A lot of business people eye the shipping industry with envy because of the huge profits it reaps. While there is no denying to the fact that a shipping company has one of the biggest earnings a month any business could have, there are many problems which are faced constantly by it. The first and the biggest problem faced by it is the rust. Rust is a problem which can never be wiped out unless a ship starts getting built of plastic and that is certainly never going to happen. Rust appears easily on the ship’s different parts and it eats away the thick layer of the metal and creates a hole or many holes in it.

There is no way to keep rust from appearing on a ship’s body, but there are ways to repair the holes once they have appeared. The most affected part of the ship is the hatch covers and it is important to ensure hatch cover maintenance and watertight integrity testing on a regular basis. This testing provides information about the location of holes. Knowing where the holes have appeared helps in creating a strategy to implement the repair work. Since applying the repairs to a massive sized ship is not a day’s work, the management has to schedule the right time for sending the ship to the workshop.

A lot of shipments have been destroyed by water during the voyages. It happens when the holes get big enough to let the water flow inside without control. As the water starts entering the cargo holds it starts wetting the goods and then there is no limit to the damages that can be done by it. Apart from damaging the goods, presence of water inside a ship can be the most dangerous thing. Since there are heavy cables all around the ship like a net controlling and providing electricity to the different components and areas of the ship, when water enters the ship’s body it also gets inside the cable transit areas.

Presence of water inside the cable transit areas means there is a possibility of an electric short circuit. Hence there is no denying to the importance of cable transit areas watertight testing. This test can make the crew aware of the weaker areas of the cable transit paths and they can learn about the locations from where water can enter. Applying the repairs to these cable transit areas is not a huge task and can be done by the maintenance staff of the ship. It can be even done while the ship is sailing so the test can be easily conducted even when the voyage has started.