Engine Room Operations

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Safety Alert 4-15 describes an incident in which a fire started after the failure of a fuel line flange due to the loosening/failure of its bolts. Although the final root cause of the incident has not been determined, the USCG are suggesting that ships’ engineers should be fully cognisant with and take action based on engine manufacturer technical bulletins and service letters.

Manufacturers assist in this process by making the numbering of the bulletins sequential, with the year of the bulletin clearly labelled so that it is easy to spot missing bulletins. In order to minimise cases where crew are not familiar with a particular bulletin, owners should put in place a system which is used to ensure all relevant engineering staff are familiar with all bulletins. This should include verification of bulletins being read and actioned. The system should ensure that bulletins requiring modifications are followed up.

Some engineers may assume that, because they have sailed on multiple vessels before and worked on many engines that they know all of the torque settings for bolts, and are familiar with all of the service bulletins. This can be dangerous and engineers should always familiarise themselves with any relevant technical bulletins on joining a vessel. We suggest that the following points are taken into consideration to ensure the engineers are familiar with the technical and service bulletins for that vessel:

• Establish a procedure to record and store all bulletins in one place whilst ensuring that new joiners and old hands are aware of their location. This can be hard copy or electronic.
• Regular checks to be made to ensure that all bulletins have been updated and are correct in accordance with manufacturer’s recommendations.
• New bulletins to be passed to the end users in a timely fashion.
• Positive recording and feedback used to ensure that all relevant crew have read, understood and are applying the bulletins applicable to their role on board.
• Undertake regular audits to check that bulletins and other relevant service information has been updated and are present and correct in manuals and storage locations alike.

It is important that this routine and sometimes time consuming task is undertaken by all relevant staff in order to ensure that operations run smoothly and incidents such as that described in the USCG bulletin may be avoided.

To read the USCG bulletin in full please visit: www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/csncoe/alert.asp