The Ships Safety Centers or in French "''Centres de Sécurité des Navires''" are specialized services of the French Directorate general for Maritime affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture. They are responsible for ships surveying and participate in the protection of human life at sea and the prevention of pollution from ships. They are located along the French coast and overseas. Within these centers, ship safety inspectors are responsible for both surveys of French flag vessels (as Flag State surveyor) and of foreign vessels under Port State Control.

Missions

For vessels under the French flag, the inspectors are responsible for monitoring construction, commissioning and periodic safety surveys for vessels not delegated to authorized classification societies such as

Bureau Veritas Bureau Veritas is a French company specialized in testing, inspection and certification founded in 1828. It operates in a variety of sectors, including building and infrastructure (27% of revenue), agri-food and commodities (23% of revenue), mar ...

or RINA. These are currently

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

s regardless of their size (

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

to Corsica or the English Channel,

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s, shuttles to the coastal islands) as well as ships less than 24 m in length, this mainly involves

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to fishing, catch fish and other valuable nektonic aquatic animals (e.g. shrimps/prawns, krills, coleoids, etc.) in the sea, lake or river. Humans have used different kinds of surface vessels in commercial ...

s, pleasure craft for commercial use and support vessels (

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...

s, dredges). To carry out these inspections, the inspectors base themselves on the technical standards published by th
French maritime administration
as well as IMO international conventions such as SOLAS or MARPOL for larger ships. Ship safety inspectors are also responsible for auditing and issuing certificates on all French vessels with a tonnage greater than 500 GT for ISM (safety management), ISPS (security management) as well as MLC (social certification). Inspectors from ship safety centers are Port State Control Officer for the Paris Mou. As such, inspectors visit foreign ships touching French ports and check the conformity of ship and seafarer certificates ( STCW), check the proper functioning of safety equipment (fire, rescue, GMDSS, etc.), and those related to pollution prevention ( OWS,

ballast Ballast is dense material used as a weight to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within ...

), they also ensure the respect of social conditions of seafarers (cleanliness of the premises, prevention of accidents and working hours on board). In the event of a serious breach, the vessel may be detained until the deficiencies identified are corrected. In 2018, 1073 PSC inspections were carried out, more than half of them revealed deficiencies on board and 35 ships were detained in French ports. These inspections concern all types of cargo ships, commercial yachts as well as passenger ships. The inspectors also carry out checks on the compliance of the fuels used by ships with regard to international regulations concerning sulfur content, for this, samples are taken by inspectors for laboratory analysis or by using drones

Inspectors

The inspectors working in Ships Safety Center belong to the French Civil Service, they are either members of a military ''corps'' " Administrateurs des affaires maritimes" or the technical ''corps'' of the " Ingénieurs des Travaux Publics de l'Etat". These inspectors are trained in the specialized school "

École nationale de la sécurité et de l'administration de la mer The École du service public de la mer, (Public Maritime Service School) is a Grande école, Grande Ecole of the French Ministry of the Sea. It trains French Civil Service, civil and military officers for the Directorate general for Maritime affa ...

" and through training sessions organized by the European Maritime Safety Agency.{{Cite web, last=, first=, date=, title=Division 110, url=https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/d110_%2828-12-17%29.pdf, archive-url=, archive-date=, access-date=, website=

References

Maritime safety in France Maritime safety organizations Ship registration Maritime organisations based in France

Missions

Inspectors

See also

References