SK PANDA (External: wants definitions as they written in ISM code,and quoting of rules verbatim)

1. Notation of class?

Classification notations are indicative of the specific Rule requirements which have been met.
Additional voluntary notations are offered by individual Societies and may be selected by an
owner wishing to demonstrate that the vessel conforms to a particular standard that may be in
excess of that required for classification. Depending on the Classification Society, the
classification notations are assigned to the ship according to ship type, service, navigation
and/or other criteria which have been provided by the owner and/or builder, when requesting
classification.

Classification notations assigned to a ship are indicated on the certificate of classification as well
as in the Register of Ships published by the Society. These notations can be generalized by the
following types which may be used in combination:

• main class symbol;

• construction marks;

• service notations with additional service features, as applicable;

• navigation notations;

• geographic notations;

• additional class notations.

2. Implementation of ISM as Master?

The ISM code is implemented on the sip by:

 Development of plans for shipboard operations, instructions and checklists for key shipboard
operations concerning the safety of the ship and pollution prevention. Tasks involved should
be defined and assigned to qualified personnel.

 Emergency preparedness to respond to on board emergencies. The company should

establish programs for drills an exercises to prepare for emergency actions

 Reports and analysis of non-conformities, accidents, and hazardousoccurrences. SMS should

include procedure to report and analyze the above. All incidents are to be investigated with
the objective of improving the safety and pollution prevention record. Procedures are
established for implementation of corrective action.

 Maintenance of ships and equipment. This will include:

o Inspections are held at appropriate intervals

o Any non-conformity is reported, with its cause, if possible

o Appropriate corrective action is taken

 o Records of these activities are maintained

o All equipment and systems are tested regularly

o Inspections and measures as above must be integrated into the ships operational
maintenance routine.

 Document Control. Documentation should ensure that valid documents are available at all
times, changes in documentation are reviewed and approved by authorized personnel, and
obsolete documents are promptly removed. Documents re incorporated in the SMS manual.

 Company verification, review, and evaluation should ensure that audits are conducted at
regular intervals. Corrective actions should be carried out. Auditors should be independent.

3. How you will motivate your crew?

As per the ISM code, one of the duties of the Master is to motivate the crew in the observance of
the Company’s safety and environment policy. Some of the steps that I will take to motivate my
crew are:

 Ensure that all crew are familiar with the company’s Safety and Environment policies.
Posters stating these policies should be prominently displayed at conspicuous locations.
Introduction to the SEP should be made a part of the familiarisation training for every new-
joiner.

 Give clear instructions as to what needs to be done in the observance of the SEP and what
should not be done. Ideally, after joining, I will hold a bridge discipline meeting with all my
officers and convey my requirements to them. These requirements will also be put done in
the Master’s Standing Orders. In addition, I will convey to the Chief Officer and Chief
Engineer, the procedures that are to be followed by the crew to ensure that they comply
with the Company’s policies.

 Regular training sessions should be carried out to ensure that crew are familiar with their
duties and responsibilities.

 Encourage reporting of near misses and take proper follow up action to the near misses.

 Reward crew that follow the SEP policy and discipline crew who violate the policy.

 Hold regular safety meetings and try to involve the crew actively in these meetings so that
they feel that they are a vital part of this process.

4. Definitions of Non-conformity, Major Non-conformity, and Objective evidence?

Non-conformity is an observed situation where objective evidence indicates the non-fulfillment of a

specified requirement.

Major non-conformity is an identifiable deviation that poses a serious threat to the safety of
personnel or the ship or a serious risk to the environment that requires immediate corrective action
and includes the lack of effective and systematic implementation of a requirement of this code.
Objective evidence is qualitative or quantitative information, records or statements of fact
pertaining to safety, or the existence and implementation of an SMS element, which is based on
observation, measurement, or test, and which can verified.

5. Conduct an Abandon Ship Drill?

 Prior to conducting any drill, I will conduct a pre-drill briefing and ensure that all key
personnel are familiarized with the nature of the drill.

 At the time designated, I will sound the abandon ship alarm, and wait for the personnel to
muster and report to me.

 Life jackets and immersion suits are to be donned, checked, and duties of all individual
personnel are to be verified by the persons in charge of the respective boats, and reported
to master.

 If time location and weather permits, survival craft are to be lowered to the water, keeping
into account any requirements laid down in the company’s SMS regarding the same.

 Proper risk assessment is to be carried out prior to moving any of the lifeboats, and if
required by the SMS, a permit to work is to be generated.

 Appropriate local authorities are to be informed in advance in case survival craft are lowered
to the water.

 Lifeboat engines, steering, emergency lights, equipment, and batteries are to be tested and
same to be reported to master.

 Lowering procedures for all survival crafts are to be explained to new joiners.

 Survival crafts are to be lowered to the water under the supervision of a responsible officer,
and ensuring that only the minimal required complement of personnel are on board.
Recovery strops, if applicable, are to be attached to the lifeboats prior lowering and
embarkation of personnel.

 A proper chronological log is to be maintained of all activities so that it can be analyzed, and
any scope for improvement identified.

 After the drill is complete and all equipment is restored to its original status in preparation
for any emergency, a de-briefing is to be carried out of all personnel involved in the drill.

 Areas to be improved should be identified, along with areas where further training is
deemed necessary.

 Any incidence or near-misses that occur during the drill should be reported as per the
company’s SMS.

6. Conduct a Fire Drill (E/R Fire)?

 Carry out pre-drill briefing. Describe the scenario and identify the key duties.
  Raise the fire alarm.

 Once all crew have mustered and reported, announce the location of the drill.

 Emergency teams to be briefed on the best possible location for entry depending on the
location of the fire.

 Maintain a BA control board on the bridge to note down the time of entry of each fire
fighting team so that you can readily determine how much breathable air each team
member has.

 Personnel on duty on bridge to assist with watchkeeping, steering, and distress

communications. Additionally a chronological log of all events to be maintained.

 If fire cannot be controlled, consider flooding of ER with CO2.

 Once decision to release CO2 has been made, all personnel to be evacuated and head count
taken once again.

 All vents and emergency stops to engine room to be closed.

 CO2 release to be simulated by Chief Engineer. All personnel to be briefed in the procedure
for CO2 release.

 After completion of drill, all equipment to be squared up and brought back to a state of
operational readiness.

 Post drill de-briefing to be carried out. Areas for improvement to be identified.

 Drill log to be prepared and filed and entries made in the log book.

7. E- Navigation

E-Navigation is a concept developed under the auspices of the IMO to bring about increased
safety and security in commercial shipping through better organization of data on ships and on
shore, and better data exchange and communication between the two.

Definition of e-navigation as per IALA: The harmonized collection, integration, exchange,

presentation and analysis of marine information onboard and ashore by electronic means to
enhance berth to berth navigation and related services for safety and security at sea and
protection of the marine environment.

The IMO has entrusted Norway and the Norwegian Coastal Administration to coordinate the
work of developing a proposal for an e-Navigation strategy implementation plan. Three sub-
committees within the IMO - NAV, COMSAR and STW - have established working groups on e-
Navigation

Core elements to the plan: The final e-Navigation strategy implementation plan will contain
eight core elements, defined thus:
  Identification of responsibilities to appropriate organizations/parties

 Transition arrangements

 A phased implementation schedule along with possible roadmaps

 Priorities for deliverables, resource management and a schedule for implementation

and the continual assessment of user needs

 Proposals for a systematic assessment of how new technology can best meet defined
and evolving user needs

 A plan for the development of any technology and institutional arrangements necessary
to fulfill the requirements of e-navigation in the longer term

 Proposals on public relations and promotion of the e-navigation concept to key

stakeholder groups

 Identification of potential sources of funding for development and implementation,

particularly for developing regions and countries and of actions to secure that funding.

8. VDR/AIS principals

Automatic Identification System

As per SOLAS V/Reg 2.4 “All ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards engaged on international
voyages and cargo ships of 500 gross tonnage and upwards not engaged on international
voyages and passenger ships irrespective of size shall be fitted with an automatic identification
system.”

AIS shall:

 provide information - including the ship's identity, type, position, course, speed,
navigational status and other safety-related information - automatically to
appropriately equipped shore stations, other ships and aircraft;

 receive automatically such information from similarly fitted ships; · monitor and track
ships;

 exchange data with shore-based facilities.

 Display this data.

Automatic identification system (AIS) runs on the basic principle of transferring data
electronically over a radio wave frequency. An AIS device consists of very high frequency (VHF)
transmitters and receivers. The transmitter and receiver are attached to the ship’s display and
sensors systems through a communication link. In order to receive exact information of other
ships and also to send its own, the AIS also has a Global positioning system (GPS) which is
connected to a satellite. The GPS can be an internally attached device or a separately fitted
system. AIS is also connected to all the other systems of the ship and that is how it receives
ship’s details and sends them across to other ships.

AIS transponders automatically broadcast information, such as their position, speed, and
navigational status, at regular intervals via a VHF transmitter built into the transponder. The
information originates from the ship's navigational sensors, typically its global navigation
satellite system (GNSS) receiver and gyrocompass. Other information, such as the vessel name
and VHF call sign, is programmed when installing the equipment and is also transmitted
regularly. The signals are received by AIS transponders fitted on other ships or on land based
systems, such as VTS systems.

 Class A: Vessel-mounted AIS transceiver (transmit and receive) which operates using self-
organised time-division multiple-access (STDMA). Targeted at large commercial vessels,
STDMA requires a transceiver to maintain a constantly updated slot map in its memory such
that it has prior knowledge of slots which are available for it to transmit. STDMA
transceivers will then pre-announce their transmission, effectively reserving their transmit
slot. SOTDMA transmissions are therefore prioritised within the AIS system. This is achieved
through 2 receivers in continuous operation.

 Class B: Vessel-mounted AIS transceiver (transmit and receive) which operates using either
carrier-sense time-division multiple-access (CSTDMA)or STDMA; there are now 2 separate
IMO specifications for Class B. Aimed at lighter commercial and leisure markets.

As per SOLAS Chapter V, Reg 20, following ships are required to carry VDR:

 Passenger ships

 Other ships of 3000 GT and upwards

VDR collects data from various sensors on board the vessel. It then digitizes, compresses and
stores this information in an externally mounted protective storage unit. The protective storage
unit is a tamper-proof unit designed to withstand the extreme shock, impact, pressure and
heat, which could be associated with a marine incident.

The protective storage unit may be in a retrievable fixed unit or free float unit (or combined
with EPIRB) when the ship sunk in marine incident. The last 24 hours of stored data in the
protected unit can be recovered and replayed by the authorities or ship owners for incident
investigation. Beside the protective storage unit, the VDR system may consist of recording
control unit and data acquisition unit, which connected to various equipment and sensors on
board a ship.

Although the primary purpose of the VDR is for accident investigation after the fact, there can
be other uses of recorded data for preventive maintenance, performance efficiency monitoring,
heavy weather damage analysis, accident avoidance and training purposes to improve safety
and reduce running costs.
 Simplified voyage data recorder (S-VDR), as defined by the requirements of IMO Performance
Standard MSC.163(78), is a lower cost simplified version VDR for small ships with only basic
ship's data recorded.

9. What is IAMSAR? And it helps Master?

10. Different Search Patterns?

 Expanding Square Search:

o Most effective when the location of the search object is known within relatively
close limits.

o The commence search point is always the datum position.

o Due to the small area involved, this procedure must not be used simultaneously
by multiple aircraft at similar altitudes or by multiple vessels.

o The first leg is usually oriented directly into the wind to minimize navigational
errors.
 Sector Search:

o Most effective when the position of the search object is accurately known and
the search area is small.

o Used to search a circular area centred on a datum point.

o Due to the small area involved, this procedure must not be used simultaneously
by multiple aircraft at similar altitudes or by multiple vessels.

o An aircraft and a vessel may be used together to perform independent sector

searches of the same area.

o For vessels, the search pattern radius is usually between 2 NM and 5 NM, and
each turn is 120°, normally turned to starboard.

 Track Line Search:

o Normally used when an aircraft or vessel has disappeared without a trace along
a known route.

o Often used as initial search effort due to ease of planning and implementation.
 o Consists of a rapid and reasonably thorough search along intended route of the
distressed craft.

 Parallel Sweep Search (PS)

o Used to search a large area when survivor location is uncertain.

o Most effective over water or flat terrain.

o Usually used when a large search area must be divided into subareas for
assignment to individual search facilities on-scene at the same time.

 Contour Search

o Only for aircraft

o Used around mountains and in valleys when sharp changes in elevation make
other patterns not practical.

o Search is started from highest peak and goes from top to bottom with new
search altitude for each circuit.

 Co-ordinated Vessel Aircraft Search Pattern:

 o Normally used only if there is an OSC present to give direction to and provide
communications with the participating craft.

o Creeping line search, co-ordinated (CSC) is often used.

o The aircraft does most of the searching, while the ship steams along a course at
a speed as directed by the OSC so that the aircraft can use it as a navigational
checkpoint.

11. How you will determine Datum and ‘S’ and radius in sector search?

It will be necessary to establish a datum, or geographic reference, for the area to be searched.
The following factors should be considered:

 reported position and time of the SAR incident

 any supplementary information such as DF bearings or sightings

 time interval between the incident and the arrival of SAR facilities

 estimated surface movements of the distressed craft or survival craft, depending on

drift

The datum position for the search is found as follows:

 drift has two components: leeway and total water current

 total water current may be estimated by computing set and drift when approaching the
scene

 drift direction and speed is the vector sum of leeway and total water current

 drift distance is drift speed multiplied by the time interval between the incident time, or
time of the last computed datum, and the commence search time

 datum position is found by moving from the incident position, or last computed datum
position, the drift distance in the drift direction and plotting the resulting position on a
suitable chart.

Computing drift speed and direction from total water current and leeway
 Determining a new datum (drift distance = drift speed x drift time)

Track Spacing

S=Su x fw, where

S = corrected track spacing,

Su= uncorrected track spacing; this is obtained from a table given in IAMSAR Vol III Section 3
based on the nature of object that is to be found and the prevailing visibility.

fw = weather correction factor; this is obtained from a table based on the prevailing wind and
sea conditions against the object in the water (person or liferaft).

Radius of Search (R)

 If the search must commence immediately, assume R = 10 NM

 if time is available for computation: R = √At / 2 (square root At divided by 2), where

At = N X A, where N = number of craft, A = search area

12. Lastly he placed 4-5 ships and ask me to take action and rules, I started with crossing situation,
than he said that you have to assess the situation first and take action, I told him that I am
answering as per questions. After that I don’t know what went wrong. He wants all the rules
2,6,7,8,9,10,13,14,15,16,17,19…..once you start quoting in first two three lines if he is happy
that you know the ROR, he changes the rule.

13. What is so special about PSCMOU?

14. What is inspection regiomefunctioning of PSC?

15. Loading of grain?

16. Certificates for IMDG goods?

17. Hague Visby liabilities?

18. Difference between Hague and Hague Visby?

19. Quartering seas; what will happen if action is not taken?

20. What is L as per MARPOL?

21. Content of fire control plan?

22. What is close quarter situation?

23. What is risk of collision?

24. In COLREGS, which all rules talk about the practice of good seamanship?

25. MTO act liabilities?

26. Formula for lambda in grain loading?

27. Volumetric heeling?

28. Intact stability criteria for grain loading?

29. What is advance?

30. What information is there in maneuvering details and how does it help?

31. Why it is evidence of contract of carriage?

32. Contract of carriage?

33. Def..... Objective evidence, NC, MNC, detainable deficiency?

34. Masters duties during cargo operation as per ISM?

Told him about Masters over riding authority.

35. What is a Master’s overriding authority? Where all is it mentioned?

36. Everything about Port State Control procedures?

37. What do u know about Paris MOU? How many countries?

38. Damage stability criteria for LPG as per IGC code?

39. Fire control Plan?

40. Class A, B, C bulkheads?

41. LOF, Salvage, Previous versions of LOF?

42. What is close quarter situation and risk of collision?

43. Certificates required to be carried on board LPG carriers, their validity, and duration of
inspections?

44. Contents of certificate of fitness for LPG and their contents?

45. Maneuvering poster, location?

46. What is advance? Does it change in different depths?

47. Duties of Master at sea in case of receipt of distress alert?

48. IAMSAR Manual? Uses and contents?

49. Quote Rules - 2, 6, 8, 10, 13, 19.

50. Action in case of vessel aground in international waters?

51. MAS?

52. How will you abandon a ship?

53. Hague, Hague Visby rules and their liabilities?

54. Multimodal transport ACT and their advantages?

55. What is L as per MARPOL?

56. Why is MARPOL called 1973-1978?

57. What is a protocol?

58. Fund convention and liabilities?

59. How to go about the registration of ships? Documents required for same?

60. Entries required to be mentioned in Official Log Book? Where it is mentioned?

61. Which all places will you enter communication w.r.t logging sequence of events in caseof
receiving distress alert at sea?

62. Towage? Salvage? Contract of towage and salvage? Under what all conditions does towage
become salvage?

63. What is the procedure of granting an IMO number to a vessel?

64. Explain class notation with requirement for Indian ship.

65. Inspection regime for Paris MOU?

66. How do they go about inspecting the vessel?

67. What factors you will take into account for abandoning ship?

68. Approaching Mumbai port with Pilot onboard and collision. What actions as Master?

69. How would you conduct an abandon ship drill?

70. IMDG cargo loading and documents.

71. Harmonization of contingencies.

72. Construction and damage stability requirement for tankers and as per which regulation?

73. Hague and Hague Visby rules.

74. ISM code definitions.

75. Definition of Master as per ISM and as per MSA.

76. PMS as per which requirement and how will you as a Master ensure that it's followed?

77. Salvage & Towage. Which is to be used when?

78. SCOPIC and LOF. Latest ones and the new amendments for same.

79. Latest amendments for SOLAS and MARPOL.

80. Statutory and mandatory certificates.

81. Certificates for Tanker.

82. Grain loading and stability criteria with diagram.

83. Chapter 12 of SOLAS.

84. Requirement of ECDIS.

85. Performance standards of ECDIS.

86. Continuous synopsis record.

87. Second officer calls you 2 am in the morn and says that there is a 4mb pressure drop. Action?

88. What is a TRS?

89. Conditions for formation of same.

90. Which place around India is a breeding ground for TRS?

91. Tanker pollution liability regime?

92. HNS convention.

93. Difference between investigation and enquiry.

94. And after completing above he told me that you have done well so far but if you are not able to
answer about ROR correctly, it will be failing.His favourite 8 different vessels and quoting of
rules.