN) to launch the pioneering industry-wide Lashing@Sea project, aimed at investigating why containers are lost overboard.Read More | 01 Mar 2010
More Health & Safety
International efforts pay off Analysis
By the time that this column is being read, the IMO's provision for the mandatory training of shoreside personnel involved with packaged dangerous goods will have come into force.Read More | 01 Feb 2010
Safety first to minimise losses Analysis
As an insurance provider with more than 400 port and terminal customers globally, TT Club is well placed to provide advice on claim trends and loss prevention actions. Over the past four years it has analysed more than 2,000 asset damage claims.Read More | 01 Feb 2010
Progress on mooring guidance Analysis
Among the many activities that make up the successful operation of a terminal is the mooring/unmooring of ships.Read More | 01 Feb 2010
Icy questions raised by new shipping routes Analysis
Driven by the relentless search for hydrocarbons and gas, there is now considerable maritime activity in that most inhospitable area, the Arctic Ocean.Read More | 01 Feb 2010
