In the shipping industry, classification societies are non-governmental organizations or groups of professionals, ship surveyors and representatives of offices that lay down and check the standards concerning the design, construction and survey of ships and offshore structures. They explicitly take no responsibility for the safety, fitness for purpose, or seaworthiness of the ship however.
Contents
- 1 Responsibilities
- 2 History
- 3 Flags of convenience
- 4 Today
- 5 List of Classification Societies
- 6 External links
- 7 See also
- 8 References
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Responsibilities
Classification societies set technical rules, confirm that designs and calculations meet these rules, survey ships and structures during the process of construction and commissioning, and periodically survey vessels to ensure that they continue to meet the rules. Classification societies are also responsible for classing oil platforms, other offshore structures, and submarines. Included in the survey process is the survey and certification of diesel engines, large or critical pumps such as fire or main bilge pumps, and other machinery vital to the function of the ship. This is frequently done at the manufacturer’s plant, which may be hundreds of miles from the shipyard or drydock.
History
In the second half of the 18th century, merchants, marine underwriters, and others, all connected with shipping often gathered at Edward Lloyd’s coffee house in London. In 1760, customers of that coffee house formed the Register Society, the first authentic classification society and which would subsequently become Lloyd’s Register. Their purpose was to develop a system for the independent inspection of the hull and equipment of ships presented to them to be insured.
At that time, an attempt was made to ‘classify’ the condition of each ship on an annual basis. The condition of the hull was classified A, E, I, O or U, according to the excellence of its construction and its adjudged continuing soundness (or lack thereof). Equipment was G, M, or B: simply, good, middling or bad. In time, G, M and B were replaced by 1, 2 and 3, which is the origin of the well-known expression ‘A1′, meaning ‘first or highest class’.
The first edition of the Register of Ships was published by Lloyd’s Register in 1764 and was for use in the years 1764 to 1766.
Bureau Veritas (BV) was founded in Antwerp in 1828, moving to Paris in 1832. Lloyd’s Register reconstituted in 1834 to become ‘Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping’. Where previously surveys had been undertaken by retired sea captains, from this time surveyors started to be employed and Lloyd’s Register formed a General Committee for the running fo the Society and for the Rules regarding ship construction and maintenance, which began to be published from this time.
Adoption of common rules for ship construction by Norwegian insurance societies in the late 1850s led to the establishment of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in 1864. Germanischer Lloyd (GL) was formed in 1867 and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) in 1899. The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) was an early offshoot of the River Register of 1913.
As the classification profession evolved, the practice of assigning different classifications has been superseded, with some exceptions. Today a ship either meets the relevant class society’s rules or it does not. As a consequence it is either ‘in’ or ‘out’ of ‘class’. Classification societies do not issue statements or certifications that a vessel is ‘fit to sail’ or ‘unfit to sail’, merely that the vessel is in compliance with the required codes. This is in part related to legal liability of the classification society.
However, each of the classification societies has developed a series of notations that may be granted to a vessel to indicate that it is in compliance with some additional criteria that may be either specific to that vessel type or that are in excess of the standard classification requirements. See Ice class as an example.
Flags of convenience
The first open register was Panama in 1916. Fear for political instability and high and excessive consular fees led the president of Liberia, William Tubman, in 1948 to start an open register with the help of Edward Stettinius, Jr.. The World Peace of Stavros Niarchos was the first ship in that register. In 1967 Liberia passed the United Kingdom as the largest register. Nowadays, Panama, currently the largest register, and Liberia have one third of the world fleet under their flag.
Flags of convenience have lower standards for vessel, equipment, and crew the traditional maritime countries and often have classification societies certify and inspect the vessels in their registry, instead of by their own shipping authority. This made it attractive for ship owners to change flag, whereby the ship lost the economic link and the country of registry. With this, also the link between classification society and traditional maritime country became less obvious – for instance Lloyd’s with the United Kingdom and ABS with the United States. This made it easier to change class and introduced a new phenomena; class hopping. A ship owner that is dissatisfied with class can change to a different class relatively easily. This has led to more competition between classes and a relaxation of the rules.
To counteract class hopping, the IACS has established TOCA (Transfer Of Class Agreement).
In 1978, a number of European countries agreed in The Hague on memorandum that agreed to audit whether the labour conditions on board vessels were according the rules of the ILO. After the Amoco Cadiz sank that year, it was decided to also audit on safety and pollution. To this end, in 1982 the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) was agreed upon, establishing Port State Control, nowadays 24 European countries and Canada. In practice, this was a reaction on the failure of the flag states – especially flags of convenience that have delegated their task to classification societies – to comply with their inspection duties.
Today
Today there are a number of classification societies, including Lloyd’s Register, Det Norske Veritas and the American Bureau of Shipping.
Classification societies employ ship surveyors, material engineers, piping engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers and electrical engineers, often located at ports and office buildings around the world.
Marine vessels and structures are classified according to the soundness of their structure and design for the purpose of the vessel. The classification rules are designed to ensure an acceptable degree of stability, safety, environmental impact, etc.
All nations require that ships and other marine structures flying their flag meet certain standards; in most cases these standards are deemed to be met if the ship has the relevant certificate from a member of the IACS or EMSA. Certificates issued by the classification society on behalf of the flag country are also required for pumps, engines, and other equipment vital to the ship’s function. Equipment under certain sizes is usually excluded from these certificate requirements.
In particular, classification societies may be authorised to inspect ships, oil rigs, submarines, and other marine structures and issue certificates on behalf of the state under whose flag the ships are registered.
There are more than 50 marine classification organizations worldwide, some of which are listed below.
List of Classification Societies
Name
Abvr
Date
Head office
IACS
EMSA
Lloyd’s Register of Shipping
LR
1760
London
x
x
Bureau Veritas
BV
1828
Paris
x
x
Registro Italiano Navale
RINA
1861
Genova
x
x
American Bureau of Shipping
ABS
1862
Houston
x
x
Det Norske Veritas
DNV
1864
Oslo
x
x
Germanischer Lloyd
GL
1867
Hamburg
x
x
Nippon Kaiji Kyokai
NKK
1899
Tokyo
x
x
Russian Maritime Register of Shipping
(Российский морской регистр судоходства)
RS
1913
Sankt Petersburg
x
x
Hellenic Register of Shipping
HR
1919
Pireus
-
x
Polish Register of Shipping
PRS
1936
Gdańsk
-
x
Croatian Register of Shipping
CRS
1949
Split
-
-
China Classification Society
CCS
1956
Beijing
x
x
Korean Register of Shipping
KR
1960
Daejeon
x
x
Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia
BKI
1964
Jakarta
-
-
Registro Internacional Naval
RINAVE
1973
Paris
-
x
Indian Register of Shipping
IRS
1975
Mumbai
x
-
Brazilian Register of Shipping
RBNA
1982
Rio de Janeiro
-
-
International Register of Shipping
IROS
1993
Miami
-
-
Iranian Classification Society
ICS
2007
Tehran
-
-
Ships Classification Malaysia
SCM
1994
Shah Alam
-
-
External links
- ABS American Bureau of Shipping
- BKI Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia
- BV Bureau Veritas
- CCS China Classification Society
- CRS Hrvatski Registar Brodova (Croatian Register of Shipping)
- DNV Det Norske Veritas
- GL Germanischer Lloyd
- HRS Hellenic Register of Shipping for Greece
- ICS Iranian Classification Society
- IRS Indian Register of Shipping
- IROS International Register of Shipping
- KR Korean Register of Shipping
- LR Lloyd’s Register
- NK Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK)
- PRS Polish Register of Shipping (Polski Rejestr Statków)
- RBNA Registro Brasileiro de Navios (Brazilian Register of Shipping)
- RINA Registro Italiano Navale
- RINAVE Registro Internacional Naval SA
- RS Russian Maritime Register of Shipping
- GBS Guardian Bureau of Shipping
IACS document explaining Classification societies
See also
Prestige oil spill, an incident and following lawsuit that could have radically changed the role of class societies.
References
- ^ Such a certificate does not imply, and should not be construed as an express warranty of safety, fitness for purpose or seaworthiness of the ship. It is an attestation only that the vessel is in compliance with the standards that have been developed and published by the society issuing the classification certificate. IACS, What are classification societies?, p. 2
- ^ Put simply, the purpose of the classification certificate is not to guarantee safety, but merely to permit Sundance to take advantage of the insurance rates available to a classed vessel. The Sundancer (7 F.301 1077) per George C Pratt, Circuit Judge
- ^ Jack Devanney (2006): The Tankship Tromedy, The Impending Disasters in Tankers, CTX Press, Tavernier, Florida, ISBN 0977647900, p. 21-23
- ^ The Commission shares the concerns often expressed in various sectors of the maritime industry that the performance of classification societies does not always meet the standards required. COM(2000) 142 final, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the Safety of the Seaborne Oil Trade, p. 19
However, largely due to the commercial pressure exercised on the classification societies, and to the growing number of organisations operating in the field without having sufficient expertise and professionalism, the confidence of the shipping community in these organisations has declined in the recent decades. p. 23 - ^ LR plans to move its head office to Southampton in 2011
- ^ Recognition for Greece, Cyprus and Malta
- ^ Recognition for Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta and the Slovak Republic
- ^ Since 2004 in Bureau Veritas
- ^ Recognition for Portugal
- ^ Associate member of IACS
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