How Maritime regulations Work: the overview

The circle of maritime regulations

This video is the overview the correlation between the

different maritime organizations and their inspectors, which
have an influence on the safety of ships, their personnel and
environment.
The total lecture contains 10 pages including some videos.

history
The video 'History of the regulations' . discuss the origin of
class societies and IACS. It explains which kind of disasters
lead to new regulations. like the death of passengers of the
Titanic spawned the first Solas convention. Disasters with
tankers spawned Marpol conventions. The video shows that
the governments, called members are united in the
International Maritime Organization, the IMO. The IMO
organizes the different conventions and looks after the
ratifications by its members. Despite all conventions and
regulations, unfortunately disasters still happens.

country
The flag of a ship, called flag state. It is called member when
we are talking about the IMO. The country can be also
named as port state when a ship enters an international port
in this country. Then this port belongs to port state control
officers. The flag state has their national law system on a
ship and these regulations has to be followed by the master,
crew, owner, managers and inspectors.

The HTML5 presentation

organizations
The IMO (International Maritime Organization) plays a spider
role in the International Maritime Regulations and Maritime

Law. The IMO main tasks are to organise conventions and

look after the ratifications by her members. Another task of
the IMO is to publish the conventions. Conventions uses
measures like length or gross tonnage of a ship. The type of
a ship. Conventions even determine inspection intervals of
the vessel for that convention.
The International Labour Organization, the ILO different
Organization. The Maritime Labour Convention MLC is by
origin from the ILO but organized by the IMO.

Class
Class Societies started in 1760 and are mandatory by the
Solas. Nowadays there are 50 different societies and only 12
are forming the IACS, the International Association of Class
Societies. The IACS publish their common rules but also
their common interpretations of the different regulations. A
class societies has their own set of rules about construction,
maintenance and inspections. A class surveyor can perform
surveys for the class and inspections and audits for the flag.

regulations from who?

The conventions via IMO like Solas, Marpol and Loadline are
the minimum standard on a ship. The first who will add to the
regulations are the Regions like EU. The EU have
regulations like the wheel mark.
On top of this, the flag will add regulations for example: extra
life suits. The class Society will add next to their technical
rules also regulations about CO2 bottles, fire extinguishers
etcetera. Also the owner and ship management will have
some requirements, about operation, maintenance, ISM,
ISPS, MLC.

maritime inspections
The Region and Flag State mainly have auditors. but some
flag states still have some inspectors. Often the class
surveyor act as inspector next to his task as surveyor.
The surveyor can also have an accreditation as ISM, ISPS
auditor and/or as a MLC inspector. Those auditors can also
be directly from the flag state.

MLC inspectors can be from flag but probably they are from
a class society. Like for ISM and ISPS, also for the MLC the
ships management is free in her choice of class society.
Meaning that a ship can in principle be visited by 4 different
societies.
Last are the vetting inspectors for tankers and underwriters
inspectors.

Port State
The port state is the quality control of the IMO and will
'randomly' check ships. The port state officer will inspect
according the main principles of the conventions. The port
state has the power to stop the ship.

underwriters and vetting.

An insurance has in most cases different underwriters to
cover the high amount of invested money. Every ship have
different insurances like damage to hull and equipment,
damage to cargo and insurance for oil spills. Last but not
least the vetting. Vetting is invented by oil companies as a
quality tool for the chartered ships and crew.

Law of the Sea former know as Maritime or Admiralty

Law

Most of the times the different wordings are used for the
same thing. Law of the Sea is the convention from 1982.
One of the subjects it discusses are the boundaries of the

coastal state but there are 300 articles with all kind of
subjects. Environmental issues, passage through straits,
legislation of a ship all belongs to this Law of the Sea. In the
footer you can find the direct link to the Law of the Sea.
Admiralty law or Maritime Law has a much longer history and
has its origin in England and USA. In older times Admiralty
law discusses categories like charters, cargo, personal
injuries and piracy. International law is more complex than
the normal national law because there are more parties
involved. I think this is the main reason why there are
different names for more or less the same stuff.

12 mile zone / 200 mile zone

In principle the first 12 miles belongs to the state and their
legislation system.
The first 200 miles belongs to the state for economical
resources. Now every government want all the resources
around them and start to claim islands, rocks, historical
waters etcetera. Economical reasons as resources like Oil
and Gas are worth to fight for. But also arguments like fishing
grounds are used.
On this website we will not look at this particular convention
called Law of the Sea, but to the separate conventions of
IMO and ILO. I just want to make sure that you understand
that the law might be more complex than the conventions
this website will talk about.

Legislation by flag states

The flag of a ship determines the legislation on that ship.
When a ship sails in the coastal waters of her flag state then
she only has to fulfil the legislation of her flag state. As soon
as the voyage becomes international, the ship's national
legislation will be extended with the international accepted
conventions like SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW, LOADLINE and
more.
These international conventions were organised by the IMO
(International Maritime Organization). IN 1948 the IMO was
installed. Nowadays almost all flag states are member of the
IMO. After a convention the IMO is looking after the

ratification of the convention by enough members. A member

who ratify a convention, will have to adopt this in her national
legislation system.
A convention will become international legislation after a
certain amount of members have ratified the convention.
Measurements for this are a certain amount of flag states
and / or a certain amount of flag states who represent a
certain amount of gross tonnage.
As soon as a convention is in force, all ships in international
waters and ports has to fulfil the main principles of this
convention. Even if their flag state didn't ratify this
convention. The Port State officers, which are the quality
control of the IMO, can stop any ship which enters an
international port and doesn't fulfil the main requirements of
the accepted conventions.

example Marpol VI
Lets look at an example. Ship Q is registered in country A, so
the flag state is A. So all the laws of this flag state A applies
to the ship Q. Lets assume that this member A of the IMO
did not ratify the MARPOL annex VI convention. This means
that in national waters the ship does not have to comply with
MARPOL annex VI but solely what is written in the legislation
of the Administration A.
However as soon as the ship set sail to outside of the
national waters then it has to comply with Marpol annex VI. It
has to follow the main principles of annex VI.
In the port of Port State B a port state officer can visit the
vessel and check the main principles of Marpol annex VI. If
the ship uses fuel with a high content of sulphur it still can be
stopped by the port state officer. And in port state C the ship
might even has to comply with the more strict regulations of
that port or region, because of the environmental rules of that
particular port.
These additional rules in some ports can only apply to
MARPOL ( so not e.g.Solas or Loadline), as this affects the
area around the vessel, which belongs not to the flag A of

that vessel but to the rules and regulations of that particular

flag state C or Region.

Maritime regulations: the history

history of international maritime rules and regulations

In the 1760 a register was started in London. In the register

which was maintained in Edward Lloyd's cafe, ships were
rated. The rating was done by independent captains, who
visually checked the sailing vessels. Main purpose was a
check to see if the ship is in a good condition. This to reduce
the risk of merchants and underwriters. This was the
beginning of the first class society named Lloyd's Register.
Later other societies started as competitors. Nowadays a
ship should be build and maintained under the supervision of
a class society as written in SOLAS (Safe our Lives at Sea).
The role of the class society is also changed overtime. They
started to work for the underwriters, but nowadays, not the
underwriter but the owner of the ship who is the client of the
class society.
Although the class society had the rules about how to build a
ship and maintain the ship not much attention was given to
the survival of the life at sea if a disaster at sea should
happen. The Titanic disaster in 1912 spawned the first
SOLAS convention.
In 1948 an international conference in Geneva of the United
Nations established IMO ( International Maritime
Organization ). During the years after, more and more
countries (flag states) became a member of the IMO. The
IMO looks after the ratification of the different conventions by
each member. To legalize a convention the convention
needs a certain amount of members to ratify it. The member
itself has to adopt the convention into their own laws before it
can legalize the ratification of the convention.
To repeat an important message. Before and after the
establishment of the IMO, the flag state of the ship is the
highest authority on that ship. The flag state have the

authority not to ratify some or all conventions. For the ship

there is no problem if it only sails between ports of that flag
state. As soon as you enter a port of another flag state, the
officers of the port state can stop the vessel on ground of
one of the conventions or on the environmental regulations
of that port.
Lets say you sail on a ship with the flag of Brunei. So where
can you find which conventions did Brunei ratified? This is
simple and open to everybody. Just go to the IMO site and
follow their main business. (click:"about IMO", "conventions",
" status of conventions" ) or just download here the updated
excel sheet excel sheet. On the excel sheet you will find all the
flag states and all the conventions. So the ratification of
every member is in this excel sheet.
The governmental web page of the flag state should be
checked also. On this web page you will find the
interpretation of the conventions by that particular flag state.
In the Blue Book of the IACS (International Association of
Classification Societies) you can find the Unified
Interpretations by the IACS members. These Interpretations
are also used by IMO. The IACS have approximate 10
members and are open for all classification societies. The
members belong to the largest societies like DNV-GL, Lloyds
Register, Bureau Veritas, ABS, CCS, RINA, ABS and more(
in the footer you can find them all with a quick link to their
web sites). Most of the time this will cover most issues of the
conventions. To make it clear, the regulations of a flag can
be much stricter than what is written in a convention. A flag
can decide not to ratify a convention for just one or two
issues.
To spawn new regulations like the Titanic spawned the first
Solas convention some kind of disaster is needed. Most of
the regulations have their origin in two kind of disasters:
I.
II.

Death of passengers from a passenger ship

Large oil spill by a tanker

The cause of these two disasters can be catergorized in the

following four groups:

a. Collision (with other ships, icebergs, rocks and islands)

(TiTanic and Costa Concordia)
b. Fire on board ( can cause an explosion of the cargo, or just
a meltdown of the metal - Halifax explosion in 1917- two
ships collided after the SS Mont Blanc caught fire, which
reached the wartime explosive within 20 minutes. (The
explosion destroyed part of the city )
c. Hurricanes and storms which appears suddenly (no
preparation on the ship to encounter this) Example is Erika
(1999). A 24 year old oil tanker which broke down in the
gulf of Biscay. This is one of the reasons of the enhanced
surveys on tankers. Main purpose of this survey is the
thickness measurements of almost the complete vessel
and close-up survey to detect corrosion. The regulation
about the coating of the ballast tanks has its origin also in
this kind of disasters.
d. Now there is a new category in 2013 a container ship of 5
years only breaks into two parts due to ???

Other famous accidents which leads to new regulations are:

Herald of Free Enterprise (1987) / Estonia (1994) : both roll
on type and capsized within a few few minutes due to free
water surface (open or leaking bow-door)
Amoco Cadiz (1978) near aground France and Exon Valdez
(1989), hit a reef near Alaska which leads directly to the
MARPOL conventions
Bombing of Limburg (2002) (tanker bombed which leads to
ISPS)

Flag State of a ship

The Flag State of a ship is the country where the ship is
registered. The home port has to be marked at the stern of
the ship and safety equipment, like buoys, life boats, life
rafts. The call sign belongs to the flag state and the license
for radio station. The legislation on this vessel will be
covered by the flag state. The minimum legislation which
involves the ships hull and equipment is determined by the
conventions which are organized by the IMO and ILO. The
legislation from a flag can be much stricter than this. Also the

normal legislation for the persons on board and the tax which
has to be paid differs per flag state. The legislation outside of
the ship are international legislation like navigational laws.
Also entering territorial waters of another port state can have
influence on the legislation which has to be followed. For
example the exhaust gasses produced by the engines has in
some regions and port states stricter regulations then the
conventions in Marpol annex VI.
The minimum regulations from the IMO and ILO conventions
became international laws because the majority of IMO
members ratified these legislation and put it in their own law
system. So one of the subjects in a convention is to
determine when a convention will come into force. There are
two points to consider, namely the amount of flag states or
the amount of gross tonnage the flag states, who ratified the
convention, represent.

Difference between Flag State and Port State

A State is called Flag State when the ships is registered in
that country. The Port State is any State with an international
port. Each member from the IMO who is the administration of
a port state has to install Port State officers. Those officers
will inspect the ship according the international legislation
and not according the national legislation. The Flag State
inspector will inspect according the legislation of his flag
state. So the inspection is according the minimum
regulations of the conventions which are accepted by his flag
state plus additional regulation of the flag state. If the Flag
state didn't sign the Marpol annex I, then the flag state officer
will not look inspect this according the convention but solely
according the flag states legislation. In an another members
port state this same ship will be inspect according the Marpol
annex I by the port state officer as this belongs to the
international legislation and any ship on international
journeys has to fulfil this requirements.

Certificate or compliance certificate?

The flag state determines thus the certificates which should
be on board of a vessel, namely certificates of those IMO

and ILO conventions which are ratified by this flag state. In

the case that a flag state didn't ratify Marpol I, the class
society offers certificates of compliances. With this certificate
the master of captain can show the port state officer that his
ships comply with this convention. If the certificate of
compliance is not present the master has to convince the
port state officer that his ship complies with this convention.
This means that he should have a good understanding of the
specific convention to gather proof for the port state officer.

Certificates
The ship who is registered at a flag who has ratified all
conventions will have the following certificates in place:

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.

safety equipment
safety construction
Class Society (not from flag, but mandatory by Solas)
safety radio
Marpol annex I (Oil)
Marpol annex II (Chemical)
Marpol annex IV (Sewage)
Marpol annex V (Garbage, not mandatory)
Marpol annex VI (Emissions)
load line
ISM (for auidtors)
ISPS (for auditors)
MLC (labour inspectors)

The certificates safety equipment, safety construction and

safety radio can be also one certificate called safety

certificate. The class and safety construction certificates are

similar except for some details. One cannot exist without the
other.

Inspection intervals of certificates

According the conventions each vessel has to be inspected
according a certain time schedule. The schedule is
nowadays harmonized, which means that all inspections are
in the same time frame. The intervals are mentioned in the
conventions.
The validity of the certificate for all certificates is 5 years. The
numbers 1-10 are mostly harmonized. In the certificate is the
anniversary of the vessel mentioned. This date will always
remain the same, even when you change the flag or Class.
The time frame for an annual inspection is 3 month before till
three after the anniversary date.
The intermediate inspection is to be held during the second
or the third annual inspection. (exception is the Load line
convention, they have only an annual survey )
The renewal survey has only a 3 month window before the
anniversary date.
The dry docking of a vessel is in principle two times in the 5
years with a maximum interval of three years. One of this dry
docking can be a diving inspection if the class and flag
agrees. The flag states have to issue all the above
certificates except the ones that they did not ratify and of
course the one which is from the Class Society. The flag
states have to inspect their own vessels. Most of the times
they delegate the annual, intermediate and renewal
inspection completely or partly to the Class Society. In this
case the certificates are most likely also in the agreement
package between class and flag state and will be printed by
the Class.
The exemptions of a convention cant be delegated to a
Recognized Organization.
ISM, ISPS and MLC don't use the anniversary date of the
vessel and can't be renewed in dry dock

Flag State: outsourcing the inspection to a Recognized

Organization
In the case that surveys and or audits of the Flag State are
delegated to a Recognized Organization (this is also
mentioned in Solas) the flag state need some kind of quality
control system. There is the auditing of the R.O. by the flag
state. The flag state inspector can have an additional check
of the ship. Another tool are the reports of the port state
control officer.
The control systems like port state control are important for
the flag state (as we remember, they are the quality control
from the IMO and thus the members of the IMO). Their
reports will end up at the flag state. If the flag state comes to
the conclusion that the performance of the recognised
society is below standard, the flag state can terminate the
outsource agreement with this recognised society. Of course
this will have a high impact as the flag state has to perform
the inspections itself. Also the owner will not be very pleased
with this arrangement.
The surveyors of the Recognized Organization has the same
rights and obligations as the flag state inspector. When the
surveyor finds deficiencies, the R.O. has to inform the flag
state. If the ship is not fit to sail meaning it doesn't fulfil the
main requirements of the certificate, the surveyor have to
withdraw one of the ships certificates. In case if a certificate
is withdrawn both the flag state and the port state are to be
informed.
Nowadays a lot of flag states will announce their list of
Recognized Organizations on their website, at least I found
several ones.

Two International Organizations - IMO and ILO

Two different Organizations, one looking at the technical

aspects of a ship, the other takes care about the social
aspects of the crew

IMO - International Maritime Organization

The IMO is founded in 1948 by the United Nations at a
convention in Geneva. The Maritime Organization is seated
in London and will organize the conventions with its
members. Almost all flag States nowadays are member and
only a few countries in Africa and Middle East are not yet a
member.
The main focus of the IMO is to increase the maritime safety
for ships, for people working on the ships and for the
environment. They use the conventions as a tool to
implement their thoughts into international legislation. To
prepare the conventions there are two main committees:
MSC (Maritime Safety Committee) and MEPC (Marine
Environment Protection Committee). Of course these main
committees have several sub committees.
To turn a convention into legislation enough members have
to ratify the convention. The IMO is keeping track of this
process. As soon as there are enough members who ratified
the convention, this convention will come into force and the
port state officers can start checking the ships against these
new regulations.

The convention itself declares how many signatures have to

be present before the convention will receive international
legally status. Most of the time the amount of flag States and
the amount of gross tonnage they represent is counted. This
means that a flag state who represent a large quantity of
gross tonnage will have a great influence on the ratification
and there for also on the conventions itself.

The difference between conventions / protocols / resolution

/ amendment / circular
As soon as a convention is a success there will be a
reporting process. This report is called protocol. The protocol
will specify in details all agreements between the different
governments. The protocols are published in book form by
the IMO like Marpol, Solas, Loadline and so on ...all can be
found in their shop.
The amendments to the protocols are written by MSC or
MEPC and are called resolutions. A resolution is a written
motion adopted by the IMO. For example a certain MSC
resolution is announced like MSC290(87). This means that
resolution no.290 is adopted during the 87th meeting of the
MSC. The resolution becomes almost naturally a new
amendment unless one third of the contracting governments
object (or the amount of contracting governments who
represents at least 50% of the gross tonnage) to the
resolution. The MSC and MEPC tries to follow with their
resolution the technical improvements of the industry. These
resolutions are for free and if you know the specific number
you can easily Google them.
In the resolution or amendments there are circulars
mentioned. These are the guidelines or unified interpretation
on how to implement some parts of the resolution or
protocol. A circular is normally written by a subgroup. So if
the circular start with SN/Circ 227 then it is the 227th circular
from the safety navigation subgroup. All these different
numbers makes it a bit strange to find your way through it.
But on the IMO site, you can register yourself for free and
you will have free access to all circulars per group (there are

around 45 sub groups), while the MSC and MEPC have only
around 9 sub committees.

Typical agreements in a protocol

As all the maritime protocols and amendments are coming
from the IMO, one can expect that the reporting of the
several conventions are lookalike to simplify the reading of
the protocol a bit.
o
o
o
o
o
o

o
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When does the protocol comes into force

How is the process of the ratification
How is the process of the acceptance of amendments
The definitions used in the protocol
The possible exemptions for a flag State
Which specific ship has to follow which regulation. Most of
the times the ships length, ships type, ships gross tonnage
are used
The surveys, the certification and the role of the port State
The layouts of certificates can be found in the protocol.

The main protocols SOLAS, MARPOL, Loadline

General speaking the application of the protocols applies to
all ships propelled with mechanical means on an
international voyage, the exceptions like warships, noncommercial yachts, ships below a certain amount of tonnage
or length,
The tonnage line is in general for SOLAS 500 ton, but for the
radio equipment this 400 ton. Marpol applies for all ships.
However the survey line is only 150 ton for a tanker and 400
ton for any other vessel. In the Loadline convention there is
no tonnage but they look at 24 meter and there is the
exception for war ship, fishing vessels and pleasure yachts.
The MARPOL protocol is the most structured booklet. If you
want to know something for a certificate you can go directly
to that Annex.
The Load Line convention is very thin and hard to follow.
The Solas is divided into chapters.
o
o
o
o

Chapter 2 is for construction

Chapter 2,3 and 5 is for safety equipment
Chapter 4 is for the radio communication
chapter 9 en 11-1 is ISM

o
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chapter 11-2 is voor ISPS

Chapter 6,7,8,10,12 are for tankers, bulk, ships with
dangerous cargo, nuclear ships, high speed ships
appendix you can find the templates of the different
certificates from Solas

The Solas makes in their text several codes mandatory.

o
o
o
o
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mandatory ISM code

(comply with) ISPS code
mandatory high speed craft code
(comply with) IMSBC code (for solid bulk carriers)
(comply with) IMDG code
LSA code the SOLAS does a referral on every topic in her
text to this code

ILO - International Labour Organization

The ILO (International Labour Organization) was founded in
1919 and belongs to the United Nations since 1948 (same
year as the IMO is started by the United Nations). Equally
rights in labour like payment and working hours and
protection of the weak like children and sick people are the
mayor objectives of this Organization. The ILO is working
world wide and the Maritime Section is just a part of it.

MLC-Maritime Labour Convention

This convention starts with pointing to the law of the sea
1982 article 94 where the administrations had already
different obligations towards the seafarer.
There were also already some non mandatory forms for a
ship, these were focused on the habitation on a ship by the
crew. This questionnaire was full with questions like the size
of the cabins, size of bed, but also about the hospital and
common spaces.
The new MLC2006 came into force 20 August 2013. Some
main changes are:
o
o
o

the ships should have decent living quarters

the contracts of the seaman are more regulated and
documented
complaint procedure for the seafarer

o
o
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The crewing agencies have to be audited

The working and resting hours
The young seafarer may not work during night hours and
has longer resting hours
The trainings are extended from watch keepers to all
labours on board, including e.g.the steward

Classification Societies and IACS

The Classification Society started in London in Edward's

Cafe. Captains inspected ships in the port of London. In the
cafe a register was started to give their clients Merchants
and Underwriters an insight in the quality and seaworthiness
of the chartered ships. The first Class Society Lloyd Register
was established in 1760. From the beginning of 1800 more
and more societies were started. About One century later the
class society started to work for the owner of the ship instead
of the underwriter of the cargo.
Nowadays SOLAS makes a classification society mandatory
under the chapter of construction paragraph 3.1 ("ships shall
be designed, constructed and maintained in compliance with
the structural, mechanical and electrical requirements of a
classification society which is recognized by the
Administration").
Often you can find the classification society short written at
the load line mark. This is not a must, as the load line mark is
the responsibility of the flag state, you will find the flags

marks there if the flag state does the annual inspections

themselves.

IACS
At the moment there are more than 50 different classification
societies, but only 12 joined force in the IACS (International
Association of Classification Societies.)
The members are: DNV-GL, Lloyd's Register, BV, RINA,
CCS, NK, ABS, CRS, IR, KR, PRS, RS
The IACS is the only non-governmental organization who
helps the IMO ( International Maritime Organization) with
technical issues. The Unified Requirements the Unified
Interpretation the Technical Backgrounds are developed by
the IACS and published on the website of IACS. The Unified
requirements can also be found on the website of the IMO.
The IACS has further the Bluebook , where these regulations
are combined and can be search
Another contribution are the Common Structural Rules
(CSR) for Tankers and Bulkers which are included in the
Bluebook. In 2013 the different members of the IACS are
working on the CSR-H for tankers and bulkers and will
present this at the end of this year to the IMO The IACS
publish some interesting hardcopys on several subjects
which can be found on the website.
o
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o
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Bulk Carriers: Guidelines for Surveys, Assessment and

Repair of Hull Structure
Container ships: Guidelines for Surveys, Assessment and
Repair of Hull Structure
General Cargo Ships: Guidelines for Surveys, Assessment
and Repair of Hull Structure
Guidance for inspection and maintenance of double hull
tankers structures
Guidance manual for Tanker Structures
Guidance for Coatings Maintenance and Repairs

The IACS has further some PRs (procedure requirements)

for its members published on their website. So if you are an
owner and considering to change the flag, you can download
the procedure of the classification society who is a member
of IACS on the IACS website. (This might not be the best

example as the flag state should be contacted in the first

place).
Besides the fact that the IACS exist for the largest
classification societies, and that there are a lot of common
rules, each classification society need to develop their own
set of rules. The rules should contain the structural,
mechanical and electrical rules for design and maintenance
as this is a requirement from SOLAS.

survey intervals
The inspection by a classification is more or less following
the harmonized system. As the construction safety certificate
from the flag state and the classification certificate more or
less certify the same, one can expect the same intervals for
these two inspections. This means every year an annual with
a window of 3 month before till 3 month after the anniversary
date. The second or the third year this annual is extended to
an intermediate survey with the same window. Normal a dry
dock will be done, except when the vessel is designed for a
diving inspection instead. The renewal survey will be after 5
years with a dry-docking. This 5 yearly dry-docking is now
extended with flag state for some new vessels to 7.5 years.
This means that a new vessel with the correct design and the
consent of the flag state has the first 15 years only 2 instead
of 3 dry-dockings. After that the interval remain the 5 years.
One of the points of concern during the intermediate survey
is the steam boiler survey. The tendency forced by economic
reasons is not to stop the vessel if it doesnt have to go to
dry-dock. During a port stay of twelve hours, managers force
the crew to open the boiler for internal inspections. This
means that the cooling down and the warming up period of
the boiler will not be according the technical manual. This
can lead to thermal tension and cracks.
The classification society is in most cases involved in
different kind of survey, audits and inspections. First they will
always do their own surveys which are required for the class
certificate.

different classification surveys

o
o

o
o
o
o
o

during new-building, when the yard is the client, the new

building surveys including all component surveys
During the life time of the ship the regular surveys for the
certificate like annual, intermediate and renewals, boiler,
dry dock, in water
During the lifetime of the ship the continuous machinery,
hull and reefer surveys
Surveys for transfer of class
Condition surveys
Rectification of conditions of class
Damage surveys. As soon as there is a damage the
classification society has to be informed by the manager or
master of the ship. Most of the underwriters are interested
to know if the class will approve a certain repair method.

different inspection and audits carried out by a class

surveyor when authorized by a flag State
o
o

o
o
o
o
o
o

Surveys during new-building, including initial surveys for

load line, safety equipment
During life time all statutory surveys or a part of it,
depending on the agreements with the flag, so load line,
safety construction, safety equipment, safety radio ( for this
a different radio surveyor has normally be present), all
marpols I / II / IV / V / VI
Rectifications of deficiencies
Assist the client after a port state officer has stopped the
vessel
Necessary surveys during change of flag / owner
/management / name
ISM audits
ISPS audits
MLC inspections

Probably there are some surveys missing. But in most cases,

the classification surveyor will visit your ship and that is
probably the best time to drop a question

Difference in Origin of different Maritime Regulations

Maritime Equipment on ships by EMSA

The minimum technical standards for a ship are published by

the IMO. These are the protocols like SOLAS, MARPOL
etc... The ILO has set its minimum standard in MLC2006

Regions, like EU
The first adding on top of this minimum standard are
regulations from the regions. The EU for example has
additional regulations such as the wheel mark. Ships build
under a flag with belongs to the EU has to use for the safety
equipment, equipment which is part of the MED (Marine
Equipment Directive).
This MARED is an agreement between the different flag
States of the EU and this mechanisms of testing equipment
which belong to the safety certificate is to achieve prevention
of new barriers to trade, mutual recognition and technical
harmonisation. In basic a flag State appoint a notified body to
test equipment for this flag state. Because of the wheel mark
this equipment can also be used on ships from other EU flag
States.

Flags States
The flags States has to follow whatever they have ratified in
the basic regulations from the IMO and ILO. They also have
to follow the agreements in their region. But still several
administrations will have additional regulations on top of this.
Most of the time this is only on some subjects like the
quantity and place of survival suits, life vests, swimming
pool, hospitals, out phasing of Freons, placing electrical
emergency stops. The additional regulations of the different
flags States are more and less comparable with each other.
The difference between the flag States nowadays is the
ratification of the different conventions. Of course the other
difference is their national law system which is more relevant
for tax purposes but can have some influence on the ships
crew also.

Class societies
The class societies has their own set of rules which are more
or less concentrated on the construction of the hull, electrical
and mechanical parts. This will cover the safety construction

part from SOLAS. Although Solas regulations is increasing

since 1982 on the construction part because of disasters with
several ships, especially passengers roll-on roll-off and
tankers.
The classification society may also have some additional
rules about e.g. fire fighting equipment or the strength
calculation of a CO2 bottle.
As soon as some parts of the SOLAS will be renewed, most
of class societies will adopt these new SOLAS regulations in
their rules. Although the classification society is a different
rule system than the flag regulation system, in practise the
differences on the construction side becomes smaller and
smaller.

Owner
The owner or ship management is free in choosing the flag
and the classification society. With more then 150 flag States
and 50 classification societies they have a wide variety and
with different arguments on choosing the minimum standards
will be set for the technical maintenance of the ship and the
living conditions of the crew. In practise however it is the ship
management or owner who determines what the minimum
standard of a ship is. The implementation of ISM, ISPS and
MLC are owner or management related. The operation of a
ship is purely related to the ship management. An example is
the safe manning certificate, although the certificate is from
the flag State, it is in principle a document which is filed by
the ships management to the administration for approval.
Outsourcing of maintenance can be of influence on this kind
of decisions.

Maritime inspectors, auditors and surveyors

The legislation, the rules and regulations are set and written
down in several books, mostly the law of the flag state and
the conventions. The flag state of the ship is the highest
authority of this ship. As the master or captain of the ship is
the first representative of the flag state this makes him the

first maritime inspector and auditor. To assist the master in

his role several different kind of inspectors will visit the ship
each year. Every visiting inspector will explain in the opening
meeting with the master what his role is.
Below I will give a summary of the different roles

Flag State inspectors

The flag state inspectors inspect according the flag state
legislation. This means if something is written in Marpol VI
and the administration did not ratify this nor put anything in
their legislation , the flag state inspector will not inspect this.
The port State inspector in the same administration however
will inspect this, but mostly the port state officer will not
inspect vessels from its own flag state. The certificates from
the flag are :

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.

safety equipment
safety construction
safety radio
marpols (annex I till VI)
load line
ISM
ISPS
MLC

If the ship is not fit to sail meaning it doesn't fulfil the

requirements of the certificate, the flag state can in the
extreme case withdraw one of his certificates. The flag state

has to inform the port state if the ship is not in one of their
own ports.
Nowadays more and more administrations outsource the
inspection to recognized classification societies. The
surveyors of the class society has the same rights and
obligations as the flag state inspector only when the surveyor
finds deficiencies, the class has also to inform the flag state.
In case if a certificate is withdrawn both the port state as the
flag state has to be informed.
This outsourcing process from the flag state to the
recognized class society is controlled by auditors from the
flag state and is described by Solas
Another possibility is that the flag state will only inspect one
of more certificates and leave the rest to the recognized
classification society. In this case the flag state still got a
first-hand impression on the vessel while some technical
inspections are done by the class.

ISM and ISPS Auditors

The auditor evaluate a system by taken sample points. In
this case the ISM and ISPS audits on board of a ship and in
the office. This topics belongs to Solas and therefore to the
administration, but like other inspections this is often
outsourced to any recognized classification society. This
means that the class surveyor and the auditors can be from
different recognized organizations.
This will bring us to the auditors from the administration and
region. As soon as you outsource specific products you need
to establish an control on these products. In this case the
products are inspections and audits. This means that the
quality system of the recognized classification society has to
be evaluated by yourself as flag or region. The qualification
system of a recognized classification society can be from
IACS or an ISO 9001. This means that IACS auditor, the
9001 auditor, the flag state auditor and the region like EU
auditor will visit the headquarters and some satellite offices.
The advantages is that with more auditors from different
origin the more samples will be taken and evaluated.

Although this looks like a painful process, the result is that

the quality system of the recognized classification society
becomes better and better

MLC inspectors
The MLC inspector is new in the field. The convention
belongs to the ILO and is organised by the IMO, so the
certificate belongs to the administration. Most of the times
MLC inspector will be a surveyor and/or auditor from any
recognized class society. So the owner is free in his choice if
the flag outsource this part to a recognized authorization.

Class Surveyors
The surveyor of a classification society is there to represent
the classification society. The class has only one certificate
which nowadays can be compared with the safety
construction certificate from the flag. If the classification
society is recognized by the flag state of that ship, the
surveyor may also inspect the regulations from the flag, if the
flag have requested this and the surveyor is authorized to do
so. This depends on the agreement of that Class Society and
that administration.
The class society can withdraw the class certificate of the
ship. As a valid class certificate is mandatory by Solas, the
class has inform the flag state and port state as soon as the
class certificate is withdrawn.
Although the classification societies started in 1760 with
captains who will examine a ship, more specialization came
and now there are in principle there three kind of surveyors,
ex-navigational, ex-mechanical / electrical and naval
architects. In most cases you will find the navigational
inspectors as the flag state inspectors and auditors. The
classification society uses the mechanical / electrical
inspectors. They will start in the engine room and will learn
the hull part in their inspection career. The hull surveyors are
in a perfect world only naval architects. The auditors in the
classification society can have navigational background but
normally the surveyor with experience will become auditor.

Although you will think that every class surveyor is entitled to

inspect everything, this is however not the case.

Port Sate Control Officer

The IMO released a resolution A.1052(27) with guidelines for
the behaviour of the port state control officer. Also the
reasons for detentions are given In this resolution. In general
the port state officer will have limited time to inspect a vessel.
So if they have several ships in one day, the inspection will
be focused on the certificates with a small round. During the
round they will be focused on a few items. Normally this is
normally announced on the MOUs websites (memorandum
of understanding, see also in the footer of this page)
Class societies like to help their clients with keeping track of
the reasons of detentions and publishing these. Although a
port state officer has limited time, he can always cancel
another vessel from his schedule when the first few
impressions are below standard. First impression is the
general look of the ship from outside, second impression is
the gangway, third impression is the behaviour of the man at
the gangway, fourth impressions is the walk over deck to the
accommodation, fifth impression is the walk through the
accommodation to the bridge, the office or to the masters
cabin. Here the impressions will continue with the behaviour
of the master and the organisation of the paper work. So the
first 5 impressions will tell the port state officer a lot about his
time schedule.
The port state officer can detain a vessel and has the
authority to request a flag state and/or the recognized class
society to carry out inspections according a specific
certificate on the vessel. In this case the flag state is
authorized to visit the ship, only the class society has to wait
till the management of the ship also invites them to the ship,
as they are the class societys client. After the inspection of
the flag the port state will visit the ship again for a reinspection before the port state will release the ship.
For tankers above 10 years there is a rule that they have to
request also for an extensive port state inspection. Tankers

in general have also more extensive inspections by class

and flag state. Besides this they can expect the inspections
by the vetting inspectors of the owners of the cargo. Vetting
inspectors follows the rules and regulations of the cargo
owner.

Other inspectors
Other inspectors are working for a underwriter or for a
oil/chemical or gas company. So in general other inspectors
work for a company and the dont deal with the certification
but with the money. The underwriter surveyor works for a
small company and will only be seen if damage repair is
expensive enough. The owner will invite him and the
surveyor will be tracking the finance of the repairs and is
trying to find the cause of the damage.
The vetting inspector can work directly for an oil company or
can be hired by an oil company. Vetting is looking at the
background before giving a contract. For the management of
the tankers which are not owned by the oil companies, this
vetting is important as it means that they will get the charter
or not. So in this case even more money is at stake.
Other inspectors can be seen at the end of beginning of a
charter. For example the amount of fuel has to be
determined. So with normal book keeping of fuel and
lubricating oil consumption, much money will be on stake.
Still other inspectors, like quarantine, police and customs will
visit the ship but these belongs to the daily business of any
kind of travelling.

Port State and MoU (Memorandum of Understanding)

The Port State as we know it by now, organised via MoUs

(Memoranda of Understanding), doesn't have a long history.
The Paris MoU started after the disaster of the oil tanker
Amoco Cadiz in 1978. A massive oil spill near the coast of
France (Brittany). Because of the public opinion , the politic
was more or less manoeuvred into more stringent
regulations about the safety of shipping. Resulting in the first
Paris MoU (1982), the Tokyo MoU for example was
established in 1994.
The MoU's mission is to eliminate the operation of substandard ships in the territorial waters of the members of this
MoU. A harmonized system of port State control via
inspections is used to ensure that these ships meet
international safety, security and environmental standards,
and that crew members have adequate living and working
conditions.
Basic principle is that the prime responsibility for compliance
with the requirements laid down in the international maritime
conventions lies with the shipowner/operator. Responsibility
for ensuring such compliance remains with the flag State.
The port States are worldwide organised in 9 MoUs
(Memorandum of Understanding) Like Europe (Paris),
Mediterranean, Far East, Caribbean, West and Central
Africa, Black Sea, Indian Ocean, Latin America, Riyadh.

Inspection by port State

For the sequence of visiting a specific vessel, the port States

are working together in one MoU. To calculate the frequency
the different MoUs use probably different formulas, but the
following factors will play a role: type, gross tonnage, age,
flag State, Recognized Organization, Classification Society
The port State will inspect according IMO's most important
technical conventions. An inspection of a ship exist two main
blocks:
I.

the present certificates. So, all convention certificates

should be in place except for the conventions which the
flag State did not ratify. Although this certificate of the not
ratified convention cant be on board, the ship still has to
fulfil the main points of this convention.
a visual round. During this round the inspection is most of
the time foccussed on special subjects. These are normally
announced on their website.

II.

Informing the Port State

Besides the regular inspections from the MoU the port State
will be informed by

the flag State when a flag State certificate is withdrawn

Recognized Organization when a flag State certificate is
withdrawn.
the Classification Society when their certificate is
withdrawn
the master or the management of the ship if an accident
occurred or if a defect is discovered.

Port Sate Control Officer

The IMO released a resolution A.1052(27) with guidelines for
the behaviour of the port State control officer.
In general the port State officer will have limited time to
inspect a vessel. So if they have several ships in one day,
the inspection will be focused on the certificates with a small
round. During the round they will be focused on a few items.
Normally this is normally announced on the MoUs websites
(Memorandum of Understanding, see also in the footer of
this page)
Although a port State officer has limited time, he can always
cancel another vessel from his schedule when the first few

impressions are below expectations. Most of us will have

subconscious the same list:
o
o
o
o
o
o

general look of the ship from outside - LoadLine - Solas Marpol

passing the gangway - Loadline
behaviour of the man at the gangway - ISPS
walking over deck to the accommodation - Solas - Loadline
- Marpol
walking through the accommodation to the bridge, the
office or to the masters cabin.- MLC
behaviour of the master and the organisation of the paper
work- ISM

Tankers
For tankers above 10 years there is a regulation that the
master has to request also for an extensive port State
inspection.
Tankers in general have also more extensive inspections by
Class Society and flag State. Besides this they can expect
the inspections by the vetting inspectors of the owners of the
cargo. Vetting inspectors follows the rules and regulations of
the cargo owner.

Detention of a ship
The port State is empowered to detain the vessel, without
having any economic concerns for the port. This is of course
a concern for the port. Often is the arguments heard that the
ship will be towed away, because another ship has to come
alongside. The question is, under whos responsibility?
When detaining a vessel, the port State officer has the
authority to request a flag State and/or the Recognized
Organizations to carry out inspections according a specific
flag State certificate on the vessel. In this case the flag State
is authorized to visit the ship, only the Recognised
Organization has to wait till the management of the ship also
invites them to the ship. After the inspection of the flag the
port State will visit the ship again for a re-inspection before
the port State will release the ship.

The reasons for detentions are given in the resolution

A.1052(27). The most obvious ones is the invalidity of
certificates according the IMO conventions.
Classification Societies are often the Recognized
Organization and like to assist their clients with keeping track
of the reasons of detentions and publishing these on their
websites.

Difference between Port State and Flag State

A flag State or an Recognized Organization can only
withdraw one of the flag certificates. The flag has, according
to Solas to inform the port State that certain certificates are
withdrawn. A not valid certificate is reason for detention.

Classification Societies and Port States

The Classification Society has only one certificate. If this
certificate is withdrawn, the requirements from SOLAS are
not met because the ship is not any more under supervision
by a Classification Society any more. The similar or actual
reason is that the safety construction certificate from the flag
will becomes invalid as soon as the Classification Society
stops their supervision.

Underwriters, P&I clubs and Vetting of a ship

Marine Insurance expalained

The marine underwriters

The wording marine is a little bit misleading as the word
means maritime in the world of underwriters and insurance
companies. In the maritime world the money which is
involved with the ships loss or the the cargo loss or the third
party loss are very high. To cover a high amount of money
normally you need a group of people or investors.
In former days a group of rich people like lords stands for this
risk and they each underwrite the contract with the merchant.
For this, the owner of the cargo or ship pays a premium to
those underwriters. The height of this premium depends on
the risk taken. Higher risk means higher premium.

Nowadays the group of rich people or lords are Marine

Insurance companies or P&I clubs
The underwriter will investigate the risk of the project to set
the percentage of the premium, will find bankers or insurance
companies to underwrite the contract and will investigate if
something happens with the ship or cargo. In the contract is
exactly written down what the risk is and which risk is
covered.

History of marine insurance and classification societies

The history for insuring ships and cargo goes back to
medieval Italy.But in 1760 Edward's Lloyd started his coffee
house in the business centre of London. He was attracting
both the underwriters as the brokers to his coffee house with
proving space to negotiate and a list in which the ships were
listed and ranked.. This Lloyds list became an important list
in the underwriters world.
The first classification Society Lloyds Register was founded
as a tool for the underwriters. Lloyd's started with the Lloyd's
list and on this list are the ships ranked with stars
In the second half of the nineteenth century the owners like
to prove the underwriter that they have a well maintained and
seaworthiness ship. This happened with a star ranking. In
return the owner had to pay a lower premium to the insurer.
At a certain point the star system became certificates which
were valid for a longer period but with regular intervals of
inspection.
In transition period in the nineteenth century the classification
society was actual working for two parties. Both the
underwriter as the owner. The later half of the nineteenth
century a combination of owners started with their own
classification societies.
Nowadays the insurance and the classification should be
seen as two different things. But still after a damage a
insurance company will ask what the classification society
thinks about a certain approach of repairs after a damage.
The origin is of course that every repair has to be approved

by the classification society. And to repair a damage two

times is not good for any party.

P&I (Protection and Indemnity)

A P&I club has members and operates according a "not for
profit" principle and therefore it differs from a normal
insurance company. The members of the P&I club are both
the insurers as the insured. This means that only ship
owners can be a member and the P&I club is more
interested in the hull and machinery of the ship. The
premium is not a premium any more and becomes a
memberships fee. This fee has more fluctuation and
depends on how many claims the members have. To
become a member a P&I club will have a list of question for
the new members like type of ship, gross tonnage, route, the
flag State and the classification society.
After an accident the underwriter will send their own or hired
surveyor to do an analyse of the cause of the accident, but
will also negotiate with different docks and/or repair
companies
The P&I club will have their own rules, which can be
compared with a contract. The club have the following 5
categories insured:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.

Cargo loss
Crew, loss of life, repatriation, mutiny
Hull and Machinery, Collision, wreck removal
3rd party, damages to docks, quays, buoys,fines and
penalties
Pollution

This means that there are different kind of surveyors needed

to invest different kind of accidents. But also to accept the
underwriting, a surveyor of the P&I club will visit a ship and
has his own check lists

The vetting of tankers

The vetting of tankers is used to determine the quality of a
tanker. OCIMF (Oil Companies International Marine Forum)
developed in 1993 SIRE ( Ships inspection report
programme), which is a tanker risk assessment tool. This

widely used by oil companies. The inspectors are former

captains from tankers. Tankers have besides the setting
inspectors additional inspections. As soon as the tanker
passes the 10 years, class, flag and port state, P&I clubs will
extend the scope of survey.

Conclusion and wrapping up

During this 10 short lessons, we have seen the different
organizations which play a role in the law at sea. We have
seen that the flag is the most important part for this role and
that all the flag states visit the conventions, organized by the
IMO. The conventions will be turn into law after ratification of
the flag states. The classification societies has its own set of
rules but is often the recognised organization who will
conduct the surveys for the flag state. The control
mechanism are auditors and port state.