ACADEMIA Letters

Against the tide

Capt VR Krishnan, AFNI

Manned or Autonomous Ships? Which way to go? With or Against

the Tide?
Since the early eighties, we have seen a slow but sure upscaling of the level of automation
on merchant navy ships. I remember joining as a fresh Deck Cadet in the early seventies and
on my first vessel which was already over 15 years old when I joined, the ship was a diesel
propelled DC vessel. The ship had derricks for Cargo operations and 5 cargo holds with Upper
and lower tween decks and a lower cargo hold with bilge boards and sheathed deck tank tops
in the lower holds. The ship was a 1957 German built General Cargo vessel trading between
Indian coast and Japanese ports at that time. This ship has a full complement of not less than
65 officers and crew on board including 2 deck cadets and a trainee engineer. The seafarers
of today may find it difficult to believe this fact.
If my memory serves me right, I don’t recall any automation whatsoever being fitted on
this ship. Reminiscing those days, I recall that the Engineers on watch in the Engine Room had
a single wooden bench placed near the Main Engine maneuvering station on which the watch
keeper would momentarily rest a while after taking painstaking rounds of the machinery in
operation while at sea. I also remember that even the deck officers who kept bridge watches
at sea did not have any reliable navigation equipment which we may see on the bridge of any
modern day vessel today. I used to get a chance to go on bridge only for keeping 1 hour of
lookout practice at sea or when the ship arrived or departed from ports. I noticed then that
the steering wheel was a traditional large wooden wheel and the VHF set was the size of a 1
square foot box which was located in a remote corner of the bridge from where the visibility
was not unhampered. It used to make more crackling sounds than sound communication.

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Capt VR Krishnan, captvrkrishnan@gmail.com

Citation: Krishnan, C.V. (2021). Against the tide. Academia Letters, Article 2612.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2612.

1
Like the only Radar which was fitted on board it had to be sparsely used so as to conserve it
for the communication with port control only during arrival or departure from ports. There
were no satellite navigator or GPS on the bridge. The only revered pieces of equipment were
a sextant and binoculars which I saw the watchkeeping officers handle with utmost care as
though it was new born baby or a priceless delicate possession. For long range navigation,
the ship had a Radio direction finder. I remember that on a cloudy day when the sextant could
not be used for making observation of celestial bodies for getting our ship’s position when at
sea, the Radio Officer had to be called to use his expertise to get a decent position line and fix
the ship’s position by running fix.
I have given the above description solely to draw the reader’s attention to the type of
equipment fitted on the bridge or in the machinery space of a merchant ship built in the post
war era. It could also be imagined from the above as to why there was a need for so many
persons required to man an operate those ships because of the sheer magnitude of seamanship
warranted on the deck for rigging the derricks in ports for cargo operations or for appropri-
ately maintaining the equipment and level of alertness and watchkeeping in the engine room.
Automation on board was indeed sparse as most of the equipment needed additional human
resources for operating them. Compared to that we have at the most 18 to 20 seafarers man-
ning the modern day vessels of any type or size. How has this drastic reduction of seafarers
on ships been brought down ? Surely through advancement in technology as well as automa-
tion and robustness in design and ergonomics. This is the era of automation to the extent of
Artificial Intelligence and drones to remotely control the various shipboard operations from
either the ship or shore.
For being employed as a mariner on board one has to undergo not only competency course
and examinations but also ship specific training courses before being allowed to sail on board.
The turn around time of ships on voyages has also been drastically improved over the years.
What has this done in turn ? There is no free time available to the seafarers on board the mod-
ern day ship especially when in ports because they have to be available for the various normal
as well as emergency operations and inspections by internal or external auditors, SIRE/CDI or
Port State Control. Additionally they have to also perform cargo operations in ports without
any stoppages which may render the ship to go off hire and consequently a loss of hire charges
being paid to the owners by the charterers.
Modern day technology and the use of internet as well as improved ship and shore com-
munications equipment fitted aboard today’s ships have revolutionized the maritime industry
as a whole. It has now become possible to operate ships quite efficiently with a reduced human
work force on board. What has this reduction in human resources done ? Has it increased or
reduced the work load of the shipboard personnel ? These questions could be responded by

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Capt VR Krishnan, captvrkrishnan@gmail.com

Citation: Krishnan, C.V. (2021). Against the tide. Academia Letters, Article 2612.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2612.

2
saying that they are akin to a two faced coin. On the one side it has become easier to monitor
or operate the various machinery or equipment parameters, where as on the other side there
is a dearth of human resources available on ships for physical activities such as cleaning and
preparing the ships for loading various cargoes while at sea, inadequate personnel on deck for
mooring operations especially at some difficult ports. Even in the event of any major break-
down of machinery in the engine room, the human resources available on board may at times
be inadequate to rectify the problems efficiently as it could result in overwork or fatigue.
To illustrate the two arguments further one can take the example of Intelligent Engines
and auxiliaries fitted in the Engine Room as well as Integrated Navigation or Bridge Sys-
tems fitted on modern day ships. A lot of human intervention in monitoring the equipment
performance in Engine Room or on Bridge and Deck has considerably reduced. However
for extremely physical activities such as tank or hold cleaning on ships for changes of cargo
grades or preparing the ship for drydocking operations, or for cleaning the machinery spaces
and for the regular maintenance and upkeep of the machinery in the Engine Room, the human
resources available on modern day ships may be woefully inadequate. Consequently the price
to pay in the event of a failure would be unimaginable. Modern day ship operations cannot
avoid the risks on ship operations such as from pirates in vulnerable areas of the seas and
oceans as well as the possibilities of guarding against the infiltration of the ship by stowaways
at notorious ports cannot be ruled out. It may be easier said than done for the shore operator to
equip the ship with various equipment to ward off piracy or fitting the ships with duplication
of machinery and equipment as a redundancy measure, however this may have adverse effects
on the mental psyche of the modern day seafarer on board.
With increased sizes of merchant ships in operation today and with the challenges of im-
proved technology in shipboard equipment, the modern day seaman is required to be highly
intelligent and motivated individual who would be not only be able to operate the ships effi-
ciently but also take on the challenges of adverse weather at sea or the interference from unwar-
ranted elements such as modern day sea pirates and armed robbers when least expected. This
expectancy in the modern day seafarer is in reality far from being achievable. Consequently
it has been seen and reported today that the mental health and well being of the seafarer is
adversely affected.
Gone are the days when the seafarer of yester year was a happy go lucky individual who
was physically and mentally strong to take to the vigours of a maritime adventure on board
the ships of yore who was prepared to stay on for longer periods on board if warranted. On
the contrary the present day seafarer is a person who is contract bound and a highly stressed
individual by the time the contractual period nears an end. Today’s seafarers of both engine
and deck or navigation department are also burdened with immensely complex regulations

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Capt VR Krishnan, captvrkrishnan@gmail.com

Citation: Krishnan, C.V. (2021). Against the tide. Academia Letters, Article 2612.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2612.

3
applicable to the maritime industry. The fear of being persecuted by the office in the event
of an individual’s failure on board looms large on the minds of the seafarers. It is apparent
that most ship owners today have appointed managers to safely man and operate their ships
efficiently. Ship managers have to delicately balance their budgets to achieve safety as well
as their own profitability and continuity as well as growth of business and at the same time
ensuring that the ship owner also makes profits out of the investment made by them.
The ships of tomorrow are expected to be fitted with even more automation including
Artificial intelligence than those in existence today. It is expected that Autonomous ships are
likely to become a reality within the next couple of decades. One couldn’t imagine decades
ago that these things would be possible, but it is indeed a reality. Humans always perceived
that the ships would be requiring hardened seafarers to run and maintain the ships, but have
to now come to reality that ships of the future would literally have no seafarers on board.
Tests for such autonomous ships are indeed being successfully being done in a few parts of
the world. As soon as the results of these tests are made public, it would be a quantum jump
in this otherwise traditional profession. Compliance with International shipping laws in force
today is one of the major hurdles and the International Maritime Organisation has already
begun discussions how to make changes to the law to facilitate this revolution. Reducing or
removing seafarers from ships means that any accidents which occur in the future at sea would
have far greater consequences. A lot of work will need to be done before solutions are found,
or agreements are reached. Some recent studies done on reviewing the potential economic
benefits of unmanned ships found that there are indeed savings to be made, mainly related to
crew costs. It is inevitable that unmanned ships will come of age. But there are still several
problems that need to be solved before they become a mainstream choice for shipowners of
the future.

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Capt VR Krishnan, captvrkrishnan@gmail.com

Citation: Krishnan, C.V. (2021). Against the tide. Academia Letters, Article 2612.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2612.