The ISM Code: When the System Exists… but Safety Depends on People

Most maritime accidents don’t begin with broken equipment.

They begin with silence.

In Episode 10 of Seafarer’s Way, Captain Rommel explores SOLAS Chapter IX — the International Safety Management (ISM) Code — not as a manual or an audit requirement, but as a deeply human system built around behavior, trust, and decision-making under pressure.

This episode looks beyond procedures and paperwork to ask the uncomfortable questions: Why do accidents still happen in companies that are “fully compliant”? Why do near misses go unreported? Why do people follow procedures they know don’t quite fit the situation — or stay quiet when something feels wrong?

The ISM Code was created after investigations revealed a hard truth: many disasters occurred not because rules were missing, but because communication failed, concerns were ignored, and safety culture was weak. Ships had manuals. Companies had systems. But people didn’t feel safe speaking up.

Captain Rommel reflects on how safety culture actually shows itself — in small, everyday moments. A junior officer deciding whether to challenge a decision. A crew member is debating whether to report a defect. A Master choosing between schedule pressure and safety. These moments, often invisible, are where ISM either lives or fails.

This episode also examines one of the most misunderstood ideas in maritime safety: that ISM is not about preventing mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable. ISM exists to prevent the same mistake from happening again — by learning honestly, without blame, and without fear.

Listeners will hear why near misses are some of the most valuable safety signals a company can receive — and why failing to act on them is a warning sign of deeper system failure. The episode also explores the reality of the Master’s overriding authority, and the difference between authority that is written down and authority that is truly supported.

This is not an episode about audits.

It is about people.

Because inspectors leave.
Paperwork ends.
But emergencies don’t wait.

SOLAS Chapter IX exists to remind us that safety is not automatic.
It is intentional.
And it depends on whether people feel supported enough to speak — before silence becomes an accident.