Running the drill is half the job. Under the ISM Code the other half is proving it: a drill that left no record is, to an auditor, a drill that did not happen. This article covers what the record needs to show. It is not legal advice; your SMS and your flag's ISM guidance are the authority for your vessel.
Where the requirement comes from
- ISM Code section 8 (emergency preparedness) requires the company to establish procedures for responding to emergencies, and to run a programme of drills and exercises that prepares for them.
- ISM Code section 12 (verification and review) requires internal audits, which means the drill programme has to be auditable: schedules, records, findings, follow-up.
- SOLAS III/19 separately requires each drill to be entered in the official log book, including a record of when a full drill was not held and why.
What a drill record needs to show
Across flag states, an ISM auditor reviewing a drill record is looking for the same handful of facts:
- When the drill ran and what scenario it exercised
- Who took part, and who was absent, so the every-crew-member-monthly test is answerable
- How long it took, from alarm to all accounted for
- What happened: equipment used, problems found, anything that failed
- What was learned, and what changed as a result. This is the one crews miss most, and it is the one the ISM cycle actually turns on.
The log book and the SMS record are different things
The official log book entry is required by SOLAS and is usually a few lines: date, time, drill type, remarks. The SMS record is the fuller evidence the ISM audit reads: attendance, timings, findings, follow-up. Keeping the second does not excuse the first; the practical pattern is to write the log book entry from the SMS record so the two can never disagree.
The DPA has to be able to see it
The Designated Person Ashore is the link between the vessel and the company, and section 8's drill programme is part of what they oversee. A drill record that lives in a binder on the bridge is invisible to the person whose job is to notice the missed month.
How The Muster App helps: every session run on the iPad becomes a record with the facts above already in it: timestamp, scenario, drill or real flag, who was accounted for and who was missing, elapsed time, the event log as a timeline, and the audio recording. Export any session as a CSV and that is the SMS evidence document, and the source for the log book entry. The event log and the recording are what make the "what was learned" section honest: you review what was actually said and done, not what everyone remembers a month later. And the DPA can be given admin access to see every session remotely, the same day it ran, instead of at the next audit.
For the drill cadence the records need to evidence, see how often drills must be run; for reviewing sessions after the fact, see reviewing past muster sessions.