The Impact of Ship Crews on Maritime Safety (2013)
Berg, Nora; Storgård, Jenni; Lappalainen Jouni
University of Turku, Centre for Maritime Studies
Modern shipping is a highly international, multicultural and technological industry with strong demands on economic efficiency and profitability.
The ship crews are multinational and a growing number of crewmembers come from emerging seafaring nations, such as the Philippines and China. Despite advances in technology, some 80 % of all accidents are, according to studies, caused by human error. This literature review focuses on safety issues related to the crews and gives examples of what kinds of errors are the most common to happen. Intercultural cooperation, communication, fatigue and the language skills of a seafarer are the most important issues that contribute to maritime safety on the individual level. The results show that more training in understanding other cultures is needed. Also improvements in teaching English to seafarers are suggested. The final chapter presents possible information sources for studying crew competences in the Baltic Sea, which is a field of study not yet covered at all.
