Merchant Vessels Research Articles

Food hygiene knowledge and awareness among undergraduate maritime students.

Reducing the crew size of the galley department on merchant vessels causes heavy workload for the remaining food handlers on board. This situation in return, could trigger risky behaviours and create an unsanitary environment which can facilitate the spread of various gastrointestinal disorders on ships. In such cases, ensuring and supervising food hygiene and food safety on board is up to maritime captains and officers. In addition to that, each crew member on board should maintain a general awareness of food hygiene to prevent any outbreaks. However, these personnel's knowledge and awareness to prevent such risky behaviours and cases are questionable. In this context, this study aims to examine food hygiene knowledge as well as awareness among maritime students. A survey has been conducted to discover the risky behaviours seen on merchant vessels regarding food hygiene. Specified training needs to achieve food safety culture on merchant vessels are discussed. The study was conducted by proposing an anonymous questionnaire to undergraduate students of maritime faculties in Turkey. The questionnaire form was adapted from the previous works of Grappasonni et al., Walker et al. and Alpuguz et al. This questionnaire examines the basic attitudes towards food hygiene and risky behaviours among seafarers. Convenience sampling technique was adopted, and 251 Turkish participants have joined the study. Foodborne disease knowledge among maritime students was determined to be low especially for disease recognition. They have failed to identify characteristics and symptoms of food borne diseases. There were also serious misconceptions of which behaviours are considered risky regarding food hygiene. A knowledge gap was observed in cross-contamination, food temperature control, and food storage condition subjects. Some of these, such as high-risk foods and adequate storage of foods should be common knowledge for all personnel on board. It is also revealed that food hygiene awareness of many maritime students was limited to environmental hygiene and food handlers' hygiene. Food hygiene appears to be an underrated problem on board, yet it is one of the major health problems in the maritime industry threatening the seafarers. Promoting food safety culture and food hygiene knowledge in maritime students could be a key factor to tackle this problem. Development of standardised health and disease training for seafarers should be considered.

Introduction by the Editorial Board - Piracy

Already in the seventeenth century and still in this day and age, piracy plundering is a highly damaging criminal act that is hard to prevent through law enforcement because of several international legal issues. Recently, especially the prevention tactic of armed on-board protection of merchant vessels is often discussed. We invited guest editors from Denmark and the Netherlands with expertise on the issue to form their on-going comparative efforts on this subject within Europe into a coherent special issue. Our approach is to focus on a number of crosscutting issues that illustrate the legal considerations and dilemmas at hand and provide opportunities to reflect and discuss overall questions associated with the use of on-board protection. Those cross-cutting issues are interrelated and overlapping; it is our belief that they lead us to questions of universal interest. Of course, we take into account the fact that the country reports encompassed in this special issue represent a small but at the same time diverse sample from the total number of flag states that allow armed guards.

CONCEPTUAL SCHEME FOR ENSURING THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY PRINCIPLE IN MODERN CONTAINER FLEET

As a result of the analysis of the modern merchant fleet, indicators have been revealed of an increase in the size of modern merchant vessels, which affects the overall energy efficiency. It should be noted a significant increase in the container fleet, namely, not only an increase in the number of vessels themselves, but also an increase in the average carrying capacity by almost 2.8 times. As a result, emissions to the atmosphere have also increased due to a significant increase in ship propulsion power and fuel consumption. This is due to the specifics of container traffic, namely for the rapid transportation of goods from port A to port B, for which container ships often move in all weather conditions with maximum speed, respectively, fuel consumption is enormous compared to other types of ships. Despite the fact that the goods must be delivered as soon as possible and without delay, in practice, due to the lack of effective feedback between all participants in the transportation process, this is not always possible. The inefficiency of feedback leads to wasteful resources, which in turn increases the financial costs of the shipowner by increasing fuel consumption. It also reduces the energy efficiency of the ship and increasing emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Considering the experience of the giants of maritime transport such as MAERSK, MSC, CMA CGM, it is possible to see that all participants in the process are single unit and interested in maximum efficiency of transportation. Containers of smaller companies that do not own their terminals often face ineffective feedback and are not able to influence the situation. The conceptual scheme proposed in the article should increase the efficiency of feedback between the vessel charter and the port, which, in turn, will increase the efficiency of sea freight. Constant access to information about the situation in the port will make it possible to avoid unnecessary delays of the ship.

Wave-induced flexural response of idealized non-uniform hull girder in random seas

The aim is to analyze the wave-induced vertical vibration of a non-prismatic mathematical hull in a stochastic sea, by normal mode analysis. The hull has been generated mathematically, to represent two distinct Indian merchant vessels: DS (Tanker) and SCIM (Containership). The body-plan, deck waterline, bow and stern profiles, have been modeled as semi-superellipses. These render non-uniform distributions of mass and stiffness over the ship-length. The energy-based Rayleigh–Ritz method has been used to analyze the idealized hull girder natural frequencies and modeshapes. The non-uniform beam modeshape is a weighted series sum of prismatic beam-free vibration modeshapes. The 2D added mass of superelliptic sections is formulated, solving the radiation boundary value problem by the constant strength source distribution method. The hull girder is subject to the Pierson–Moskowitz sea spectrum in fully loaded condition. The diffraction force is formulated through the Khaskind’s relations. The flexural response of the girder is evaluated by the modal superposition method. The response spectra have been generated for various sea states and ship speeds. The magnitudes of the maximum flexural/shear stress for each vessel are generated. The probability of shear/tensile failure is also estimated, giving insights into the hull structural design.

Microplastics in marine sediments in the area of Pianosa Island (Central Adriatic Sea)

We investigated the occurrence of plastic contamination in sediments collected in the area of Pianosa Island (Adriatic Sea). In November 2015, 20 sediment samples were collected at depth varying between 119 and 142 m. At the laboratory, plastic debris in samples were weighted, measured and classified into dimensional groups, and categorized according to shape. Polymer types were identified using FT-IR analysis. All sediment samples contained plastics. In terms of numerical abundance, microplastics accounted for 64.4% of the total amount found. Filaments (66%) were the most common shape category. Identification through FT-IR spectroscopy evidenced the presence of 6 polymer types. Considering abundance, the majority of plastic debris were nylon (53.2%), followed by polyethylene (18%). By weight, polyethylene (61.4%) was the most represented polymer type, followed by polypropylene (19.6%). Because the distance from the coast, we hypothesize that plastics could be originated from marine-based sources including fishing vessels, merchant vessels and recreational boats.

Performance Characterization of GNSS/IMU/DVL Integration under Real Maritime Jamming Conditions.

Currently Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) are the primary source for the determination of absolute position, navigation, and time (PNT) for merchant vessel navigation. Nevertheless, the performance of GNSSs can strongly degrade due to space weather events, jamming, and spoofing. Especially the increasing availability and adoption of low cost jammers lead to the question of how a continuous provision of PNT data can be realized in the vicinity of these devices. In general, three possible solutions for that challenge can be seen: (i) a jamming-resistant GNSS receiver; (ii) the usage of a terrestrial backup system; or (iii) the integration of GNSS with other onboard navigation sensors such as a speed log, a gyrocompass, and inertial sensors (inertial measurement unit—IMU). The present paper focuses on the third option by augmenting a classical IMU/GNSS sensor fusion scheme with a Doppler velocity log. Although the benefits of integrated IMU/GNSS navigation system have been already demonstrated for marine applications, a performance evaluation of such a multi-sensor system under real jamming conditions on a vessel seems to be still missing. The paper evaluates both loosely and tightly coupled fusion strategies implemented using an unscented Kalman filter (UKF). The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using the civilian maritime jamming testbed in the Baltic Sea.

Holocene evolution of Portus Pisanus, the lost harbour of Pisa

The ancient harbour of Pisa, Portus Pisanus, was one of Italy’s most influential seaports for many centuries. Nonetheless, very little is known about its oldest harbour and the relationships between environmental evolution and the main stages of harbour history. The port complex that ensured Pisa’s position as an economic and maritime power progressively shifted westwards by coastal progradation, before the maritime port of Livorno was built in the late 16th century AD. The lost port is, however, described in the early 5th century AD as being “a large, naturally sheltered embayment” that hosted merchant vessels, suggesting an important maritime structure with significant artificial infrastructure to reach the city. Despite its importance, the geographical location of the harbour complex remains controversial and its environmental evolution is unclear. To fill this knowledge gap and furnish accurate palaeoenvironmental information on Portus Pisanus, we used bio- and geosciences. Based on stratigraphic data, the area’s relative sea-level history, and long-term environmental dynamics, we established that at ~200 BC, a naturally protected lagoon developed and hosted Portus Pisanus until the 5th century AD. The decline of the protected lagoon started at ~1350 AD and culminated ~1500 AD, after which time the basin was a coastal lake.

Use of HFACS and fault tree model for collision risk factors analysis of icebreaker assistance in ice-covered waters

With the global warming and a large amount of sea ice melting, the available Arctic Sea Route has greatly enhanced the value of Arctic shipping. Ship operations under icebreaker assistance have become an essential way to facilitate the safe navigation of merchant vessels sailing through the Arctic Sea Route in ice-covered waters, but they can also put the crew and the ship in danger caused by a possible collision between the assisted ship and the icebreaker. In this paper, a dedicated Human and Organizational Factors (HoFs) model of ship collision accidents between an assisted ship and an icebreaker is developed and analyzed with the aim to identify and classify collision risk factors. First, a modified model of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) for collision accidents between a ship and an icebreaker in ice-covered waters is proposed, which helps to analyze ship collision reports. Then, a Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) model is utilized to analyze the fundamental collision risk factors according to the statistical analysis of accident reports and expert judgments based on the HFACS-SIBCI model. Finally, qualitative analysis is carried out to analyze collision risk factors under icebreaker assistance, where Risk Control Options (RCOs) are formulated. An important guidance for the risk control of ship collisions during icebreaker assistance in ice-covered waters is provided for lawmakers and shipping companies.

Towards the development of a system-theoretic model for safety assessment of autonomous merchant vessels

As the initiatives to develop and implement autonomous merchant vessels into the global shipping industry are gaining momentum, their safety remains in the spotlight. It is argued that every effort shall be taken to ensure that the safety of maritime transportation is not reduced in the process, but the question of how to achieve it remains open. Meanwhile, the systemic approach is more widely being used to analyse innovative systems’ safety. We therefore apply a System-Theoretic Process Analysis to develop a model suitable for safety analysis and design recommendations’ elaboration for future autonomous vessels. Furthermore, we introduce a method of evaluating and communicating uncertainties pertaining to the method. The results indicate that the system-theoretic safety analysis’ outcome can be affected by manageable uncertainties despite the fact that the system in question is yet to be implemented.

Near-miss density map for safe navigation of ships

The purpose of the present study was to identify ship near-miss areas and determine the relative densities of the areas. The findings were used to develop a near-miss density map for safe ship navigation and the prevention of collision between passing ships. This study used big data of merchant vessel and fishing boat location for 1 year in 2014. The databases were interpolated using a time unit of seconds to extract near-misses between ships based on data for exactly the same time. Furthermore, to determine near-misses, the distance and time to closest point of approach were calculated for different pairs of approaching ships. The near-miss density of each grid of the map was depicted by means of the RGB color code. The concept was validated by using it to depict the distributions of actual collision accident locations that occurred in the southern coastal sea of Korea between 1997 and 2016. The highest near-miss area was found to be in the approach of Busan Port, where actual collision accidents also occurred most frequently. The results showed that 73.3% of the near-misses in the study area involved fishing boats. In addition, out of the 25 collisions that actually occurred in the study area in 2014, 19 (76.0%) were related to fishing boats, and this was reflected by the map developed in the present study. The findings of the study can be used to develop a special near-miss density nautical chart for use as a navigation safety material by deck officers. Such chart would facilitate the exercise of precaution in passing through dangerous areas.

Shipyard Block Logistics Simulation Using Process-centric Discrete Event Simulation Method

In recent years, shipyards have conducted various studies to accurately investigate their production capacities and improve the accuracy of their production plans. Nevertheless, frequent delays in schedules inevitably occur at production sites. Simulation-based techniques are used in various fields to solve similar problems, especially those related to predicting loads on facilities and upgrading production planning by considering various constraints. Process-centric simulation modeling techniques are used in shipyards because the shipbuilding process has different characteristics from the general manufacturing process. Conventional resource-oriented modeling techniques are inadequate to construct a simulation model to analyze the logistical behavior of shipyards. In this study, a process-oriented simulation modeling method is applied and improved through the identification and development of additional modules needed to simulate the behavior of shipyard logistics. The core of the simulation is improved using a logistic token that can analyze the physical movement effected by each process. Moreover, such process modeling modules as the geographic information system, the route search module, and the spatial arrangement module are developed and integrated into one solution. 1. Introduction The shipbuilding industry in South Korea was affected by the recent global financial crisis. It has since suffered from a decline in global freight volume that has led to massive losses in all areas of commercial shipping and offshore plants since 2010. The shipbuilding industry in South Korea, especially large shipbuilders, received a large number of orders by competing in the market while reorganizing its business structure around the growth of offshore plants. This move was prompted by the flooding by Chinese shipbuilders of the local market with general merchant vessels (Fig. 1), as well as by prospects for the growing offshore plants' market due to crude oil depletion and high oil prices. However, the industry has suffered astronomical deficits in recent years due to unexpected losses, and the three major shipbuilders in South Korea are experiencing high operating loss and debt-to-equity ratio (Fig. 2), leading to fears of insolvency. Additional losses are expected due to large backlogs in orders for offshore plants.

The Political Cost-Effectiveness of Private Vessel Protection: The Italian Case

Italy has traditionally been wary of private providers of security. Still, private military and security companies (PMSCs) have recently started to play an important role in protecting Italian merchant vessels, eventually replacing the military vessel protection detachment units (VPDs) provided by the Italian Navy. Drawing on neoclassical realism, the increasing involvement of PMSCs in protecting Italian merchant ships is presented as an attempt to reduce the political costs associated with the use of military personnel abroad, epitomised by the arrest of two Italian Navy fusiliers by Indian authorities in February 2012.

A method for uncertainty assessment and communication in safety-driven design - a case study of unmanned merchant vessel

A method for uncertainty assessment and communication in safety-driven design - a case study of unmanned merchant vessel

System-theoretic approach to safety of remotely-controlled merchant vessel

Unmanned merchant vessels' prototypes are expected to come into operation within a few years. This revolutionary shift in the shipping industry is feared to negatively impact the safety of maritime transportation. Therefore, in order to support future designers of remotely operated merchant vessels system, we applied System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA), identifying the most likely safety control structure of the analysed system and investigating it. The aim was to suggest potential ways of increasing the system's safety and to assess the effectiveness of such measures. Results indicate that the implementation of remotely-controlled merchant vessels and, in a wider sense, unmanned ships, and ensuring their safety shall consist of executing various controls on regulatory, organisational and technical plains. Potential effectiveness is evaluated and some recommendations are given on how to ensure the safety of such systems.

The Hull of Yenikapı Shipwreck YK 11: a 7th‐century merchant vessel from Constantinople's Theodosian Harbour

The Hull of Yenikapı Shipwreck YK 11: a 7th‐century merchant vessel from Constantinople's Theodosian Harbour

Operation ballast water of commercial vessels in Port of Tanjung Emas Semarang

The commercial vessel uses sea water to stabilty a vessel when the vessel is not loading a cargo. The water stabilized for the vessel is known as ballast water. The activity of loading the ballast water for the ship from origin port and dissposal to the distination port has caused impact on spreading the unidenfied organism the local port. Aim of the study to determine disposal value of water ballast either from a foreign merchant vessel or domestic merchant vessel so that Port of Tanjung Emas Semarang (PTES) is able to determine a policy on ballast administration from merchant vessel include a data of Arrival and Departure Report of the Vessels (ADRV) documents for the last five years (2009-2014). Disposal ballast water of domestic vessel to PTES is average about 37,036 m3 and increased by 76.68% in a year. Yearly ballast water disposed from the foreign commercial vessels has reached 576.045 m3 for the last 5 years. The increasing of ballast water is about 122.19%. Level of vunerability on the PTES waters is due to ballast water dissposal caused mainly from foreign commercial vessels. The PTES administration should provide water reservoir and and water ballast treatment of commercial vessels which has 51,090 m3/per month or 81,744 kl/month.

The Influence of “Prejudice” on Watch-keeping: “Collision Cases between Fishing Vessels and Power Driven Vessels except Fishing Vessels”

There are many cases when a fishing skipper dies by a collision between a fishing vessels and a merchant vessel. Act on Preventing Collision at Sea require vessels to keep a proper lookout at all times. However, as fishing vessels can't always employ an Officer of the Watch(OOW), bad lookouts are the cause of many collisions.

Considerations regarding the use of rigid sails on modern powered ships

The global shipping fleet is vital to world trade with billions of tonnes of cargo being transported annually by merchant vessels. This activity however results in large volumes of carbon emissions...

Reliability Assessment of Main Engine Subsystems Considering Turbocharger Failure as a Case Study

Safe operation of a merchant vessel is dependent on the reliability of the vessel’s main propulsion engine. Reliability of the main propulsion engine is interdependent on the reliability of several subsystems including lubricating oil system, fuel oil system, cooling water system and scavenge air system. Turbochargers form part of the scavenge sub system and play a vital role in the operation of the main engine. Failure of turbochargers can lead to disastrous consequences and immobilisation of the main engine. Hence due consideration need to be given to the reliability assessment of the scavenge system while assessing the reliability of the main engine. This paper presents integration of Markov model (for constant failure components) and Weibull failure model (for wearing out components) to estimate the reliability of the main propulsion engine. This integrated model will provide more realistic and practical analysis. It will serve as a useful tool to estimate the reliability of the vessel’s main propulsion engine and make efficient and effective maintenance decisions. A case study of turbocharger failure and its impact on the main engine is also discussed.

Quantitative analysis of the impact of fishing ship traffic streams on traffic streams of merchant vessels in Polish maritime areas

Quantitative analysis of the impact of fishing ship traffic streams on traffic streams of merchant vessels in Polish maritime areas