History of the Collision Regulations

The information on this page is not required to pass the examination on the COLREGS. The purpose is to provide background and context for those who may be interested. 

The current version of the Collision Regulations date from 1972. Several changes have been made since 1972, but, even with these, the rules that are in current use are still referred to as the "International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972" or, for brevity COLREGS 72 or just COLREGS. 

Thus the current rules are just over half a century old. Other national and international efforts to develop rules and procedures to enhance the safety of mariners began about a couple of centuries earlier. In fact, even earlier, the mariners along a particular coast or working out of a specific harbour generally employed agreed upon practices to reduce the danger of their ships colliding.  

Before the Industrial Revolution, ships were generally sailing vessels with top speeds less than 10 knots. If two came together the closing speed was often low enough that little damage would occur, and the risk to lives was "acceptable". The sources of risks to mariners of that era and their passengers were more likely due to groundings that might come from poor navigation and lack of knowledge of local hazards and unanticipated bad weather. 

As speed increased when ship gained mechanical propulsion, initially with steam engines, the impact of two ships colliding became much greater, both figuratively and literally. 

Between 1840 and 1863 rules developed in England and were subsequently adopted in joint agreement by Great Britain and France. By 1886 these and similar rules had been adopted as well by the United States, Germany, Belgium, Norway, and Denmark. Marine activity in Canada, as a member of the British Empire, was covered by the British participation in such international agreements. 

The following century saw several conferences that were intended to improve the international agreements, some successful, some less so. Breakthroughs in technology often "forced" participating nations to make changes.

One of the most influential new technologies was the use of marine radar; by using radar, many aspects of reduced visibility were ameliorated and crews were more able to predict how other vessels were manoeuvring. But there was still a learning curve as crews discovered and developed procedures to best use this then-novel technology.

Meanwhile courts were interpreting the different generations of the rules. The leading courts for the interpretation of international rules were the Admiralty Court in Britain and federal courts in the United States. In parallel, accident investigations became more authoritative as procedures and technology were improved. 

For Canadian waters the Federal courts system will function as the "admiralty court". Typically those courts get involved only in exceptional cases, e.g., a collision between large commercial vessels.

Apart from that, the Transportation Safety Board will investigate accidents if there is loss life, significant injury, or major damages; TSB marine reports are intended first of all to improve safety and not to support any legal moves (although reports are often used as evidence in judicial proceedings, if they happen). 

Two parties in a collision might go to civil courts (not an admiralty court) if one party were to sue another for causing a collision. Or the insurance companies for two parties might engage in negotiating a settlement (outside of the judicial system) over damages. In such circumstances a report from the TSB or some qualified investigators might be used. Such investigations will often rely on how closely the parties followed the Collision Regulations.