Ship Thickness Measurement and Maritime Inspection in Europe

Who commissions ship gauging in Europe

Many of the decisions about the world's ships are made in Europe, even for ships that rarely call there. Greek owners control the largest owned fleet of any nation, and their technical departments in Piraeus and the Athens area plan dockings for bulk carriers and tankers trading worldwide. Limassol in Cyprus is a major centre for third-party ship management. German owners and managers, centred on Hamburg, run large container and multipurpose fleets; Norwegian and Danish companies manage tankers, gas carriers, offshore and specialist tonnage; and London remains a centre for P&I clubs, chartering and marine insurance.

So an enquiry from Europe is often about a ship somewhere else. A superintendent in Piraeus may want a bulk carrier gauged in China ahead of her third renewal survey; a manager in Hamburg may want scrubber piping checked on a container ship at a Rotterdam lay-by berth. We plan from where the ship will be, and the report goes to whoever commissioned it.

Paris MoU port state control and the condition of the hull

Port state control in the coastal states of the EU, the United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland runs under the Paris MoU. Its inspection regime targets ships by risk profile, so ship type, age, flag, the managing company's record and the ship's own detention history decide how often and how deeply she is inspected. Structural deficiencies, from wasted hatch coamings and deck fittings to corroded ballast tank structure seen through an open manhole, are among the findings that can lead to detention.

Inspectors do not normally gauge, but they look, and visible wastage invites a closer inspection. Owners trading older bulk carriers and tankers into European ports gauge between surveys, at the areas most likely to draw comment, to know where they stand before the ship arrives. That is owner's work and needs no class approval. If it finds substantial corrosion the class society should be informed, and any survey gauging that follows needs a firm approved by the ship's classification society.

Black Sea ports also come under the Black Sea MoU, whose members include Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey, and Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean ports are covered by the Mediterranean MoU as well.

Ice-class hulls: Baltic and Nordic winter service

Ships trading to Finnish, Swedish and northern Baltic ports in winter are built to the Finnish-Swedish Ice Class Rules, in classes from IA Super down to IC, and the winter traffic restrictions set the minimum ice class allowed into each port. The ice belt, the strengthened band of shell plating around the waterline, and its frames carry the ice loads; the bow and forefoot take the worst of them.

Ice abrades coatings faster than anything in open water, and bare steel in the ice belt then corrodes through the summer. Ice also dents plating and trips frames, and cracks can start where frames meet stringers and decks. Gauging the ice belt after the season, with a record of dents and MT on suspect frame connections, gives the owner the evidence for the next docking specification. Docking after the ice season rather than before it means the repair list reflects the winter just finished.

Planning a European gauging job from India

Our teams need a visa for most European destinations. A Schengen visa covers most EU states and the non-EU Schengen members such as Norway and Iceland, but not every EU state is in the Schengen area, and the United Kingdom, Ireland and Turkey each have their own entry rules. Visa appointments are often the slowest link, so we apply as soon as the docking is confirmed, attaching the yard's or agent's letter that confirms the work, and keep the travel dates flexible within the visa's validity.

In port, the ship's agent handles access: gate passes for berths and terminals under the ISPS Code, launches for anchorage work, and yard induction for drydock jobs. We send the agent the team's names, passport details and equipment list early. Winter in the Baltic and the North Sea brings short daylight and weather that can stop launches, so anchorage work there carries more contingency than the same job in the Mediterranean.

Ports we cover in Europe

Each European country with more than one port page has its own page, listed under "In this section" below, and every port has a page describing the traffic, the yards and anchorages where gauging happens, and the jobs we see there.

Frequently asked questions

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