The International Safety Management Code (ISM Code) comes with a mandatory compliance requirement by virtue of its adoption in to SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Chapter IX, and has come in to force since 1 July 1998. The background for the Code is certain tragic shipping accidents including the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987 and the loss of the Estonia in 1994. Under the Code, effective for most vessels (including tankers) of 500 gt and above from 1998 and for other cargo ships and mobile offshore drilling units of 500 gt and above from 2002, companies needed to develop, implement and maintain a Safety Management Systems (SMS) for their vessels. Compliance requires both shore (management) and ship side (officers and ratings) implementation. See PDF for complete article. By Captain John Dudley MSc Consultant at Tankerisk LLC Madison, Wisconsin USA john.dudley@tankerisk.com   www.tankerisk.com   Disclaimer The above article has been produced by or in co-operation with correspondents or other external sources and is reproduced here with their kind permission for general information purposes only. Reference is made to the Legal disclaimer governing use of this website.