Page 46 - Collision Avoidance Rules Guide

Kurt Alt-Petrel
While, if properly used and can be relied upon to indicate all potential dangers
in ample time safely to avoid them, it may give some justification for a speed
in restricted visibility which would otherwise be immoderate, such a speed
can only be justified so long as it is safe to proceed and provided that timely
action is taken to reduce it or take off all the way in the light of the informa-
tion supplied or to be inferred from the radar. (Mr Justice Hewson, 1962)

Proper and effective action
A vessel may be unable to take proper and effective action due to the
speed being too high or, in some circumstances, too low. For instance,
in restricted visibility the speed of a vessel without operational radar
may be too high to enable effective avoiding action to be taken on
sighting another ship or, in the case of a vessel using radar, too high
to enable proper assessment to be made after detection especially after
the detection of small vessels. On the other hand, in certain circum-
stances, it may be dangerous to reduce speed to such an extent that the
steering becomes ineffective.
In the Ring-Orlik, 1964, the Ring was found at fault for losing
steerage way and falling off her course, in the Elbe, when another
vessel was close astern and overtaking.
But, in my view, it was the duty of those on the bridge of the Ring to appre-
ciate that they had lost steerage-way and were going off course and it was
their duty to correct it by appropriate engine and helm movement. The
Ring’s failure in those respects was a cause of the collision. (Sir Jocelyn
Simon, President of the Court)

Within a distance appropriate to. . .

The term ‘moderate speed’ was previously interpreted as meaning a
speed which would enable a vessel to be stopped within half the
range of visibility.

Glorious-Florida

There is an excellent rule that we sometimes come across in motor collision
cases and which we act on - that if there is a difficulty in-seeing you ought
to be ready to stop within the limits of visibility; and obviously a boat that
goes on fast in dense fog will not be able to stop within the limits of visi-
bility. That the other obstacle, so to speak, is not - as is often the case in
motor cases - a fixed barrier which does not move, but is also a ship which

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