Here’s the story if your day has been too full of good news and you need a palate cleanser.
When you are so greedy that you want to maintain and operate 183m long vessel with just 14 crewmembers. The other is no better.
These are not big vessels, but the crew of 14 is deffinitely not enough. Fatigue sets in almost at the beginning of contract and by the end, you are EXHAUSTED. Literally.
It is wonder this hasn’t happened before… oh wait…
Well… That depends. How much automation do these tankers have? (Automation with redundancy, if course).
I would be suprised if anything past some 1970’s DC sensors to be honest.
The ships are built by capitalists, theyre about as cheap as ships get
Yes, the tech on board is as cheap as it can possibly get. These are no state of the art ships. Nobody builds that for commercial transport. Some parts are even from dismantled ships… salvaged. I once, personally, took apart a 30 years old switch on a brand new ship (we were the second crew… ever).
However, crew shortages are DISASTEROUS today.
Let us take clear example of one crew complement of 14 people (this is just illustrative):
14 people / 2 departments (deck + engine) = 7 people per department.
Deck: 1 captain + 1 officer + 1 cargo guy + 3 crewmembers + 1 cook
Engine: 1 chief engineer + 1 engineer + 5 crewmembers
And this complement means that Captain/officer and chief engineer/engineer are keeping 6 hours on-6 hours off watch… that is already A KILLER job. Imagine having 3-6 months contract on that regime… IF you come back home you are malnourished, destroyed, exhausted and deranged. Lack of rest and sleep literally drives you mad. Even when you can sleep, these small ships are rocking like the rolercoaster, so you are again f…d.
Then, for any mooring operation, you need all crew… so, no sleep again…
Cargo operation is a nightmare from hell.
I’m not even going to go into maintenance area… with this crew complement, one guy goes to the toilet, you are left without 30% of the manpower and anything that even could be done - is delayed (not that much can be done with 3-4 men).
Whoever allowed such a small crew complement (looking at you IMO and classification societies) has NEVER EVER been at sea and I wish them all nothing but sea service until the end of their miserable lives.
Terrible tragedy that one man got lost (crews are today mostly asian and many cannot swim).
It is a global crime that cargo freights are on the rise (constantly), but the crews and their salaries are reduced.
PSA: Avoid drinking ocean water for a couple of weeks
All we’re missing is a nuclear submarine hitting the other two
“Global warming isn’t killing the fish fast enough, dump the cyanide!”
“However, one of the 14 crew members on the Portuguese-flagged Solong cargo ship is missing, the vessel’s owner Ernst Russ says.”
The Solong.
The universe is trolling us.
