Cargo Securing Manual For Container Ship
Board the ship for the correct application to and the securing of cargo units, containers. Cargo securing equipment to the ship. CARGO SECURING MANUAL FOR. CARGO SECURING MANUAL. There should be a sufficient quantity of reserve cargo securing devices on board the ship. Container fittings. Cargo securing manual. Person responsible for cargo securing in the container is the person loading and/or sealing the container. This Cargo Securing Manual.
Regulations VI/5 and VII/6 of the 1974 SOLAS Convention as amended require cargo units and cargo transport units to be loaded, stowed and secured throughout the voyage in accordance with a Cargo Securing Manual (CSM) approved by the Flag State Administration and drawn up to a standard at least equivalent to the guidelines developed by the International Maritime Organisation. The Flag State Authority should stamp the front page of a CSM with an approval stamp that reads along the lines: 'Cargo Securing Manual approved in accordance with Reg.5, Chapters VI/VII SOLAS Convention. Contents of CSM have been found to be in accordance with the conditions and requirements as described in IMO MSC Circ.745'.
However, the degree to which reliance can be placed on the fact that a CSM is approved by the Flag State may be somewhat undermined by caveats set out in the wording of the approval stamp. For example: 'Completeness of securing devices on board the ship has not been verified against provisions in the CSM. Master responsible for completeness and satisfactory condition of the respective equipment and for adequacy of the CSM concerning the type of cargo carried'. There is no point in having an approved CSM if it does not agree with what is physically possibly on the ship. Therefore, a CSM needs to be tailored to meet the specific needs of a ship.
For a vessel carrying freight containers the following are suggested:. CSM should not be too complex;. Lashing arrangements should not be given without the necessary portable and fixed equipment being available on board; and. Restrict the number of stowage and securing arrangements to the practical operation of the vessel Related to the need to tailor the vessel's CSM is the risk of inaccurate or insufficient information on container weights and stowage plans provided by ship planners. This may be a result of a mistake or lack of knowledge or inexperience on the part of the planner or simply the conflict of having to resolve the problem of an impossible stow or, indeed, to accommodate containers that arrive late for shipment as against the vessel's requirements.
Ship Cargo Containers For Sale
This may lead to problems such as incorrectly declared container weights, heavy containers being loaded over lighter containers, stack weights and permissible limits being exceeded and wrongly calculated stability. At worst, these issues may lead to the vessel becoming unseaworthy. It is, of course, good ship's practice not to allow loading operations to commence without receipt of a proposed stowage plan or, at least, a stowage plan for those containers about to be worked.
Cargo Securing Equipment
This plan must then be checked against the ship's computer loading/lashing programme and/or CSM to ensure that permissible limits are not exceeded. An inspection of the stowage plan should then reveal instances of heavy containers being loaded over lighter containers and the necessary changes to be made in the loading/lashing operation. However, wrongly declared container weights are difficult if not impossible to identify. The only guard is vigilance on the part of the ship's crew in terms of adequate supervision of loading.
If feasible, loaded containers should be cross-checked against the stowage plan and computer programmes and the CSM used to ensure that the ship's requirements are being complied with. Masters should record any instances of overloading or defective stowage and immediately report any such defects to the vessel owner. Where appropriate, notes of protest should be issued to charterers and/or the terminal. In extreme cases it may be appropriate to refuse to load additional containers until any overloading or defective stow is corrected. However, there is a fine line between what constitutes a reasonable or an unreasonable request for changes in the loading and lashing programme or a refusal to continue loading, as well as difficult issues as to when a Master ought to interfere in a planned stow of containers. See Steamship Mutual website article If the Master is wrong, he may invite claims for delay or off hire, or risk sailing with an unseaworthy ship. In extreme cases expert advice should be sought at the earliest possible opportunity.
With thanks to Jim Chubb of BMT Murray Fenton Limited for preparing this article.