Speech therapy

摘要

Maritime English is the industry's universally recognised language for multinational crews to comprehend each other for operational purposes, even if English is not their native tongue. In 2001 the IMO adopted its Standard Maritime Communication Phrases (SMCP) for this purpose.Yet, as the recent Australian Transport Safety Bureau report on the grounding of the bulker Dumun shows, communication breakdowns still occur. Although language barriers did not directly contribute to the grounding, investigators found that the "master, chief mate, third mate, and helmsman all spoke between themselves in Mandarin and when they spoke on the telephone to the engine room, or on a hand-held radio to other crew members, they spoke exclusively in Mandarin". This, the report says, excluded the pilot from information "that at times, may have affected his decision making".