Mumbai: The Indian Register of Shipping (IRS), one of the world’s leading ship classification societies, has launched a new software package for ship safety. The software, the first of its kind in the world, is called Ship_Mate and is aimed at providing the ship’s crew with the information they need to manage the safety of their ship.

Ship_Mate gives the crew information about the stability of the ship, in both floating and grounded conditions. If the ship is grounded or damaged, Ship_Mate informs the crew about the likely problems caused by the water flowing in and what effect any proposed remedial action may have.

Ship_Mate is useful in normal conditions too as it provides information on corrosion levels in tanks and holds, and identifies any structural components that need to be renewed. Ship_Mate also helps in ballast water management and planned maintenance of machinery.

“The development of Ship_Mate is in tune with IRS’ philosophy that improvement in maritime safety can only be brought about by involvement of all players. It is towards this end that we identified development of software packages for use on board ships as a new thrust area of our research and development,” says an IRS press release.

The information obtained from Ship_Mate can also be used as factual evidence during surveys conducted by port state control (PSC), flag state authorities and during international safety management (ISM) audits.