Human watch-keeping is necessary to prevent incidents at sea such as groundings and collisions. For many years, electronic aids to navigation have been utilised in watch-keeping but, with electronic marine systems becoming more sophisticated, the part they play in preventing collisions and groundings should become increasingly important. However, this article uses secondary data from the Safety Digest for 2008 compiled by the Marine Accident Investigation Bureau of the United Kingdom; eight case studies are used to show that electronic marine systems, whether integrated or not, are still playing a part in poor watch-keeping resulting in collisions, near misses and groundings. Primary data from fishing skippers of British based vessels have been used to confirm the findings from the secondary data that poor watch-keeping is often the cause of not keeping a proper lookout and that the watch-keeper has a too heavy reliance on the electronic aids. Brief suggestions are made as to how the electronic aids may be adapted to overcome these problems and thus to support the watch-keeper.

The introduction of AIS in 2002 and the drive to introduce electronic navigation aids to merchant ships had the principal stated objective of improving safety by enhancing situational awareness. This paper reviews the various types of electronic equipment fitted to vessels during the past five years in order to assist the watch-keeper, comments on the reduction in core watch-keeping skills and argues for a back-to-basics approach for watch-keepers. A version of this paper was first presented at the RIN conference NAV 07 in October 2007.