1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its eighty-fourth
session, revised the Code of Safety for Special Purpose Ships (SPS Code) adopted by resolution
A.534(13) to bring it up to date with amendments to SOLAS and
to extend the voluntary application of the revised Code to include
training ships, whether or not covered by the application requirements
of SOLAS.
2 The Code has been developed to provide an international
standard of safety for special purpose ships of new construction,
the application of which will facilitate operation of such ships and
result in a level of safety for the ships and their personnel equivalent
to that required by the International Convention for the Safety at
Life of Sea, 1974.
3 For the purposes of this Code, a special purpose
ship is a ship of not less than 500 gross tonnage which carries more
than 12 special personnel, i.e. persons who are specially needed for
the particular operational duties of the ship and are carried in addition
to those persons required for the normal navigation, engineering and
maintenance of the ship or engaged to provide services for the persons
carried on board.
4 Because special personnel are expected to be
able bodied with a fair knowledge of the layout of the ship and have
received some training in safety procedures and the handling of the
ship’s safety equipment, the special purpose ships on which
they are carried need not be considered or treated as passenger ships.
5 In developing the safety standards for this
Code it has been necessary to consider:
6 While the Code has been developed for new ships
of 500 gross tonnage and above, Administrations may also consider
the application of the provisions of the Code to ships of lesser tonnage.
The term “new ship” has not been defined in order to give
any Administration discretion to decide the effective date of entry
into force.
7 For facilitating the operation of special purpose
ships, this Code provides for a certificate, called a Special Purpose
Ship Safety Certificate, which should be issued to every special purpose
ship. Where a special purpose ship is normally engaged on international
voyages as defined in SOLAS it should, in addition, also carry SOLAS
safety certificates, either:
-
.1 for a passenger ship with a SOLAS Exemption
Certificate; or
-
.2 for a cargo ship with a SOLAS Exemption Certificate,
where necessary,
as the Administration deems appropriate.
8 Noting that the Code may be readily applied
to some ships that carry special personnel on board to which SOLAS
does not apply, the Maritime Safety Committee invites Administrations
to apply the standards of the Code to such ships to the extent deemed
reasonable and practicable.