Bridgecam - What Really Happened?

Too Fast or Too Loose?

One of our Member’s ships was recently accused of passing a moored ship both too fast and too close causing it to surge. The surge caused damage to a grain loading facility estimated at USD 300,000.  The moored ship claimed an indemnity from our Member.

The VDR/ECDIS evidence showed the relative positions of the ships and the speed of our Member’s ship but that evidence was not conclusive in our Member’s favour.  Our Master made the allegation that the other ship’s lines were slack; a suggestion that was firmly rejected by the other ship.  

However, on this occasion our Master was able to produce photos of the other ship showing clearly that the lines were slack.  The other ship withdrew its claim.

Cost Effective Camera

The Owner had installed a GoPro-like time lapse camera to record the view facing forward out the bridge window.  The camera was switched on by the crew whenever the ship was underway in confined waters and took a photo every minute.  The photos were stored on an ordinary SD memory chip and, once the chip was full, new photos were recorded over the oldest but this still provided a visual record of the view some days before.  Therefore, when the Master was advised of the other ship’s protest and claim, he was able to download the photos taken at the relevant time and email them to the Owner’s office.

A simple commercially available device, imaginatively used, was able to protect the ship from a high value claim.