The Modern Mariners' Log - Canadian Technology Onboard

2004-10-14

A decade ago, the Estonia ferry capsized into the Baltic Sea and sank off the Finnish coast, claiming more than 850 lives.

But unlike airline crash recovery efforts, where investigators are able to use the plane's black box to help determine the cause of the accident, the Estonia – and, for that matter, all other passenger and cargo vessels at the time – had no equivalent technology to assist in tracing possible reasons for a marine disaster.

Today, all passenger and large cargo ships must carry onboard voyage data recorders (VDRs), which like airline black boxes, can provide essential clues to the cause of an accident. 

Canada, and particularly a Newfoundland company, has played a lead role in the development of both VDRs and the international standards that regulate their use.

Based in St. John's, Rutter Technologies Inc. is named after the “rutter” navigational log books that mariners historically carried on voyages. It was established in 1998 to design, manufacture and market VDRs and has since become the world's largest supplier of these devices.

Rutter's VDR features two components. A main inboard unit - initially the size of a bar fridge, but reduced to the size of a beer cooler in its second-generation configuration - collects information about the vessel including its position, speed, course and radar displays. It also records radio communications as well as conversations (what the deck officer sees on radar) and commands on the bridge to and from the engine room and the rudder.

The second component is a rugged device called a capsule and shaped like a barbecue. Essentially the ships' memory, it sits outside above the bridge and stores all the incoming information. Should a ship go down, the capsule – like a black box on an aircraft – is the portion that would be retrieved to access the information stored on memory chips inside.

Rutter's VDR system also comes with software, which extracts data and downloads it over an Ethernet or local area network for playback in a multimedia environment complete with such visuals as the ship's navigation pattern.

As Rutter Technologies president and co-founder Byron Dawe explains, the company's VDR can be used not only in the event of a catastrophe, but is more often relied on as a “management tool” to deal with minor incidents, such as pinpointing why a ship bumped against a dock or to provide a snapshot of a vessel's seaworthiness as part of its regular maintenance.

“Our VDR can also be used as a security device,” says Dawe, an electrical engineer by training.

“You can put one of these devices on board and find out everything that was happening on the ship for the last 12 hours. Some luxury cruise ships that use our technology, like Holland America, are using our VDRs to record from 20 to 30 days for both management and security purposes.”

More than 400 ships carry Rutter VDRs – and, the company is hoping many more will follow suit now that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires that all passenger ships and large cargo vessels travelling through international waters carry some form of the device.

As he did with the creation of Rutter's VDR, Dawe played a key role in the development of VDR standards that emerged from the Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and which the IMO has adopted.

As a member of the IEC's Technical Committee on Maritime Navigation and Radio Communication Equipment and Systems (IEC/TC 80), Dawe participated in the Working Group on Shipborne Voyage Data Recorders (WG 11) that developed IEC 61996, which sets performance requirements for VDRs. The standard was published in July 2000.

However, Dawe's involvement on WG 11 wasn't a sure thing, according to Pieter Leenhouts, manager of the Canadian Coast Guard's Integrated Navigation Information System, who chaired the Canadian subcommittee of the IEC/TC 80 from 1998 to 2003. He recounts that when the working group was created Canada was not immediately able to participate because it only had observer status on the technical committee. Leenhouts quickly realized this would need to be changed.

“ Rutter is the company that pushed the technology. We were very concerned that England dominated the working group and was pushing for a standard based on the VDR specifications of an English company.  So we really had to up the ante and make sure we participated on this working group,” said Leenhouts.

To stress the importance  of Canada having a voice on WG 11, Leenhouts gathered together presentations from 45 different Canadian technical and electronics agencies from the private and public sector.  He made the pitch to the Standards Council – Canada's official liaison with the IEC – and secured two positions as voting members on the working group. One went to Dawe, the other to Mike Poole, formerly with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

The high probability that VDR standards developed by the IEC would become the basis for IMO's international regulations made Canada's involvement in the process even more consequential.

Says Leenhouts: “Once regulations are chiselled in stone, it's very difficult to make any changes and that's why having representation at the development stage is very important.”

The IMO now requires that IEC 61996 compliant VDRs  be carried by all international passenger ships and ro-ro passenger ships (vessels such as ferries that carry passengers and cargo). The same regulation applies to cargo vessels weighing 3,000 gross tonnes or more and built on or after July 1, 2002. Depending on their weight, cargo ships have until July 1, 2010, to comply with the standards.

By Dawe's estimate, between 1,500 and 2,000 ships now have VDRs on board, but he guesses that at least another 15,000 to 20,000, will have to be retrofitted in order to accommodate the devices by decade's end. And that doesn't count the estimated 1,500 new ships built around the world every year – all of which creates tremendous opportunity for Rutter. It hopes to capture a 30 per cent market share beyond its current position estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent.

Dawe says the market for VDRs is just now starting to open up and he adds that it could get even larger, if all countries, including Canada, which regulate vessel traffic in their own waters, had domestic VDR requirements.

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This article first appeared in Volume 31 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2004.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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