Forty more PSC deficiency codes, and the code pages are now in search

In October SuperRonin published the list of all 587 PSC deficiency codes with pages on 30 of them, and four guides on port State control. Today 40 more codes get a page of their own, which makes 70.

How they were picked. Five are codes that have already been entered in the SuperRonin PSC register and had no page yet: hatch covers (03105), deck corrosion (02117), access and structural features under the MLC (18425), mooring ropes and wires (18416) and the catch-all for radio, other radiocommunication (05199). Nothing from anyone's register is published, only the fact that the code came up. The rest fill gaps in the areas the first thirty started on:

• Fire safety: ready availability of equipment (07108), firefighter's outfits (07111), EEBDs (07112), fire divisions and penetrations (07103), oil-soaked insulation (13106) and the fire control plan (01309).
• Life-saving appliances: inflatable liferafts (11108) and their stowage (11110), launching arrangements for survival craft (11112) and rescue boats (11113), lifejackets (11118), immersion suits (11119), training and instructions (11131).
• Navigation and radio: pilot ladders (10101), lights, shapes and sound signals (10109), the VDR (10114), the EPIRB (05111) and the radio reserve source of energy (05114).
• Hull and deck: weathertight doors (03107), watertight doors (02101), railings and walkways (03103), towing and mooring equipment (02140).
• Pollution: garbage handling (14501), the garbage record book, the garbage management plan (14503), the SOPEP (01314) and bunker delivery notes (14604).
• Crew and documents: the safe manning document (01113), officers' certificates (01201), minimum hours of rest (01307) and the records of rest (01308).
• Working conditions: engine room cleanliness under the MLC (18420), personal protective equipment (18412), entry into dangerous spaces (18415) and bilge pumping (13104).

Each page follows the layout of the first thirty: what the inspector looks at, findings as they tend to be written on Form B, the regulation behind the item, the action taken codes you are likely to see, how to close it and three short questions. Where two codes overlap, such as 01307 and 01308 or 02140 and 18416, the page says which is which.

Detention, said carefully. The IMO procedures list deficiencies that may justify detention. A page now says an item is on that list only where it is, and nowhere says a finding is "usually" or "often" a 30, because nobody has measured that. Nine of the first thirty pages said it and have been corrected.

In search results now. Until today a code page or guide stayed out of search engines until a superintendent from the pilot had read it. The superintendent asked us not to wait: publish, and correct whatever doesn't match practice as it turns up. Three pages have already changed that way, after a real Form B showed inspectors writing ITU publications under 05199, a missing pilot ladder step under 18425 and hatch cover hydraulics under 03105. All 70 code pages and the four guides are indexed. A page someone has checked says who did it and when; the others say the team wrote them from the sources listed on the page.

If a text doesn't match what you see on board, or you meet a code that still has no page, write to [email protected]. When a deficiency lands on your Form B, the PSC inspections register turns it into a tracked condition with the due date its action code gives.