In response to Anthony Hammett's letter (July 24), I would just like to make the following comments.

Firstly, Mr Hammett refers to his life saver. I am assuming by this he means his life raft.

The Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping 1995 (STCW 95) requires all seafarers working onboard SOLAS (International Convention for the Safety Of Life At Sea 1974) vessels to undertake a course called Certificate of Proficiency in Personal Survival Techniques (PST).

Now although Mr Hammett is most probably not a watch keeper, nor a professional seafarer, nor the boat he was in a SOLAS vessel, it is, however, the responsibility of the skipper and/or the owner of the vessel to ensure that all persons onboard are adequately familiarised with the LSA (Life Saving Appliances) onboard, this includes life rafts. This would, in turn, mean that the skipper and/or owner has the responsibility to take this course at a recognised maritime establishment, that is, Mcast, under authorisation of the MMA (Malta Maritime Authority).

Mr Hammett then goes on to give an account of, how when he brought his vessel back to Malta from Pozzallo, Italy, all of a sudden a strong gale developed! Now each and every person in command of a vessel, whether it be a small wooden craft with a tiny outboard or a super yacht, is responsible for everyone's safety onboard that vessel. If you are going to make a passage from Italy to Malta, you check the latest weather fax and obtain updates frequently either via an onboard weather fax, internet, calling the Met Office or calling other vessels in the area.

The Mediterranean is not known for freak Katabatic winds to all of a sudden pop out of thin air! So in this case the person in command of the vessel at the time whether it be Mr Hammett or another person, was at fault in this case.

To hear a person say: "At one time we were considering throwing a life raft into the sea so that we could abandon the boat because the wind was very strong and the boat was taking in water" is to wonder what would a life raft do in such a situation? Correct me if I am wrong but I thought Mr Hammett did not know how to launch and inflate it, let alone maintain it? One should always remember that one's ship/boat is one's best life raft. Do not abandon it unless all other options have failed. One would wonder if the water Mr Hammett was taking onboard was a wave breaking over the bow!

With regard to "the rock" between Comino and Kemmunett, personally I have not been up to these waters in a pleasure craft. I have, however, had a look at the navigational chart for the area (Admiralty Chart 194) and, unfortunately, this area of water, which, as Mr Hammett quite rightly put it, is an area where "many boats meet", does not show this underwater rock for the reason that the Admiralty deem this area of navigable water adequately chartered.

The rock Mr Hammett mentioned lies in a contour of less than 10 metres at chart datum. Like a lot of places in the world, where small craft venture into these areas of shallow water, they do so at their own risk and should navigate with extreme caution, making use of navigational equipment available to them, that is, echo sounders.

Malta has a lot of shallow water around its coastline and underwater obstructions such as rocks and mariners are advised to use all publications available to them (Admiralty charts, and Pilot books) to navigate with caution in these areas.

I was amused once again to read in Mr Hammett's letter that he had written a letter to The Times two years ago but nothing was done about it! Did he not think about sending a letter to the Malta Maritime Authority which is responsible for the waters around their coastline as apposed to a national newspaper?

(The author is Second Officer, Merchant Navy.)