weather and navigational hazards,
helping to improve the vessel’s all-around security and safely.
Communication is, of course, a
two-way street, and in order for
organizations like the PRC to be
able to warn ships of the dangers of
hijacking, it is imperative that
ships are able to warn shore-based
authorities that they are under
attack or have been hijacked. This
enables authorities to take action
and warn other ships via organizations such as the PRC.
One method by which this can be
performed is via the SSAS, which is
carried across INMARSAT C and
other satellite communications services that are used by most modern
merchant vessels and passenger
ships. SSAS messages can alert shore
authorities that a vessel has been
hijacked.
Dedicated SSAS infrastructure is
available from several companies,
including KVH Industries Inc. of Middletown, R.I.,
which produces the eTrac satellite e-mail system that
uses the INMARSAT C network and which also provides
real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) information
regarding the vessel’s location.
Vizada, a global satellite communication service provider with a presence in France, Norway and the United
States, also offers SSAS services using INMARSAT C.
Jean Marc Duc, who manages the company’s
INMARSAT C and SkyFile Weather products, said that
“either the flag country or the shipping company puts
into place their own processes for managing SSAS messages, and details the addresses where these messages
Typically, SSAS alerts can be dispatched over
INMARSAT C or other communications satellites to
specific National Response Coordination Centers
(NRCCs) from which Coast Guard and military vessels
can then be directed to either monitor the situation or
attempt to bring the hijacking to an end.
One of the benefits of the SSAS system is that it is
discreet.
“With a standard distress message you have an alert
onboard the vessel and onboard all vessels that are in
the nearby area,” Duc said. “SSAS is completely different. It is a silent alert. The master will push a button
and that is it; the alert is then received onshore. There
is no signal onboard and no light, just to be sure that
if the pirates are onboard they won’t be alerted.”
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
The container ship MV Maersk Alabama is seen from the deck of the amphibi-
ous assault ship USS Boxer as it leaves Mombasa, Kenya, April 21 after
spending time in port following a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia during
which its captain was taken hostage. Maersk Alabama was attacked off
Somalia again in November. Shipping companies are employing new technolo-
gies to improve information exchanges that can help ships steer clear of pos-
sible troubles spots while at sea.
In this regard, the SSAS behaves not unlike the
‘7500’ code that can be surreptitiously dialed into an
airliner’s transponder by pilots to alert air traffic controllers that their aircraft has been hijacked.
Vizada’s satellite communications services also carry
GMDSS transmissions, which can be routed to a nominated NRCC.
According to Duc, “distress calls can be routed via
our satellite ground station at Issus-Aussaguel in
southwest France. We have a partnership with the
French NRCC, a partnership with the Norwegian
NRCC via our ground station in that country and also
with the United States Coast Guard. If, for instance,
the vessel is in the Pacific, the French NRCC can
receive the signal and then transmit the distress call to
the local NRCC in the Pacific area.”
GMDSS can trace its life back to 1979 and the draft-
ing of the International Convention on Maritime
Search and Rescue that urged the creation, by the
International Maritime Organization, of a network
with global reach using conventional radio and satel-
lite communications.
GMDSS now allows mariners to be informed of local
dangers as well as share this information with land-based facilities and other vessels which could go a long
way toward reducing the number of incidents such as
the MV Asian Glory hijacking or the separate attacks
the container ship MV Maersk Alabama faced last April
and again in November. ■
