Subdivision, Stability, Liability

Abstract

This paper attempts to show that a balance of responsibility exists for casualty prevention, mitigation and recovery and it is jointly shared by the designer, the administration and the operator. Each of these is partially responsible for the ship's safety and continues to have some responsibility throughout the lifetime of the vessel. In order to plan a safe marine operation, the designer, with accurate information from the operator, is professionally responsible for reviewing all proposed operations for the indicated lifetime of the ship and must examine each to define its potential for disaster. The master needs to know the threshold of motion, force, buoyancy, roll, and seaway steepness over which the safety of the ship is beyond his skill and becomes a matter of providence. This knowledge will help him act in a timely fashion to save the lives of those on board when it is known that the ship cannot be saved. The regulatory administration must follow a similar path and select milestones on the designer's path which become the minimum federal standard for regulatory acceptability.