Crew Care: Supporting Masters, Seafarers and Passengers After an Incident
Shipboard injuries, illness or worse are made that much more serious because of the distances from home. To add to the complexity, the interests of authorities, owners, the Club, the seafarer or passenger and their families are at play. Our mission is to resolve issues as painlessly as possible for everybody. And that’s often quite a balancing act.
In case of these so-called people claims, the Van Ameyde Marine Crew Care experts are called in, usually by the P&I Club. The main areas in which we are involved are medical assistance, repatriation and stowaway resolution. In this article I’ll zoom in on what happens after an accident.
Medical Support and Repatriation
We deal with a lot of claims involving seafarers or passengers who need to be repatriated. A recent case concerns a passenger who fell down a companionway on a cruise vessel. We supported throughout the period of local medical care and then during the repatriation to their home country.
Regrettably, injuries to seafarers play a big part in what we do. We support injured crew members in hospital. Their ship has probably sailed and they’re in hospital in a strange place. We often take the place of the agent, looking at things like finding hotels once they’re discharged from hospital and the onward transit back home. In hospital, we work with the doctor to issue a fit-to-fly certificate. This will allow the seafarer or passenger to travel unaccompanied, either with or without certain medical support. Or we organise medical teams to accompany people home.
Deadly Incident on a RORO Vessel
Unfortunately, we also get plenty of cases where we need to repatriate people who are deceased. Our involvement is best illustrated by the case of a RORO vessel. During loading, a crew member was injured by a lorry. Despite immediate intervention, they did not survive and were sadly pronounced dead at the scene. The Club instructed us to offer assistance to the master and the crew.
Liaising with authorities is part of our role. In cases like this, the police will investigate potential foul play and substance abuse. Neither was the case, so they left. Our next step is then the accident investigation, in which the flag and port state authorities will also play a part. One of our team will guide the master and crew through this process. The vessel owners, understandably, instructed their own legal counsel whom we then worked closely with. Alongside the investigation, our team arranged immediate mental health support for the crew following the traumatic event.
Attention to Families
For the repatriation we have an associate team of international undertakers. They will work with us through everything that’s required. From gaining the correct certification to facilitating the repatriation of the deceased to their loved ones, wherever in the world that might be. It doesn’t stop there. We prepare the family for what they may expect as pressure and temperature leave their mark and the deceased may not even be dressed in their own clothes. Bringing home a loved one is not transactional. We communicate with families to ease the way through dire circumstances.
Emotional Wellbeing of Crew
But what does it do to the crew? Imagine seeing something awful happen to your colleague and friend, and the first thing that happens is the police showing up. The emotional welfare of the crew is important and we’re there to support them.
A bit more straight-forward when crew are working on a RORO ferry on a regular run. Our trauma counsellors can then be in situ during return port visits, - talking to the crew as they go through the process of understanding what’s happened and then as they recover. We need to be around and able to talk to people over a period of often up to four weeks. Much more of a challenge on a vessel engaged in long international voyages.
Working a way through how to do this, vastly relies on the owners’ commitment. Thankfully, they recognise the importance of providing such support after a traumatic incident.
Balancing Act
Whatever the incident, we manage the very real human element in the process and offer the master and crew all the support they need. We take the lead, communicate effectively and resolve any issues efficiently, balancing out potentially conflicting interests.