Pasha Bulker Case Study
Q 1 – The many maritime authorities involved included local, national and international bodies, all of which have professional codes of ethics. Do you think there would have been any conflict between these various codes of ethics during the salvage attempt?
Yes, i think some conflicts between the various codes of ethics might have risen during the salvage attempt.
Professional codes of ethics are rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given profession. Generally speaking, the members of a profession are understood to have agreed to abide by those rules as a condition of their engaging in that profession.
Having said that, we can clearly understand that even the Newcastle Port Authority had their own professional code. They had the responsibility to act immediately upon the situation at hand (stranded Pasha Bulker). However, in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s report on the grounding the executive director commented that the Newcastle Port Authority was not ‘sufficiently responsive’ to the worsening situation in the harbour area as the storm approached and acted too slowly. Therefore, we can conclude that there was a conflict in the Newcastle Port Authority’s professional code of ethics.
Even the master of the Pasha Bulker had his own professional code of ethics and there was some conflict on his side too. As a master of the tanker, the priority of his professional code of ethics would have been to show good seamanship by making the decisions on behalf of his ship and its cargo. However, subsequent investigations found that the master had exhibited poor seamanship. This included the mistake of not attributing sufficient seariousness to the weather warnings that he had received and also the decision to ride out the storm at anchor, as well as failing to ballast the ship for rough weather. It is important to note that all 50 ships in the harbour at the time had received weather warnings several days earlier and, of these,
Yes, i think some conflicts between the various codes of ethics might have risen during the salvage attempt.
Professional codes of ethics are rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given profession. Generally speaking, the members of a profession are understood to have agreed to abide by those rules as a condition of their engaging in that profession.
Having said that, we can clearly understand that even the Newcastle Port Authority had their own professional code. They had the responsibility to act immediately upon the situation at hand (stranded Pasha Bulker). However, in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s report on the grounding the executive director commented that the Newcastle Port Authority was not ‘sufficiently responsive’ to the worsening situation in the harbour area as the storm approached and acted too slowly. Therefore, we can conclude that there was a conflict in the Newcastle Port Authority’s professional code of ethics.
Even the master of the Pasha Bulker had his own professional code of ethics and there was some conflict on his side too. As a master of the tanker, the priority of his professional code of ethics would have been to show good seamanship by making the decisions on behalf of his ship and its cargo. However, subsequent investigations found that the master had exhibited poor seamanship. This included the mistake of not attributing sufficient seariousness to the weather warnings that he had received and also the decision to ride out the storm at anchor, as well as failing to ballast the ship for rough weather. It is important to note that all 50 ships in the harbour at the time had received weather warnings several days earlier and, of these,