ABSTRACT: The use of ?Standard Maneuvering Orders? for tugboats, vocabulary and phrases mutually pre-agreed between ships and tugboats, is essential for the former to provide clear direction for the latter when berthing or un-berthing safely. Tugboats will need time to change their posture before they take actions in response to orders from persons responsible for ships? maneuvering. Therefore, when giving directions to change tugboats? posture, persons who handle their ships are required to send out tug orders, with regard to ?delay time,? a gap be-tween the orders from ships and the actions taken by tugboats. ?Tug Orders? standardized and used in Japan are composed of the following three factors concerning towage work: tugboat?s motion, direction and engine power, but the author?s research shows that there are ?Non-standard? special maneuvering orders other than those ?standardized,? which causes such problems as a gap in perception between pilots and tugboat?s opera-tors, etc. The purpose of this paper is to research the delay time between orders for and actions by tugboats and consider the appropriate and safe timing of providing instructions to them, and then to propose globally-authorized ?Standard Maneuvering Orders for tugboats?, discussing a problem involved in the use of the special orders used in Japan, and the way in which tug orders are used in other countries.

KEYWORDS: Ship Manoeuvrability, Tugboats, Standard Maneuvering Orders, Tug Orders, Standard Maneuvering Orders for Tugboats, IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP), Communication among Bridge Team, Bridge Team Management

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