Passenger cruise ships experience alarm rates that can exceed thousands daily, with one vessel averaging 105 alarms per hour—far higher than the engineering officers’ estimate of 22. Another ship recorded 77 alarms per hour, and during peak incidents, alarms surged into the thousands within just 10 minutes, sometimes persisting for hours or even days.
Research highlights the frustration seafarers face with “nuisance alarms,” identifying their sources and suggesting ways to mitigate their impact. The study enables shipowners and watchkeepers to evaluate the ‘nuisance score’ of alarm systems. Frequent or rapidly changing alarms, often ignored by operators, lead to ineffective coping strategies among crew members.
In a recent observation of a cruise ship’s departure, 34 out of 42 alarms were silenced by the watchkeeper as they were deemed irrelevant or repetitive. Despite recording 106 alarms, many went unacknowledged, resulting in alarms being suppressed and not re-signaling.
The study also examines Unattended Machinery Spaces (UMS) on ships, designed to minimize alarms during rest periods. However, data shows that 38% to 84% of these ships fail to achieve this goal, with approximately 63% of rest periods interrupted by at least one alarm, impacting crew fatigue, which UMS aim to alleviate.
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