ABSTRACT
Maritime safety standards were at best laissez faire in the mid-nineteenth century. Nevertheless, people’s perception of sea travel changed dramatically, and by the late 1800s and early 1900s it became one of the most popular modes of travel. Some of the more prominent work in maritime human factors was initiated by the United States (US) with the establishment of the Committee on Undersea Warfare in 1946. Throughout the 1980s maritime human factors seemed to pass through a period of darkness where initiatives in this area were few and sparse. In 1993, the US Coast Guard reported that 80 percent of maritime accidents were caused by human error. On these grounds, the Prevention through People program was initiated, which looked at developing a long-term safety strategy focusing on human error prevention. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
