Page 88: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2003)

E-Commerce risks impacting on an individual ship, or to the indi- vidual. Unlike paper, this is readily achievable with an

ELB and, as outlined later, any modifications required can be made remotely from the ship at, depending on the communications system available, any time.

With this freedom to amend the ELB's design, Bjarne was questioned whether this technology could be regarded to be any improvement on traditional paper, i.e.. in addressing the paradigm of whether the record completed by the navigator could be believed not least by the authorities. As he explained, with any IT-based system numerous checks and balances can be applied to the information recorded. This would include, for example, the actual time a logbook entry was made, who by and where. However, with judicious use of drop down' menus in data fields to reduce the work- load and provide quick access to information, and assisting those whose English is limited, on the basis of trials conducted Bj0rkan was confident navigators would learn to routinely use the ELB as part of their operations rather than, as now, tending to scribble notes on paper to complete the logbook at some later time particularly as the display is designed to accessed using Microsoft's Internet Explorer from any bridge workstation.

This does not preclude navigators making post-dated entries, including corrections; and they would be encouraged to do so if this added colour to the log.

Nonetheless, once the master has conducted his or her inspection of the logbook, made whatever comments are considered necessary and signed for the record, even the most experienced computer 'hacker' would have no success trying to tamper or destroy the data not least because it will no longer just be on the ship!

To ensure robustness in the ELB, the technology is designed to operate within MARlTCO's FleetMaster ship-shore communications system. FleetMaster pro- vides seamless integration between the ship's online data systems and those onshore facilitating the upload- ing of data from ship-to-shore for remote diagnosis and fault finding, with configuration change; e.g., log data field amendments, patches and updates for the ELB going in the opposite direction.

However, this integration of the ELB with the owner's IT network can provide far greater benefits than were available with a paper logbook. The owner can exercise complete and controlled access to any part of the ship's logbook at any time. B j0rkan suggested, with the attention paid to the design in the communi-

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Nor need it stop there.

With all the ship's logbook data mirrored in near real time in the owners office, there is no technical reason precluding any port state or other official inspecting a ship's logbook at any time without actually having to visit the ship, with all that implies in improving the efficiency of the ship inspection service and reducing the burden and stress on navigators in port.

Furthermore, no longer would it be necessary for a coastal state authority to specifically and directly con- tact or otherwise require a ship use radio to relay voy- age related information to shore. It could all be pro- vided via the Internet.

The ELB is not a technological revolution. It simply pulls together various, mainly off-the-shelf tools and expertise to provide an effective enhancement, if not replacement for one of the key prerequisites of effi- cient and safe ship operation, completion of a diary.

Operational experience with the ELB to date has been positive and a number of flag state authorities have already formally indicated their willingness to accept the technology as fulfilling SOLAS log keeping requirements.

But perhaps the most exciting feature of the ELB is where it potentially takes the science of data recording to understand the risks impacting on shipping.

Although the ELB has been designed for manual com- pletion, with a modicum of assistance and guidance from technology, with the exception of audio due to the bandwidth required, there is no reason why the data presently being gathered on a VDR could not be included in the background of the ELB. In other words, if the transmission of updates from a ship's servers to servers onshore was increased to, say, once an hour, or even once a minute; the costs are trivial with INMARSAT Fleet, not only would those onshore know in near real-time what the navigators are entering into the logbook, they would also know what was going into the VDR. Whether the IMO would be pre- pared to take advantage of these developments, taking the view that the recording and secure storing of data relevant to accident investigation onshore has distinct advantages over trying to find it floating somewhere in the ocean, presuming it leaves the ship in the first place, is a debate for another occasion.

About the Author

Steve Harding served at sea as an Electro-Techncal

Officer with Shell Tankers for seven years. Thereafter he spent time with the UK Radiocommunications

Agency before being appointed as a specialist survey- or with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency in 1991 to deal with navigation and communications technology, including the implementation of the GMDSS. In 2000 he left the MCA to establish his own consultancy,

SUVAN Marine. Steve was awarded a Masters Degree in Navigation Technology from the University of

Nottingham and elected a full member of the Royal

Institute of Navigation in 1998. He can be contacted on sieve @ Sgmarine. co. uk

San Francisco, California - May 2nd

The SS "Jacob Luckenbach", a C-3 ocean freight vessel built in 1944 sank in the environmentally sensitive California waters on July 14, 1953 as a result of a collision with the SS "Hawaiian Pilot". The "Luckenbach" now rests in 176 feet of water broken into 3 pieces.

Response <& Results:

The USCG hired Titan to provide an assessment, removal, and disposal of oil from the vessel. Titan recovered 85,000 gallons of heavy bunker C oil from the wreck.

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