Voice and Text Messaging in Ship Communication

Misunderstandings in voice radio communication have been identified as a root cause of accidents at sea. One reason is language problems in a multi ethnic industry. Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP) was developed by the IMO to mitigate this problem, but studies show it is not commonly used. Difficulties to pronounce and understand English spoken by different nationalities adds to the problem. Maybe text messaging could be useful in non-time critical marine communication? This paper presents a study where VHF voice versus text messages in a land-based deep sea pilotage scenario was compared. The finding was that text based messages worked well and that there was a lower risk of misinterpreting the information