Final remarks on decision making

There is no general rule to take decisions in case of a ship in distress, weather circumstances, type of ship, season, availability of safe haven, compensation, all play a role.

Some statements however can be made about the decision-making.

• Any ship in a distress situation should be brought under control as soon as possible primarily by the crew itself and secondarily by external assistance from shore.

• If the distress situation is under control or almost under control the ship should precede towards a port as soon as possible and have necessary repair works carried out.

• As long as the situation is not under control one should focus on measures that do not increase the seriousness of the situation (fire, cargo problem, leakage, etc.) or take measures that minimize the impact. Sensitive areas should be avoided in case of (potential) pollution. Near coast should be avoided in case of toxic or explosive gas releases in case of fire or cargo problems.

• The stability of a ship/deck cargo could be influenced on the sailing, wind and current directions. Sailing could increase fire; deck cargo could get unstable in transversely waves.

• A distress situation that runs out of control could finally result in a major pollution and even in a sunken ship.

• The deeper the water the ship sinks in the more complex and expensive a salvage operation will be. Therefore it should always be tried to get a ship with potential risk of sinking into shallow waters. But first of all: it should never sink.

• In case of release of heavy oil and other persistent substances, the length of coastline polluted is determined by the distance from the coast downwind the pollutant’s position. It therefore should always be tried to have such releases as close to the coast as possible. As the tidal current normally is more or less perpendicular to the coastline this will not have any influence on this

• In case of release of light oils and volatile and/or soluble substances the pollution damage normally will be less if the release takes place further away from the coastline, out at sea to a place with low sensitivity.

• Maybe it is safe to leave the vessel where it sank, under conditions that is and you need to identify those conditions).