Bridge Resource Management for Small Ships by Daniel S. Parrott

Author:Daniel S. Parrott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw Hill LLC
Published: 2011-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The True North and Fatigue

The True North grounded in a remote location on the northwest coast of Australia when the electronic chart system gave the captain a faulty picture of the vessel’s actual position. Radar, and possibly other sources, would have revealed the discrepancy, but the captain did not aggressively cross-reference the ECS picture. Investigators decided to analyze his work patterns to determine the role of fatigue in his performance. What they found was interesting, and it may say much about how fatigue creeps into everyday life unnoticed.

Like many smaller commercial vessels, the True North carried just two licensed watchkeepers, the captain and a mate. Naturally, the captain’s duties extended beyond his hours of watchkeeping and included socializing with passengers. By 2300, the time of the grounding, the captain had been active since 0600, with the exception of a break just prior to taking the watch at 2200. This is a long workday by any measure but not unheard of. The captain had been following a similar routine since taking command eight days earlier yet he testified that he had not felt tired when he took the watch. For a number of reasons, this statement is not surprising.

Though there is no universally accepted definition of fatigue, one study carried out by the Australian government in 2000 distinguished between tiredness, the ability to initiate sleep, and fatigue, which is based on the ability to maintain adequate job alertness. By these definitions, it would be possible to be fatigued without necessarily feeling ready for sleep. The captain’s remark also resurrects the question of objectivity in gauging your own condition. In fact, it is not uncommon to find a discrepancy between how people say they feel and the level of alertness they show when tested. A 1986 study of airline crews found that some individuals who had evaluated themselves as being at maximum alertness were actually falling asleep within 6 minutes.

As part of the True North investigation, the work-rest patterns of the captain were analyzed using fatigue audit software from the Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia, which generated a score based on several aspects of his recent work history. The scoring system was as follows:

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