Maritime Carol

The biggest single enemy to a safe ship is an unsafe ship. The difference between a safe ship and an unsafe ship is the operator. Once a ship is safe the operator can move onwards knowing that he/she has done everything that needs to be done. This isn't about paperwork, its about lives and people. The Maritime Operator Safety System means the operator must take control & understand their ship. Many operators are doing just that and are proud to have a fully compliant vessel.  If you are one of them or are well on the way to becoming compliant - well done, you can now move onto to other things.

For over five years I was the Vessel & Volunteer Manager at Voyager NZ Maritime Museum located at Downtown Auckland, NZ.  Under my care were three very different vessels: a scow, a square rigged brigantine and NZ's oldest steam boat.     Crew were all volunteers aged from 16-80yrs old, some coming from long maritime careers, others totally new to the sea.   My role, amongst other things, was to create the training manuals from raw materials (crew verbals, notes etc)   Because of the huge variety of skill sets, the manuals needed to be comprehensive and full of pictures to explain our way of doing things safely.   These manuals seem to take forever to create and often just when you think it is right, somebody points out something that needs to be changed and so it goes on and on, and even then they are living documents, so always ready to be updated.  I must've got them right because this is what one of the Mates emailed me: "Carol, I'm reall...

Voyage 52 was a bad trip.    Thirty eight years ago, we were still in the dark ages.   Masters were often tyrants and had to be obeyed at all costs.  Adventure and tourism were uncommon and the maritime industry was a totally different place to work in than it is today.   We departed Marsden Wharf heading for ten days at sea.  The engineer was my former husband.  I was cook. (second and third left). It was rough around Kawau Island and when a gust caused the ship to heel over, green water came in the scuppers and washed along the deck.  One trainee was swept along with it and hit the railing at full force.    Yow.... Katie was a sore girl.  She was assisted to her bunk where she stayed until the First Mate finally convinced the Captain that she needed medical assistance.  It took a few days.      It was a rattly ambulance that took her and I up to Auckland Hospital.   Katie's ribs were cracked...