선박운항과 당직사관에 대한 선장의 관리 ․ 감독의무에 대한 고찰

The officer in charge of the navigational watch is primarily responsible for the safe navigation of the ship. In hours of darkness, especially, the master and the officer in charge of navigational watch, when arranging look-out duty, shall have due regard to the bridge equipments and navigational aids available for use, their limitations, procedures and safeguards implemented. In determining that the composition of navigational watch is adequate to ensure that a proper look-out can continuously be maintained, the master shall take into account all relevant factors, including the following factors such as; visibility, state of weather and sea, traffic density and other factors which can influence the navigation of the vessel. Additionally, the master shall pay close attention to knowledges of and confidences in the professional competence of the officer's. When arranging duty of watch keeping on the bridge, the master also consider each officer's experience for the navigation of a ship and the familiarity of that officer with use of ship's equipments and procedure. However, the master's right of general control upon the execution of watch officer's duty of look-out does not need to be air-tight monitoring and supervision over the watch keeping. Therefore, although the master has much discretion in navigation, it can be wandering, whether the master always be responsible for any marine accidents occurring due to the lack of adequate watch keeping by an officer on the bridge. The master is only responsible for a marine accident when the accident has a causational relationship with the negligence of the master over the control and supervision on the deck officers for the watch keeping. Upon analysing rulings of the Korean Courts' and the Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal, it seems that the said rulings request the master too extremely high level of duties for the navigation of the ship and supervision of deck officers in charge of the navigation. To make effective use of the limited human resources on the bridge, it is absolutely necessary for the master and the officer in charge of navigational watch to set up a close team-work for the safety of navigation, instead of way of top-down, command and control from the master for carrying out their duties.