15 findings identified during a vessel inspection

15 findings identified during a vessel inspection. Only 2 logged on paper.
The right approach, or the wrong one?

This was a charterer’s inspection. The Captain knew the boarding time, the inspector’s name, the scope, and what to prepare, because the inspector had sent it all across before boarding. Like an exam where the question paper arrives a little before the day. The purpose was never to catch anyone out.

Coming up the gangway, the first thing the inspector did was stop and ask the watchkeeper how they were doing and how life was on board. No rank asked for. Nobody summoned. Just a conversation.

Then in the ship’s office an agreement was made, one seafarer to another. Anything found that the crew could rectify prior to completion of the inspection would not go into the report. Every finding would be discussed together before anything went on paper, and the inspector would guide the crew towards a solution for each one.

You could feel the crew’s morale change on that agreement.

That morning the engineer had run the routine test on the freefall lifeboat engine, and one of its two batteries had failed. The Master raised it himself at the opening meeting, before anyone had the chance to find it. By 15:00 the replacement was on board, fitted and tested to the satisfaction of the attending inspector.

At the same meeting the crew mentioned a smoke sensor above the incinerator that was not working. The inspector would never have known. Their plan was already made, inform their classification society and flag state, and keep fire watches until the repair. That is exactly how it went into the report, an open finding with their own plan beside it.

By sailing, 13 of the 15 findings were closed on board. Nothing was hidden. Everything was either fixed or on paper.
And when the inspector left, so many of the crew came to the gangway to see them off. Usually one person comes, if at all.

An inspector doing this kind of work does around 100 inspections a year. Imagine what changes on board when every one of them begins with a second chance.