Proctor in Admiralty

Monitoring Email Usage

I have been terribly delinquent in posting and I am trying to be better but there never seems to be the time - I am therefore renewing my offer to anyone who wishes to post on maritime law and technology - please let me know as I would be pleased to offer up some space here for guest bloggers.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with my friend Irene Zanetos regarding my blog, and she sent me a link to an interesting article in Information Week magazine.  It surrounds the well known and often ignored fact that as we all type more and more emails, the amount of documentary evidence in any particular matter grows and grows.  The article discusses good document retention policies and tools/software for managing, archiving and locating email, plus the need to think before committing something in writing - something not enough of us do.

Thanks Irene for the heads-up and I will try to be better about posting more often!

Technology finds monster waves beyond estimates of computer models

Researchers aboard the RRS DISCOVERY experienced waves of up to 95 feet in height - the biggest waves ever recorded.  The scientists believe these waves are created by resonance where a storm builds energy into waves over the hours rather than by strong winds which are traditionally thought of the source for large waves.  You can read more about the findings of British National Oceanographic Center researchers aboard the RRS DISCOVERY here.

From an industry perspective, design of vessels able to withstand large waves may need to be reconsidered in the future   As a final note, waves of up to 95 feet give new meaning to so called heavy weather or force majure defenses.  It will be interesting to see the impact of this data on the maritime industry.

What happened to Equasis?

Update to post below: Equasis is back on line.  According to the US Coast Guard, Equasis was having a dispute with its hosting company.  It appears to be resolved and most importantly, Equasis is back online.  I also learned that the popularity of the service is growing all of the time.  I will try to get some statistics on this to report back.

What happened to Equasis, the online database of more that 7500 vessels around the world?  That is the question on the mind of many and I note the comments posted to my orignal entry on Equasis back in May, 2005.  That post is here. 

So far, I haven't been able to find out.  As many of you know, the website is down and they are not answering the telephone in the Equasis head office in Paris - I have called numerous times. 

I am trying to get an update from the US Coast Guard, one of the sponsors of the Equasis project and I will update all of you as soon as I have more information.

For those interested Equasis was an acronym for the European Quality Shipping Information System - I didn't know that until today!

Until more information is available,  if anyone knows of an alternate source of that great data available previously available on Equasis.org, please post a comment here. 

Decision in the TRICOLOR Case

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued an opinion as to the cause of the collision between the M/V KARIBA, a container vessel and the  M/V TRICOLOR, a car carrier which resulted in the sinking (with no loss of life) of the TRICOLOR in English Channel in December 2002.  In short, the Court found that the cause of the collision was solely the sudden turn of the KARIBA to starboard  in the close quarters of  a traffic separation scheme, to avoid a potential collision with the M/V CLARY which was tracking to be crossed by both the TRICOLOR and the KARIBA.

The opinion contains numerous references to the technological tools available to the Masters of the three vessels involved including ARPA, radio communications and fog signals,   Yet, despite all of the technology available, and perhaps because of the  misuse or non-use of those tools, human error raised its ugly head and this incident occurred.

Thanks  to Dennis Bryant and his Haight's Maritime Items for pointing out the issuance of this decision.

New Mediation Blog

I saw my former partner Bobby Glenn, of Hunter Maclean at the Welcome Reception for the Maritime Law Association of the United States fall meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.  He advised that he had started An Advocate for Mediation, a blog devoted to mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

Bobby is well suited to be blogging on this topic.  He has been heavily involved in the development of ADR usage and has served as the Chairman of the ADR committees of the State Bar of Georgia and the MLA.  He is often called upon to mediate complex cases and has developed an excellent reputation for getting the parties to resolution. 

I highly recommend checking out An Advocate for Mediation.

MLA Website and Technology Committee Meeting

The Website and Technology Committee of the Maritime Law Association of the United States will be meeting next week in Scottsdale, AZ.  If you are planning on attending the MLA meetings, please try to make it to this committee meeting if you can.  The agenda will include discussion of blogs and wikis and how they might be used by the Association's committees to communicate with its membership.

The meeting is on November 3 at 4pm in Salon 9 of the Fairmont Conference Center and is open to all MLA members registered for the Fall meeting.

The Maritime Homeland & Port Security Blog

I came across a blog that has been around for awhile but which I had missed until now.  The Maritime Homeland & Port Security Blog written by the folks at Wave Dispersion Technologies, Inc.  (WPT).  WPT develop products based on a technology they call WhisprWave which they describe as follows:

Since it's founding in 1995, Wave Dispersion Technologies, Inc. (WDT) has been developing the WhisprWave® floating articulated breakwater technology to afford erosion control protection to shoreline beaches, coastal marinas, anchorages, and other areas subject to destructive or nnoying erosionary wave / wake forces. The potential uses for the WhisprWave® Technology have, over the last few years, expanded far beyond its stricly environmentally focused beach and sand erosion protection beginnings to encompass marine port security and global antiterrorism applications.

You can read more about the WhisprWave technology here.  The Port Secuirty Blog is filled with interesting posts concerning the Department of Homeland Security and port security initatives in the US and abroad.

WPT also authors the Coastal Erosion Blog, which might be of interest to some.

Electronic Notice of Arrival/Departure

Thanks to Dennis Bryant at Holland & Knight for advising that the United States Coast Guard National Vessel Movement Center (NVMC) reports that the final version of its electronic Notice of Arrival/Departure (e-NOA/D) is available.  According to Bryant, electronic submission of the NOA fulfills the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) requirement and that caution must be exercised in completing and submitting NOA/D to avoid inadvertent errors and unintended duplications.

This should be of great assistance to Masters and to shore side agents involved in filing and updating NOAs.  As is widely known in the maritime community, the USCG is now strictly enforcing the NOA requirements, the violation of which carries a maximum penalty of $32,500 per occurrence.

 

Report on Staten Island Ferry accident released

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has posted its marine accident report concerning the allision of the  Staten Island Ferry Andrew J. Barberi with a maintenance pier at the Staten Island Ferry terminal on October 15, 2003.  Fifteen crewmembers and an estimated 1,500 passengers were on board. Ten passengers died in the accident and 70 were injured. An eleventh passenger died 2 months later as a result of injuries sustained in the accident.

The NTSB found that the probable cause of this accident was the assistant captain’s unexplained incapacitation and the failure of the New York City Department of Transportation to implement and oversee safe, effective operating procedures for its ferries. Contributing to the cause of the accident was the failure of the captain to exercise his command responsibility over the vessel by ensuring the safety of its operations.

The Board noted that the Staten Island ferries lacked common technological innovations that are common in use today and that the Global Maritime and Transportation School (GMATS) has recommended that the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) aquire and install such devices,  including: ARPA, AIS and electronic chart display and information systems.

NYCDOT engaged GMATS following the incident.   The NTSB report notes that the NYCDOT was following the GMATS  recommendations and had purchased and installed some of the systems in February, 2005.

Blogging revisited and Stewart v. Dutra!

When I first started Proctor in Admiralty, I promised myself that I would post at least three times per week. That lasted about two weeks and then life got in the way as it so often does. But now I am back and I will try much harder to make this a good resource for maritime and technology information. I don’t expect that I can match Dennis Bryant, and his daily Maritime Items on mainly governmental/maritime issues, but I will do my best to keep all of those interested, apprised of developments mainly in technology affecting the practice of maritime law and in the maritime industry.

 So, what kind of a maritime law blogger would I be if I did not cover the Supreme Court's recent decision in Stewart v. Dutra. Stewart was a marine engineer, who was injured aboard a dredge while working for the Dutra Construction Company. Dutra, was in the process of digging a trench in Boston Harbor using Dutra’s Super Scoop, “the world’s largest dredge”.

 Stewart sued Dutra pursuant to the "Jones Act", 46 U.S.C. § 688 (a), which allows “any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment” to sue the employer for negligence and  under §5(b) of the Long­shore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA), 33 U. S. C. §905(b), which authorizes covered employees to sue a “vessel” owner as a third party for an injury caused by the owner’s negligence. The District Court granted Dutra summary judgment on the Jones Act claim, and the First Circuit affirmed. On remand, the District Court granted Dutra summary judgment on the LHWCA claim. In affirm­ing, the First Circuit noted that Dutra had conceded that the dredge was a “vessel” under §905(b), but found that Dutra’s alleged negligence had been committed in its capacity as an employer and not as the vessel’s owner. The Supreme Court had previously held that to qualify for “seaman” status under the Jones Act, a worker must have an “employment-related connection to a vessel in navigation.”  Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347 (1995).  The First Circuit relied on its definition of “vessel” in DiGiovanni v. Traylor Bros, 959 F.2d 1119 (1st Cir. 1992) (en banc) and thus excluding the dredge from the category of a "vessel in navigation" for purposes of the Jones Act.

The Supreme Court reversed the appellate court and held that term “vessel”, for the purposes of both the LHWCA and Jones Act, is defined at 1 USC §3 and includes every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water.

 

E:\dutra.doc

This is a very broad definition and encompasses almost anything that can float.   So now we just need to wait for the first case of a power boat pulled inflatable tube "vessel" accident!