SHIPS MAIL
SHIPS WITH CREW ACCOMMODATION FORWARD
letter of the month
I am distressed by the number of ships being built with crew accommodation forward. The new Maersk ships (SM, Dec, p.9) are the last straw. There are other new ships with this layout on pages 18 and 19 of the issue, and others are on order, some illustrated here.
This design is in flat contradiction of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, of which Title 3, Standard 3.1.6 (c) states: ‘in ships other than passenger ships, as defined in Regulation 2(e) and (f) of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as amended (the SOLAS Convention), sleeping rooms shall be situated above the load line amidships or aft, except in exceptional cases; where the size, type or intended service of the ship renders any other location impracticable, sleeping rooms may be located in the fore part of the ship, but in no case forward of the collision bulkhead.’
Just why, in any of the ships illustrated, is it an ‘exceptional case’ or ‘impracticable’ for the accommodation
