What can be dealt with during a port call

A ship alongside usually stays between twelve and thirty-six hours. That is not the time we have. Out of it come entry to the area, reporting at the gate, getting equipment up the gangway, the joint inspection and getting off before sailing.

On an eighteen-hour call the usable window is around eight to ten hours. We work it out with the ship’s agent before confirming, and we say what will not fit — air treatment that needs ventilation time, controlled drying, a porous substrate that will not dry in time.

The ship's agent orders and coordinates the call. The owner or ship manager pays. The master decides what happens on board, and that decision overrides every other. So a job is arranged with the agent and confirmed with the ship.

On board, the ship’s rules apply: we report to the officer on watch, we follow the ship’s safety instructions, and we touch none of the ship’s installations. We do not stand in for the crew and we do not employ seafarers.

The principle is that of a job ashore: surface decontamination, treatment of porous materials — mattress, textiles, linings — odour removal, final check. What differs is the window, and the fact that all of it happens in a tight volume on ventilation that is not ours.

Personal effects are not touched. They are the master's responsibility under the company's procedures, which are precise and which protect the family. We work after that step, never before, and we confirm it in writing to the agent.