How history can teach us to prevent deaths at sea

WEB DESK: The rapid sinking of the Bayesian superyacht and the loss of seven lives, including tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, in August 2024 cruelly emphasised the potentially lethal perils of the sea. This tragedy, although much publicised, is far from unusual. Globally, accidents at sea lead to thousands of deaths every year – but the true scale of the problem is unknown.

Undoubtedly, life at sea remains hard and dangerous in the 21st century, but this is difficult to quantify. There were 215 shipping industry-related deaths at sea recorded in 2022. However, due to a lack of standardised data and under-reporting this figure is likely to be an underestimate.

Efforts to raise awareness and improve safety at sea today have much to learn from historic and successful safety initiatives in the UK’s docks. My research on early 20th century docks shows that proper data is a prerequisite to understanding a problem and identifying trends. Such an assessment can then lead to the allocation of resources, targeted safety measures – and life-saving change.

These steps all apply to improving safety at sea, but the lack of accurate data is a real stumbling block.

Fishing is widely recognised as the “most dangerous occupation globally”, but estimates of deaths among the fishing community vary enormously from 32,000 to more than 100,000 deaths per year. Of course, such deaths also occur inland in lakes and rivers, as well as at sea.

Twenty-six vessels of over 100 gross tonnes were recorded lost in 2023, with 13 sinking beneath the waves. This is low when compared with the loss of more than 200 vessels a year in the 1990s, but there have also been recent worrying trends such as attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. So far in 2024, four Red Sea seafarers have been killed by Houthi rebels from Yemen, with others injured and held hostage.

Desperation and war are also leading to deaths and risks elsewhere. A total of 3,155 migrants crossing the Mediterranean were recorded as missing or dead in 2023.

Nevertheless, such challenges and risks to life are increasingly being recognised and efforts are underway to address them. Importantly, better data collection and monitoring is in the pipeline.

An amendment to the 2006 International Maritime Labour Convention is expected to come into force in December 2024. It will require countries that have agreed to the convention to report the deaths of seafarers on an annual basis to the UN’s International Labour Office.

These will be published in a global register, and they will be investigated. It remains to be seen how such reporting will operate in practice and how deaths will be categorised – but it will be a good start.

This is where it is helpful to learn from the past. I have researched the historic reduction of the dangers of dock work in the UK for Hindsight Perspectives for a Safer World – a collaboration between History and Policy and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

My study shows how progress was linked to gathering better data and recognising the risks of loading and unloading cargo. The counting and scrupulous categorisation of accidents helped identify the problems and appropriate safety measures.

In 1900, factory inspectors identified five causes of dock accidents, including falls (into the ship’s hold, or into the water), and shunting accidents involving trains. The docks were classified as one of the “dangerous trades” in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.

Under the dock regulations of 1904, “life-saving appliances” – chains or floats – were introduced to prevent drownings. Lifting machinery was also subject to stringent checks to prevent deaths from falling loads.

More and more proactive inspections took place as the number of inspectors rose from 137 in 1900 to 320 by 1939. All these safety measures and others contributed to dock deaths falling from 115 a year in 1899 to 69 a year in 1939.

Today’s safety initiatives at sea often echo the work of those safety pioneers in the early 20th century. Together in Safety, a consortium of companies dedicated to improving safety in the maritime sector, suggests a three-step safety process – assess the situation, act to improve, appraise the progress – which replicates the work of those early legislators and inspectors.

Together in Safety’s clear and succinct golden safety rules show how to mitigate the risks of maritime work, including working over water and entering enclosed spaces.

What’s more, Lloyd’s Register Foundation – a charity that helps to protect life and property at sea, on land, and in the air – is undertaking work to “assure the safety of people as the ocean economy grows” as part of its Global Maritime Trends 2050 Research Programme.

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Two million seafarers face daily dangers to keep the global supply chain operating smoothly. Doing more to highlight their safety will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the challenges they face. This, in turn, should lead to better safety procedures and practices to save lives at sea.