STCW 1978 - safety and survival
Introduction
From its beginnings to the present, the history of seafaring has been overflowed with tragic experiences of navigation at sea due to human factors. Unfortunately, human errors are measured by the number of lives lost, and most of them could have been prevented or saved with the following of proper safety procedures.
The key to safe shipping environment maintenance and keeping our oceans clean lies in keeping high standards of competence and professionalism for all seafarers in the duties they perform on-board. The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers 1978, modified in 1995 and again in 2010, sets those standards, regulates the award of certificates and controls watchkeeping efforts. Its regulations not only apply to seafarers, but also to ship-owners, training establishments and national maritime administrations.
The immediate cause of the first organized solution to the problem of safety of people at sea was the sinking of the passenger ship "TITANIC" in April 1912, when more than 1500 passengers and crew lost their lives. For this reason, in 1913, the British government organized the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, at which a convention known as SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) was adopted on January 21st 1914, but, because of World War I. never entered into force.
The second convention was convened in 1929, and subsequent revisions were held in 1948, 1960, 1974 and 1983, and focused more on rescue equipment.
The fact that over 80% of all accidents and accidents at sea are caused by human error underscores the importance of efforts employed by maritime administrations worldwide to reduce such risks.
The importance of seafarers' vocational training has been reaffirmed on numerous occasions worldwide. For the first time, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has unified standards for the training of seafarers by the International Convention on Standards for the Training, Certification and Watchkeeping of Seafarers, 1978 (STCW 1978 - International Convention on Standard of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers).
The amendments to the 1995 and 1997 Convention, which entered into force under an accelerated procedure, marked yet another significant step forward in the global standardization of seafarers' vocational training.
Amendments to the 1995 Convention also opened up a completely new page in IMO history. Namely, for the first time in its history, the IMO has the power to check whether and to what extent international legal regulation is being implemented in practice. Thus, in 2006, the so-called IMO whitelist was started, listing only those countries that fully meet the requirements of the amended 1978 STCW Convention.
The most important safety and survival goals determined include:
- Protecting people from hypothermia
- Leaving the ship safely and distancing from the vessel in cases of fire
- Leaving the ship quickly in cases of overturning and/or sinking of the ship
- Finding people in the sea as quickly as possible