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Eventful life for keeper of the Thames(Lloyds List Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) THE old Chinese greeting 'May you live in interesting times' has never been so apposite. Think of the dramatic changes in technology there have been during my half century in gainful maritime employment. Don't even begin there has been so much progress you don't know where to start. In an earlier age technology advanced at a snail's pace, with a shipmaster of, say 1820, operating much the same sort of vessel with the tools that his grandfather, or even his great-great grandfather, would have used. Century succeeded century and not a great deal changed. But in modern times, things go with a rush. Who on earth would have thought that the manager of Sears and Roebucks store in Chicago could have been in a position to specify the exact time of day he wanted a shipment of white goods from China to be delivered, and be sufficiently sure of the ships and trains and trucks that he could demand compensation if they did not appear at his loading ramp at the expected time. As someone who got lost in the Irish Sea for 24 hours albeit in frightful weather I still marvel at the ability of the satnav-infested modern navigator to know precisely where in the world he is located. These are truly interesting times. Rear Admiral Bruce Richardson hands over to his successor as Chief Harbourmaster to the Port of London Authority at the end of this month. His 12 years in London have seen him living in notably eventful times. He came into the port industry, after two years in the offshore business working in Aberdeen, his first job in civvy street after a Royal Naval career. Naval officers are nothing if not adaptable. Looking back on his dozen years in the Port of London, Richardson points to three things which have had a huge impact on the harbourmaster's job right across the ports industry. There was the Port Marine Safety Code, which has introduced a whole range of shipping and port operations realities on the marine side of port management. Richardson, who played a significant part in the drafting, suggests that this has been an essential change and places huge store on what it has brought to those areas of the industry which needed them. It requires every port to consider the realities of risk and its professional assessment and have provision for every reasonable eventuality. What accident might happen? Are we prepared for this? These are crucial questions with the code, and it requires every port management to ask them and react appropriately to the answers. And, while the Port Marine Safety Code considers operational risks with which mariners are reasonably familiar, those of a markedly different kind were violently shoved on to the stage with the shock of September 11, 2001. The International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, says Richardson, introduced the security element into port management, which hitherto would have defined 'security' as defence against a rather less violent criminal element. ISPS, he says, 'brought in a new way of thinking'. This manifested itself in the Thames Counter-Terrorism Partnership, because a great deal of co-operation was needed to secure hundreds of square miles of river and estuary and all its riverside cargo handling sites and terminals. There are now 50 ISPS designated port facilities, and the PLA provides the link between these berths and the Transport Security Directorate. It has required training and a lot of gear in the shape of CCTV, with the PLA assuming responsibility for the riverside and estuary security including all the anchorages. It is something which has, Richardson notes, caused 'a great deal of impact'. Then there has been technology itself, which during Richardson's tenure has cascaded over the port industry. London was one of the world's first ports to install what we describe as a Vessel Traffic System at Gravesend. But the comparison between 'Gravesend Traffic Information Service' of the late 1950s and what is available today is like comparing the Mauritania with the Queen Mary 2. Third generation VTS integrated with the Automatic Identification System and augmented with CCTV, says the chief harbourmaster, 'provide us with an accuracy and precision that I could have only dreamed about'. Commercial traffic in the lower river and estuary is therefore provided with an extraordinary level of surveillance and traffic advice. Upriver amid the bridges it is a very different picture a narrow, fast flowing stream increasingly heavily trafficked with tourist boats and excursion craft, mixed with tugs and barges, sandsuckers and ferries. VTS oversight amid the bridges, which makes radar difficult to use, has been highly limited and the awful spectre of the Marchioness disaster remains. But there is a breakthrough 'in the nick of time' says Richardson, with the arrival of Thames AIS, transponder technology which will be fitted to all Class V passenger vessels and all commercial freight ships over 50 tonnes. About the size of a small laptop and with the additional facility for passenger boats to record the numbers aboard, the equipment will enable the VTS station at Woolwich to exercise proper surveillance of the upriver traffic. The PLA, at present evaluating tenders from a number of equipment manufacturers whose gear fits the technical specification, will bulk-buy the equipment and sell it on to operators, picking up a substantial part of the bill. This, says Richardson, is an important work, for the 'river in town' is experiencing a great deal of additional trade with more ferries and tourist boats being commissioned and every indication pointing to increased upriver trades. To date this trade has been largely 'self organised' on the water, but with the growth has come the question: 'Is there a capacity issue?' It is why the new equipment, facilitating better control of traffic is so important. In parallel with this growth there is a need for better training for watermen and the implementation of the National Boat Master's Licence. The certification of boat operators has also been timely. A system of endorsements for specialist skills such as towing or passenger boats and local knowledge will test boat operators rather more thoroughly and provide transferable qualifications that will feed into the STCW regime. 'One of the joys of this job,' says Richardson, 'is meeting the widest possible cross-section of Londoners.' The upriver tidal Thames is great rowing country and the safety of oarsmen who have to negotiate other traffic is another responsibility, along with the operation of one of the country's principal ports. The recently published Rowing Code of Practice has been a happy product of co-operation between the PLA and those who row in the tideway. 'It all brings colour to the job,' observes the chief harbourmaster. Richardson considers that the PLA has been 'a happy organisation', his board supportive of the safety infrastructure and providing 'all the technology we could wish for'. He is very proud of the state-of-the-art simulator at Gravesend, which is doing an excellent job in training, revalidating and research and has spare capacity that others might use. A great deal of effort has also been spent on the survey capability, which now has 'phenomenal capacity' and is fully employed in the estuary with its challenging environment of shifting sands. Extensive dredging work is at present going into the Princes Channel, deepening it to 8 m and providing a wider window of access for shipping from the south. Changes to the access into the river, he says, might bring other benefits and now under way is a risk assessment of modifications to the pilotage requirements. There are, he stresses, 'no preconcieved ideas' in this exercise. There is, he believes, some justifiable concern about general watchkeeping standards, with 'bridgemanship' diminished and masters under huge pressure with vessels operating on very thin safety margins. Pilots, he points out, are welcomed as an augmentation of the crew in these straitened times. Where is the marine side of port management going? Richardson, who has been chairman of the International Harbourmasters Association and a vice-chairman of the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities in recent years, is in a good position to answer. We are moving, he suggests, in the direction of greater prescription in the conduct of ships in port waters, made possible by precision and reliability of the technology that is available. Actually knowing where ships are and determining their identity is a huge step forward. Aids such as sequential buoyage will come and could be very useful, as will be better presentation of information through graphic visual displays. There may be cultural issues, he suggests, in determining how you use this technology in the optimum way. He confesses to a 'huge frustration' about the long delays in the start of the London Gateway containerport project. Public interest may be overriding but he asks: 'Why does it have to take so long?' He is disappointed that he will be leaving before this huge project sunder way. All too often, he observes, environmental issues seem to see the interests of 'UK plc' ranged against those of the environment. This is a pity, says Richardson, because it gives the wrong environmental message one which inclines to regulatory overkill rather than co-operation. The life of the London harbourmaster is certainly not short of variety. Windfarms with the proposed London Array expected to plant 270 turbines off the estuary and wreck removal, with 600 wrecks, some centuries old, having been identified, are all grist to the harbourmaster's mill. Bruce Richardson, as he goes off to retirement and consultancy, can reflect that his last dozen years, for sure, have been spent in interesting times. 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