Even its own staff wonder what is going on at CalMac HQ. The management has now accepted that the current pre-departure safety announcement on the Loch Seaforth is incorrect.
The ferry company says: “The safety announcement referred to ‘lifeboats, life rafts, lifebuoys and other buoyant apparatus’’ rather than “lifeboats, life rafts, lifebuoys or other buoyant apparatus.” A re-recording has now been made using the correct terminology.”
Staff member says they will not lie to ferry passengers for CalMac boss Martin Dorchester (above) after his failure to order safety announcements without references to lifeboats
However the fact that there will still be references to lifeboats, which are of variable sound quality and often misheard, has angered not just safety campaigners but also members of the ferry crew.
A CalMac crew person, who asked not to be named, said: “This is crazy. The Loch Seaforth announcement is still going to refer to the ferry as having lifeboats. The truth is that it does not have a single lifeboat on board. Passengers are being misled and this will continue to do that.”
Instead of lifeboats, the Loch Seaforth has an inflatable chute on each side which goes down into a large inflatable craft known as a Marine Evacuation System, or MES.
The crew source said: “The management of our company goes into denial mode when it is facing any health and safety issue. It just denies everything. It told the public lies about having generic announcements which thankfully Captain Morris Macleod also exposed. This is extremely embarrassing for us who have to deal with the public. We will admit to any passenger that they should ignore all references in announcements to lifeboats on the ferry. I am not going to tell lies to anyone to save Martin Dorchester’s face.”
The staff source said he hoped the public would make it clear to CalMac management that any references to lifeboats in the safety announcements would be unacceptable and would lead to the public being confused and being deliberately deceived. They said: “They must record a proper safety announcement and the public should demand that. Any references to lifeboats are just barefaced lies.”
Transport minister Derek Mackay has refused to tell the ferry company to remove references to lifeboats from its announcements. After considering the matter, his office decided it was a matter for CalMac management.
I have asked CalMac whether it will now order its crews not to tell passengers that the Loch Seaforth has no lifeboats.
Yesterday I referred this misleading Pre Departure Safety Announcement to the International Maritime Organisation in London. The IMO, a United Nations body, is the ultimate authority on marine safety world wide and the final recourse when the MCA give unsatisfactory responses to safety matters.
I have never known crew and staff morale to be so low in all my years at CalMac, and it is as a direct result of the way we are treated by Transport Scotland and the SNP Edinburgh government, who have no idea about running a ferry service, and are hell bent on privatising the whole bundle of routes.
We already have agency staff on zero contracts and lower wages working alongside us, and some of the shore based staff, especially in Stornoway, are so blinded by the SNP that they can see nothing wrong.
I tried to speak to Angus Brendan last week about the situation, but he spent the whole voyage playing with his mobile phone.
This is an example of pedantry at its finest. There is absolutely no safety issue here. Who is being “misled” exactly?
To the layman, such as myself, the “large inflatable craft” to which they will be guided in the event of an emergency is, in the most literal sense of the term, a Life Boat – i.e. a seagoing craft, or BOAT provided expressly for the purpose of conveying them to safety, thus preserving their LIFE.
Those, such as the complainer here, who are experienced enough to detect the apparent technical distinction between this life-preserving craft and a “lifeboat” surely are not going to be confused and thus placed in any unnecessary danger. Or do we assume that, should the worst happen, you would refuse to be rescued in this way, just to prove your “point?”
Pedantry and semantics, and as usual it is the public purse that will ultimately pick up the bill for correcting this technicality to your satisfaction. A great achievement on your part, take a bow.
Its good to see the cutting edge and high standards of reporting here. Clearly this is one of the most crucial issues affecting the Western Isles today, and should be front page news in all the nationals. No wonder the poulation is in decline. Morris Macleod can rest easy knowing the the latest part of his personal vendetta against CalMac is now getting the full attention of the international community.
Journalism my a**e.
I’m afraid Pugwash Morris is bang on the money with this one. He went to the Seaforth Captain FIRST and the the thing could have easily been nipped in the bud and corrected. I share your view in that I do not understand what drives the man other than he enjoys being in the limelight. It is very unprofessional for one Captain to publicly criticise another. These things should be sorted quietly behind closed doors. In this instance Morris tried this approach and it beggars belief that Calmac Ferries are being so pedantic and not just admitting it was wrong, apologise and correct it and in the process close the matter.
I am sickened by some of the comment to this article. Probably because I have worked in health and safety offshore for so many years I would have thought that it is very important that the announcement is 100 per cent correct and could not cause confusion among passengers. TheLoch Seaforth announcement fails that test. Only idiots would say it is fine just because they do not have the intelligence to think of any safety implications. These of course are the same people who attack Capt Macleod for trying to persuade the company to put it right. The fact that some of them claim to be mariners makes me really worry for anyone who is dependent on them for their safety.