ship-navigation-emergency-procedure

Emergency Response Procedure — Ship Navigation

Respond to emergencies in ships' bridges calmly, in role and in the right order. The deliverable is an emergency procedure card: recognition, first actions, escalation and recording. This skill is written for a ship's navigation officer working with ship owners, crews and port authorities in ships' bridges.

When to use

• You are a ship's navigation officer preparing, delivering or reviewing this part of your work in ships' bridges.
• You need a defensible, repeatable approach that produces an emergency procedure card: recognition, first actions, escalation and recording.
• A colleague, auditor or client asks how this was done and what evidence supports it.

Key Concepts

Term	Meaning
ECDIS	the electronic chart display and information system
Passage plan	the complete plan for a voyage from berth to berth
COLREGs	the international rules for preventing collisions at sea

Workflow

1. Step 1 - Recognise the emergency early: know the presentations that matter for ship owners, crews and port authorities, especially groundings and collisions
2. Step 2 - Take the immediate actions a ship's navigation officer is trained and authorised for, using ECDIS chart systems as drilled
3. Step 3 - Call for help with a structured message: location in ships' bridges, situation, what has been done, what is needed
4. Step 4 - Keep ship owners, crews and port authorities and bystanders informed and safe while help arrives; hand over with a concise summary
5. Step 5 - Record the event fully in voyage plans afterwards, debrief the team, and update the procedure with lessons learned

Profession-Specific Components

Component	Details for Ship Navigation
Core documentation	voyage plans; log books; chart corrections; watch records
Core tools & equipment	ECDIS chart systems; radar; gyro compasses; communication equipment
People involved	ship owners, crews and port authorities; the ship's navigation officer; colleagues and other services in ships' bridges
Primary record	voyage plans — keep it current, dated and attributable

Output Format

Context: [Situation in ships' bridges] | Objective: [What this must achieve] | Audience: [ship owners, crews and port authorities and other stakeholders]

The finished output is an emergency procedure card: recognition, first actions, escalation and recording, structured as:

1. Summary of position and evidence
2. Detail, following the workflow above
3. Decisions, actions, owners and dates
4. Review point and escalation route

Action Plan

1. Immediate: Confirm scope, consent and the evidence available in voyage plans.
2. Short-term: Complete the workflow steps and record outcomes against voyage plan compliance.
3. Medium-term: Review results, close actions, and update local procedures in ships' bridges.

Success Metrics

Metric	Target	Method
voyage plan compliance	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle
near-miss reports	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle
chart correction currency	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle
watch handover quality	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle

Guardrails & Quality Checks

• Never let this happen: groundings and collisions.
• Never let this happen: outdated charts.
• Never let this happen: fatigue on watch.
• Work only within the competence and authority of a ship's navigation officer; escalate or refer anything beyond it.
• Record facts and observations, not speculation, and keep records confidential to ships' bridges's rules.
• Verify names, dates, figures and measurements twice before anything is issued or signed off.
• Use only real, verified information from the case in hand — never invent results, credentials or evidence.

Example (illustrative)

A ship's navigation officer in ships' bridges applies this workflow for ship owners, crews and port authorities: they open voyage plans, work through the five steps using ECDIS chart systems, and close by recording the outcome against voyage plan compliance and agreeing the next review date. (Illustrative example only — replace with the real details of the case in hand.)