ISM Code
The mandatory standard requiring an owner to run a documented safety management system, moving fault from the master to the shore organization.
Herald of Free Enterprise, Zeebrugge, March 6, 1987: 193 dead, bow doors left open, and a Sheen report that found sloppiness throughout the company, from top to bottom. The International Safety Management Code came out of it. Every company operating a ship runs a documented system: operating procedures, emergency preparedness, incident reporting, maintenance, and a designated person ashore with direct access to top management. Two certificates evidence it, one for the company and one for the ship, and without them the ship does not sail. Mandatory on July 1, 1998 for passenger ships, tankers and bulk carriers, and on July 1, 2002 for other cargo ships. Its legal reach goes further than safety. By putting on record what the company knew and what it decided, the code makes the owner's personal fault provable, the fault that defeats the carrier's defenses and its right to limit. Underwriters use it as a selection criterion and as a warranty. The casualty is no longer pinned on the officer of the watch alone when the investigation traces a chain of decisions taken ashore.
The code was born of the sinking of the ferry Herald of Free Enterprise outside Zeebrugge on March 6, 1987. The bow doors had been left open, and 193 people died. The Sheen report found that sloppiness infected the company from top to bottom. The code became mandatory on July 1, 1998 for passenger ships, tankers and bulk carriers, and on July 1, 2002 for other cargo ships.
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