SOLAS Convention (Safety of Life at Sea)
IMO convention setting minimum standards for ship construction, equipment and operation: stability, fire, radio, navigation, safety management. Hull policy warranties refer to it.
On April 15, 1912, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and sinks with over 1,500 dead, for lack of boats for everyone. The first SOLAS convention, adopted in London in 1914, is the answer: enough lifeboats, permanent radio watch, ice patrol. It has been redone several times. The current one dates from 1974 and entered into force on May 25, 1980, continuously amended through tacit amendments that bind party States without new ratification. It applies to merchant ships of 500 gross tons and more on international voyages, and to passenger ships. Its chapters organize the matter: construction, stability and subdivision (II-1), fire protection (II-2), life-saving appliances (III), radiocommunications (IV), safety of navigation (V), carriage of cargoes (VI), dangerous goods (VII), safety management, that is the ISM Code (IX), security measures, including the ISPS Code (XI-2), and bulk carrier safety (XII), added in 1997 after the Derbyshire. The flag State issues certificates, often by delegation to classification societies. For the hull insurer, a valid SOLAS certificate is a condition of cover; a ship that has lost its certificates is no longer insured under the normal terms. Port State control checks application of the convention, and the detentions that follow feed the rating of shipowners.
Textbook case. Container ship inspected in Rotterdam: port State control finds defects in fixed fire extinguishers and unmaintained lifeboats (Chapters II-2 and III). Ship detained for eight days, for the time of the repairs. The owner bears the standing costs, which the hull policy does not reimburse. The insurer reads the detention report at renewal, and the ship goes on the port State control target list in following years.
SOLAS, SOLAS Convention, SOLAS 1974, Safety of Life at Sea, International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
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