Any vessel that experiences flooding of one or more of its compartments is exposed to the risk of losing its stability and thus the risk of sinking. Collision and grounding are considered to be the most relevant accident scenarios that may cause flooding of ships, and will thus be the topic of this course.
Even though a lot of effort is constantly being made to keep vessels safe and measures are always taken to avoid serious accidents, one can never completely eliminate the probability of a serious accident to occur on board a ship. If an incident takes place, one can try to prevent it from evolving into a serious accident by for example intentionally beaching a ship that is taking in water and thus keep it from sinking. If such measures fail however, an evacuation provides a last opportunity to minimize the consequences of the accident by reducing the number of fatalities. In such situations, the evacuation performance will be very important and an orderly and timely evacuation can save the lives of many people on board.
This course is designed to provide delegates with an up-to-date knowledge and skills on marine hazards prevention and control in general and collision, grounding and flooding in particular. It covers the marine hazards; distress and salvage; fire-fighting; static electricity and security; shipboard systems and ship’s equipment; ship damage control and salvage; management of safety and emergencies; enclosed spaces; shipboard operations; carriage and storage of hazardous materials; human element considerations; special ship types; safety and fire protection; emergency preparedness and evacuation; communications and mooring; precautions on ship and terminal during cargo handling; and safety management.
The course presents probabilities of collision and grounding and investigates possible events subsequent to an incident, e.g. possibilities of flooding, sinking and capsizing, expected time to sink, etc. Evacuations in case of collision and grounding are also covered and the consequences are estimated in terms of expected loss of lives.