On a ship with a periodically unmanned engine room, the duty engineer is responsible for making machinery space rounds when the engine room is unattended. How often should these machinery space rounds be performed by the duty engineer?
• Periodically Unattended Machinery Spaces (UMS/PUMS) requirements under SOLAS and STCW • Typical engine room watchkeeping intervals for duty engineers when not continuously manned • Difference between a bridge watch period and engine room round intervals
• Think about why the engineer is required to make rounds in an unmanned engine room. How quickly can a small problem become serious if not detected? • Compare the options to a normal 4-hour watch. Would the engineer reasonably wait the entire watch length before checking the machinery spaces? • Which intervals seem too frequent to be practical for other duties, and which seem too long for safe monitoring of critical machinery?
• Verify typical watch length on most merchant ships (in hours) and compare that to each option. • Consider safety and early detection of faults: which interval balances practicality with the need to spot problems early? • Check that the chosen interval is shorter than a full watch but not so short that it would constantly pull the engineer away from other responsibilities.
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts!