Project MARTHA, Crew Fatigue And The Implications For A Vessel's 'Seaworthiness'

In January of this year the findings of "Project MARTHA", a three year study into the causes and effects of crew fatigue, were released - along with proposals as to how best to mitigate against the risks posed by crew fatigue. The study was conducted by a number of eminent academic institutions with extensive input from the shipping community.

The report serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with fatigue to those serving on board vessels, as well as those who own and operate them.

Project MARTHA

The Project MARTHA Final Report highlights (perhaps unsurprisingly) that crew fatigue can lead to extremely serious consequences, including; accidents and injuries, ill health, ship casualties, disability, sick leave and reduced performance. The report notes further that fatigue can lead to an increased risk of conflict between crew members and a consequent reduction in a vessel's overall performance.

These findings are of particular concern to an industry where the risk of fatigue is high - contributed to by stress, long irregular hours, sleep deprivation, noise, motion and short turnaround times. The risk is further increased where crew members are subjected to an unhealthy work environment, for example by virtue of accommodation design or operational conditions, and/or suffer from a lack of nutrition. Exposure to one to two of these factors makes an individual twice as susceptible to fatigue whereas exposure to all of the above, makes an individual up to 30 times more susceptible.

The report goes on to state that the dangers of crew fatigue can be mitigated through the introduction and development of effective Fatigue Risk Management Systems. These are prevalent in other safety critical transport industries (i.e. aviation, road and rail) but are found by the authors of the report to be "less mature" in the shipping industry.

Relevance to Seaworthiness

Whilst enhancing crew welfare for its own sake should be sufficient motivation for the industry to take action, failure to do so also exposes owners to legal challenges as to a vessel's seaworthiness.

Under common law, Owners give an absolute warranty of seaworthiness. In the vast majority of cases however, this obligation is qualified by cargo carrying regimes (such as the Hague Visby Rules) to one of "due diligence". We therefore consider seaworthiness on that basis, where the test has been conveniently restated in the relatively recent case of Garnet Trading and Shipping...