Cherry Sand — The Solo Mooring
Cherry Sand
Trailing suction hopper dredger · Port Babcock Rosyth, Firth of Forth · 28 February 2019
Source: MAIB Report 9/2020
The Situation
You're the temporary master of a trailing suction hopper dredger, coming alongside at Port Babcock Rosyth. Mooring is about to start, but there's no second person free to help you handle lines on deck — the rest of the crew are tied up elsewhere. You've moored plenty of vessels before.
The Lesson
Mooring is a team task. A one-person mooring operation removes the one safeguard that matters most — someone else who can stop the vessel or raise the alarm the moment something goes wrong.
Human Element
Single-handed mooring had become normalised aboard this vessel, and an earlier, similar crushing incident had been covered up rather than reported — removing the one signal that might have driven a change in practice before it happened again, this time fatally.
Try the First Decision
Nobody else is available to help with mooring stations right now. You could hold the vessel off and wait for a second person to become free, or push on and handle the lines yourself to keep to schedule.
This is a preview — the full scenario branches from here based on what you choose, with real consequences and a debrief at the end.
Play the Full Scenario — Free
Create a free profile to play this scenario through to the end, with a full human-factors debrief. No card required.
Create Free Profile & Play →