Page 28: of Marine News Magazine (November 2017)

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COLUMN INSIGHTS

Leadership and Subchapter M

By Pat Folan

Earlier this year I was part of a safe- tains led the industry to quickly promote people to the ty meeting with several marine tow- wheelhouse, we ended up with people running our vessels ing companies and the topic turned who didn’t know what to do in a lot of situations and who to leadership on our towing vessels. were happy enough to cede control to the of? ce. In some

Companies are coming to the realiza- places, experienced captains had moved ashore and could tion that many of their captains are not offer realistic advice. In many places, though, that wasn’t masters of the vessels. the case and we ended up with the blind leading the blind.

For years, the industry has taken There are companies that create the routes for the captains control of the vessels from the captains on their chart programs and they can’t deviate from them.

Folan and kept it in the of? ce. I used to hear What happened to navigation and leadership skills?

this lament from captains that I worked

E CREATED A PROBLEM AND UB WILL REQUIRE A CHANGE with in the nineties, “They don’t pay us to think.” And W S M . although the words have changed, the same old lament is Subchapter M will turn this model upside down. If you there. Now before doing anything they must “check with are using a TSMS, 46 CFR 138.220 (a)(1) states: the of? ce.” As someone who owned a tug, this is an atti- (iii) Master Authority. Each owner or managing oper- tude that made me happy and scared all at the same time. ator must de? ne the scope of the master’s authority. The

You want to know what they are doing but you pay them master’s authority must provide for the ability to make to make the right decisions. ? nal determinations on safe operations of the towing

As the 2000’s wore on and our shortage of good cap- vessel. Speci? cally, it must provide the authority for the master to cease operation if an unsafe condition exists.

46 CFR 140.210 states: (a) The safety of the towing vessel is the responsibility of the master and includes: 1. Adherence to the provisions of the COI; 2. Compliance with the applicable provisions of this subchapter; 3. Compliance with the TSMS, if one is applicable to the vessel; and 4. Supervision of all persons onboard in carrying out their assigned duties.

(b) If the master or of? cer in charge of a navigational watch believes it is unsafe for the vessel to proceed, that an operation endangers the vessel or crew, or that an unsafe condition exists, he or she must ensure that adequate cor- rective action is taken and must not proceed until it is safe to do so.

Now our captains will have the authority and responsi- bility to operate their vessels safely. Not that it wasn’t al- ways the case, but now it’s in writing and there are penal- ties for not being a leader. The days of just being the boat operator are coming to an end and many of our people don’t seem to understand it.

So, what do we do? The larger companies are evaluating

CREDIT: Pat Folan

November 2017

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