Work Boat World Editorial – July 2012
As I write this the news comes to hand of yet another ferry "accident" in the Philippines. This time it's a small one – seven confirmed dead and 17 missing from the capsize of a small inter-island ferry off southern Palawan.
Last month I criticised the International Maritime Organisation for its lack of resolve in passenger vessel accident matters. Indeed, I accused the IMO of euro-centrism of the worst kind in that its latest foray into this area was inspired by the 'Costa Concordia' carelessness off Italy.
Obviously IMO is not the only factor in passenger vessel accidents. It does not cause them and it does try to a limited extent to prevent them. The problem, as I see it is that they don't try hard enough.
Obviously, too, there are many other factors in the passenger vessel accident equation. Owners, crews and local governments could all do much better. Even a local culture of carelessness can be a significant ingredient. This certainly is the case in many of the third world countries where so many passenger vessel accidents occur.
Even more obviously, that culture of carelessness is closely related to economics. In poor countries ferry fares are low. Low fares encourage overloading to ensure profitability. That profitability, though, is so low as to make investment in modern, safe vessels unlikely, if not impossible.
Unfortunately, even simple, slow and by western developed countries' standards, cheap boats may be unaffordable in parts of Asia, Africa, the Pacific islands and South America. How, then, to break that seemingly impossible nexus?
Having spent a lot of time in some of the poorer and, incidentally, most interesting and attractive parts of the world, I have given much thought to this problem. I have particularly focused on the problem when I have been riding on some of the rough and ready ferries that infest such places.
The first thing that occurs to me is that if communities or local businessmen can afford reasonably modern trucks and buses, there should be a market locally for ferries of a comparable standard. I have also observed that some quite poor parts of the world sustain some reasonably modern and quite safe ferries. Why, as they say, is that so?
We don't have time here to get into developmental economics which is a specialty of its own. I do, however, believe that in many cases the problems are more cultural than economic. A lot of ferry owners are very happy making a useful profit from negligible investment. If one of their costs is paying bribes to local maritime officials to turn a blind eye to safety failings, then that is just another cost of doing business.
I am certain that if IMO tried harder, especially in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, which are not completely impoverished, local entrepreneurs could be encouraged to provide safer vessels. In totally impoverished countries I am sure that government or NGO aid programmes could supply cheap safe craft. They do so with housing after all.
Simple and cheap is the way to go. I've often thought that multi-compartmented catamarans that can be churned out like sausages are the solution. Obviously, fibreglass is the economical way to mass produce them and diesel outboards are the way to power them. They are cheap, reliable and easily serviced.
They don't have to be fast, just reliable and safe with good (over) load carrying capacity. I have in mind something like the "party boats" of which there are so many on inland waterways in the United States.
Passenger vessel safety is certainly not an insurmountable problem. Just as with another maritime safety problem area – that of lifeboats that kill more people than they save – it is curable given some lateral thinking and imagination.
Of course, some real determination on the part of the IMO and the responsible flag state governments would be really helpful.
Neil Baird
