Deck line shift and an unlisted air pipe on a general cargo ship
The 4,800 GT general cargo ship Aster Trader, built 2004, lies at anchor in a tropical zone with a full cargo of bagged cement and a Load Line Certificate expiring in three months. You attend the annual load line survey. The assigned summer freeboard is 1,240 mm and summer draft 7.42 m. At the last dry-docking, about 18 m of freeboard deck plating on the port side amidships was renewed. Measurement from the new plating shows the deck line is 14 mm higher than the original reference, while the port load line mark sits 9 mm lower than its recorded position relative to that deck line. The deck line mark itself was not re-cut. The chief officer calls the difference 'normal tolerance'. In the forecastle you find a 65 mm air pipe serving a forepeak void; it terminates 380 mm above the freeboard deck and has no closing appliance, and it is not shown on the load line certificate. The master wants to sail on the evening tide.
1. How do you treat the deck line and load line mark discrepancies, and can you endorse the Load Line Certificate today?
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The deck line is the datum from which the load line mark and the assigned freeboard are set. A 14 mm upward shift of the deck edge changes that datum; re-cutting the load line mark 9 mm low does not restore the assigned 1,240 mm freeboard, and the mark is therefore not at its assigned position.
The Convention requires the marks to be permanent, clearly visible and consistent with the certificate. It does not give the surveyor a personal 'tolerance' to accept a changed datum. I would require both the deck line and the load line mark to be re-cut and verified by measurement from the new deck line, with the assignment society's agreement to the revised deck line, and I would record the as-found positions. Until that is done I cannot endorse the load line survey as satisfactory.
2. What is the problem with the 65 mm air pipe, and what options do you have?
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An air pipe on the freeboard deck is an opening that must not admit water. Under the 1988 Load Line Protocol, air pipes to tanks on the freeboard deck must be at least 760 mm above the deck (450 mm on a superstructure deck) and be fitted with an approved automatic closing appliance. This pipe is only 380 mm high and has no closing means, so it is both a load line deficiency and a potential down-flooding path into a space that may contribute to reserve buoyancy.
The pipe must be raised and fitted with an approved air pipe head, or permanently blanked if the void is not needed and the class and flag administration accept that, followed by re-inspection. A wooden plug or hose clamp is not acceptable, and this cannot be deferred to the next port.
3. The owner's superintendent asks you to endorse the certificate 'subject to completion at next port'. How do you respond and what do you record?
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I would refuse. A statutory certificate is not endorsed 'subject to completion'; that wording belongs to a condition of class with a due date, and even then only where the flag administration or recognized organization procedure allows it and the item does not invalidate the basis of the certificate. Here the marks and the air pipe are the basis of the load line assignment, so there is nothing to endorse.
I would issue a written deficiency list, inform the master and the company that the ship is not in compliance, notify the flag administration or recognized organization, and record the request and my refusal in the survey file. If the ship sails, I would report it for follow-up action rather than sign.