Page 42 - Collision Avoidance Rules Guide

was a relative motion radar, and to get a true pichue from such a radar plotting
was required, and plotting takes time. I repeat that I accept without any hesita-
tion the advice we have received about this that the Arietta should have had a
good visual look-out in addition to the radar. (Lord Justice Kaminski, 1970)

Full appraisal of the situation
In order to keep a proper look-out the officer of the watch, or person
in charge, must also pay attention to what is happening on his own
vessel keeping a check on the steering and seeing that equipment
required for keeping the vessel on course is functioning correctly.

Staffordshire-Dunera
Where, in my judgment, she was at fault, was in having a very bad look-out,
and a bad look-out in every possible sense of the term. It seems to me that
it comes within the term ‘bad look-out’ when I say that she was at fault for
failing to take proper precautions to meet the situation in the event of the
compass breaking down again, as it in fact did. It was, in my judgment, bad
look-out on the part of this young third officer in failing to appreciate, long
before he did appreciate it, what was happening, namely, that his vessel was
falling off to starboard, and in failing to appreciate what the probable cause
of the falling off was. It was bad look-out on the part of the quartermaster,
when he knew perfectly well that the compass had stuck again, not to report
the matter at once to the officer in charge. It was bad look-out on the part of
the officer to take no steps himself, whether by going to the standard com-
pass or otherwise, to check up on what was happening and what was the
course of his vessel. (Mr Justice Willmer, 1948)
Several collisions have occurred as a result of a failure of steering
gear, automatic pilot or gyro compass. In September 1964, the British
cargo ship Trentbank developed a fault in the automatic pilot as she
was overtaking the Portuguese tanker Fog0 in the Mediterranean. The
Trentbank swung across the bow of the Fogo. The following comment
was made in the judgement with reference to the look-out:
I ought not to leave this part of the case without observing how lamentable
was the attitude of the master of the Trentbank and her chief officer towards
the system of automatic steering. The master had given no orders to ensure
that somebody was on look-out all the time. The chief officer, according to
his own story, saw nothing wrong in undertaking a clerical task and giving
only an occasional glance forward when he knew that there was other ship-
ping about and that he was the only man on board this ship who was keep-
ing any semblance of a look-out at all. Automatic steering is a most valuable

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