Editor's ColumnRobin Copeland

Museum raises safety levels for sailors aloft

While conserving and teaching traditional 18th century sailing skills, the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) has devised a new safety system, involving a lightweight harness and the innovative use of contemporary climbing equipment, to improve sailor safety and mobility high above deck on a ship pitching and rolling at sea.
These initiatives were recently rewarded with commendations from two Australian safety authorities, and the museum is now receiving a flow of inquiries from the operators of sailing ships in this country and overseas.
While 18th century sailors enjoyed maximum mobility high above the deck, with no safety equipment at all, more recently tall ship operators have had to observe statutory safety regulations and their response has been to supply relatively heavy and cumbersome equipment.
The ANMM developed the system for their Australian-built replica of HM Bark Endeavour, Captain Cook’s ship of discovery in which he explored and charted Australia’s east coast in 1770.
“We sail with 16 professional crew plus 40 paying voyage crew,” said Endeavour’s Captain, Ross Mattson. “The voyage crew come for the experience. Many are novices who join us, literally, to learn the ropes. We expect them all to help sail the ship, and that involves climbing the masts, up to about 100ft (30m), and then moving out on the yards to set the sails.”
Central features of the museum’s new system are a new lightweight harness, developed for cliff rescues and other difficult descents, and a ‘rotary jammer’ – a lightweight devise that slides easily up and down a vertical static line and locks fast on the line when it’s suddenly jerked downwards by a heavy weight.
Previously crew would take a couple of steps then attach a lanyard to a rung on the ladder, take a few more steps and attach a second lanyard to a higher rung then detach the first lanyard from the lower rung … and so on, up the ladder.
With the new museum system, he simply attaches his lanyard to the rotary jammer on the specially dedicated static line and climbs freely without having to take a hand off the ladder to attach lanyards to rungs. Having reached the yard, the crew member attaches his second lanyard to the jack stay, detaches his first lanyard from the rotary jammer and moves out along the horizontal spar.
Other features of the museum’s safety system include a clear set of standing orders for laying (working) aloft and set procedure for a rescue aloft.
Comcover, the Australian Government’s general insurance fund, recently reviewed the ANMM’s Safety Aloft system and gave it Honourable Mention in its Comcover Awards for Excellence in Risk Management 2009. While the system gained further official recognition as a finalist in the 2009 NSCA/ExxonMobil National Safety Awards of Excellence, gaining commendation as an outstanding solution of an OHS&E specific workplace risk.
These two commendations for using the latest technology to improve sailor safety aloft in the rigging of tall ships serve to highlight the ANMM’s concern for safety on board ship, and indeed in all its operations.
Robin Copeland