Offshore Life

It was Christmas and the crew were enjoying the bbq in the evening in the barge, Ultra Mann. The next day the barge would be off hired. Most crew from the construction and catering section would be demobilised and sent home leaving only the marine and a few construction crew for maintenance purpose.

The bbq food were delicious consisting of chicken, fish, prawns,beef, fried rice, all sort of soft drinks and some liquor and beer. It was the company's policy of no beer and alcohol in the work barge. But these items found their way into the barge and the crew were having a jolly time eating and drinking. The sectional heads were drinking, too. So who dared to complain about the alcoholic drink? None.

An hour or so into the bbq party, there was a commotion at one corner on the bow side. Two marine crew were having a fight over some stupid misunderstanding. There were having too much drink and lost their reasoning. Their colleagues near by stopped the brawl. It was lucky that there was no serious injury.

Somehow the matter reached management onshore. They queried the Captain who was having a hard time explaining and cooling the whole matter off. He succeeded anyhow. The two fools were reprimanded by the Captain. They manged to patch things up and apologised to the Captain. They thanked the Captain for helping them to sort out the mess they created, else they would kiss their jobs goodbye.

Accident Control Technique (ACT) is being practised by all offshore employees irrespective of which company one is from. In essence, it is a good way to prevent any potential accident and to learn from any past occurring incident or accident.

An example where it can be used is when one observes someone is not wearing safety boots in areas where it is required, one can tell off the person and then fill up the ACT form which will be submitted later. That way any potential injury to someone's feet is avoided.

However, of late the ACT has been used virtually for anything. Yeah, just anything when that thing can be easily passed on verbally to the person concerned. For example, somebody raised up an ACT for his missing coverall that was sent to the laundry. ACT was also raised for food not to the liking of certain group. These minor problems could had been solved by informing the Chief Steward or Camp Boss.

Imagine someone had also raised an ACT on one of his roommates who snored whilst sleeping! The ACT form had become Any Complaint Technique form. Hopefully, the management will look into the matter and ensure that ACT is back to its original concept and purpose.