It appears that today complacency is there among the most serous issues and it is yet to be fully addressed. And this is because the complacency could easily result in creation of the culture of non-compliance and non-professional behavior, sometimes referred to as rogue behavior. The term rogue behavior can be defined as willingly or unnecessarily failing to comply with existing guidelines, or taking unwanted risks.

It can manifest itself in a variety of ways, and some of the rogue behavior inducing conditions are quite easily recognizable - such as boredom, complacency, familiarity, ignorance, risk taking... Others may not be so easy to recognize - apathy, assumptions, dumping down, invulnerability, predictability... Complacency if certainly considered a major factor in marine accidents. When we do something for the very first time, we concentrate, we are aware of the hazards. But when we have done the same thing thousands times without anything going wrong, we lose that stimulation. Seafarers work in a hard and unforgiving environment.

Things still do go wrong, and people do make mistakes, equipment does fail. It is therefore critically sensitive to put the required safety barriers in place so that these failures do not result in a catastrophe... This short but interesting and very useful video film was prepared to supplement the Human Element bulletin issue No. 16.

The authors of this excellent volume, John Lambert and Al Ross, have specifically prepared its content to cover the coastal ships of the Allied forces in the Second World War. The content of the publication is covering all ships in detail, providing all required technical information, including the narrative text, ship line drawings and photos. In their work, the authors has been principally concerned with the famous wooden naval warships that were constructed by the FMC, standing for the Fairmile Marine Company.

The very idea of the mass-production of minor warships constructed of wood during the war, was  the idea of the founder of Fairmile Company. Each vessel type has been designed and further built in a kit form, allowing the assembly of the ship at different small shipbuilding facilities both in the country and abroad. The ship designs developed by the Fairmile also features the utilization of the basic construction materials, and they were relying on the many newly established and non-naval industries, providing the required materials without actual interference with the product flow from the specialist manufacturers.

During the War, the success of the attacks conducted by the submarines of the German Navy and significant increase in minelaying, forced the British Royal Navy to find a method of combating subject threat...

All technical information and instructions related to the Altivar 71 model VSD for asynchronous motors. Before you begin; Steps for setting up the drive; Preliminary recommendations; Drive ratings; Dimensions and weights; Installing the DC choke; Connecting the DC choke; Mounting and temperature conditions; Mounting in a wall-mounted or floor-standing enclosure; Installing the kit for IP31/NEMA type 1 conformity; Position of the charging LED; Installing option cards; Wiring recommendations; Power terminals; Control terminals; Option terminals; Connection diagrams; Operation on an IT system; Electromagnetic compatibility, wiring.

For those who do not already know, Alert is possibly the best place for the discussion of the human element issues in the marine industry. And almost the starting point is the clear fact that the ship must be built and designed having the user and operational tasks in mind, and also bearing in mind the special environmental conditions that are likely to be encountered throughout the service life of the vessel - simply because it makes sense. Experienced crew members need to be on hand during design and build to make sure that the vessel as well as its systems are fit for the intended purpose.

And it obviously makes sense to ensure that these people are familiar enough with the vessel they are intending to work on, before the vessel leaves the construction yard. International conventions and maritime industry guidelines require that the ships carry the right number of competent crew members to ensure safe operation of the ships and their systems, and there are some other things we shall consider... making sure that people involved in the design process and building of the ship have a real understanding the ways of the sea; it is also critically important to make sure that the operating instructions and handbooks on board are taking into account the possible difference in the nationalities, cultures and languages of the seafarers working on the ship... the present video film is intended to supplement this training booklet.

And here we are by the next, sixth issue of our Human Element Bulletin. Reader who have a glance into this release of our periodic paper, will get to know how to deal with the fatigue properly, how to train a multinational workforce and even train the trainer, gain and understand the "Perils of the Sea", develop and maintain the human components of ship systems.

The authors have tried to evaluate the importance of the role which the training vessel plays in the process of training the seafarers of the future; another title is "Invest in yourself". The process of education is gradual - we acquire knowledge by means of learning and instruction, just the same way we develop the personal attributes through observation and upbringing. It is a lifelong process; we never stop learning, whether through formal education or through the 'University of Life' (observation and experience).

Talking about training - the correctly applied one is the planned systematic process of developing the knowledge or skills through instruction or practice. Shortly, this release deals mostly with the training issues. As usual, the booklet is supplemented with this short training video film for reference and better understanding.

Here is another, fourth issue of the newly founded Alert bulletin addresses following important aspects of the today's shipping industry - Crew endurance management; The seven needs of the mariners - competence, attitude, motivation, happy and wealthy lifestyle, safe and secure working environment, self actualization and, of course, moral values; another topic is named "Maritime Education & Training providers take the initiative"; Endurance risk factors, Seafarers with Spirit, People; Communication; Seafarers' wellbeing; A research agenda; Principles of safe manning.

People are the most important asset and ships working at sea always need good, duly qualified and properly motivated personnel in order to operate well. Nowadays, efforts are made to introduce the use of the latest technologies into so many aspects of ship design and operation with the aim to reduce manning costs and levels, which would improve operations. This has been one of the core topics contained in the present issue of our bulletin. Have a look and, who knows, maybe you will find something that can be used during your everyday work and improve the safety. This interesting booklet is to be supplemented with this short video.

Our project is continuously developing and we are now ready to introduce the third issue of the popular International Maritime HE Bulletin. Among the most important topics addressed in this one there are human errors, shipboard maintenance, the case for a decent design, designing to fit the user, an ergonomic nightmare, improving ship operational design, ergonomics, training and competence, the human element in pilotage, prevention through people - an overview, some relevant accident investigation reports and case studies also included.

As it is now obvious than most of the accidents happening in the shipping industry result from the human error and relatively few of them are rooted to the technical failure of the equipment, it is becoming more and more important to pay the extreme attention to the human factor as the main cause of the incidents.

Such errors may be done at the design stage or during the new construction, as well as during the operation and/or maintenance of any of the vessel's systems or equipment. Again, we are trying to find the ways to get the number of incidents caused by human error reduced, this is the most important yet most difficult aim... Supplemented with this short video film.

Here is the fifteenth issue of he Human Element Bulletin addressing the important matters related to the automation. The topics that have been dealt with by the authors of this release include trust and dependability of ship automation, increasing the manageability of the automated alarms, perspectives of the chief engineer, automation, electronics officers and STCW Convention, staying cool in the liquid natural gas business, mitigating human errors in the use of automated systems that are installed on board marine vessels, meeting various operator's needs, breakdown of the machinery and fire that can subsequently occur onboard a container ship, and others.

The systems that are installed on board ships are protected with the very rigorous standards for design, and redundancy, as well as with the feedbacks activating the alarms. Both reliability and efficiency of subject shipboard systems can be significantly decreased if they have not been properly set up and if they are not duly maintained including regular monitoring - and all these tasks are to be performed by the seafarer, i.e. the human element of the system. The technological revolution that occurred in the past decades totally changed the way of interaction between people and systems. In the today's shipping industry, such human element became an endangered species, and that is mostly because of the increasing number of automation arrangements... This booklet shall be supplemented with this short video.