Appendix C: Reading List
The sources this guide rests on, followed by a short list of further reading for the officer who wants to go deeper. The first group is what was cited throughout; read those first. The second group is where to go next, for the law, the cases, and the practice.
The sources used in this guide
MISCPUB 0127, the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. The text of the Rules as used throughout, in the edition incorporating the December 2013 amendments. This is the primary instrument: when anything in the guide quotes a Rule, this is the source, and it is the text you should paste into the annotated-rules blocks. Read the Rules themselves first and often; everything else is commentary on them.
Cockcroft and Lameijer, A Guide to the Collision Avoidance Rules, 7th edition. The standard commentary, and the one this guide leans on most heavily for interpretation, the meaning of particular words, and the case law. Where the guide says how a phrase has been read in practice, or what the courts have made of it, the authority is usually here. It is the single most useful book to own alongside the Rules.
BR45, the Admiralty Manual of Navigation, Volume 4. The naval reference for ship handling, watchkeeping and the practical application of the Rules in a warship. Used in the guide for the points where naval practice meets the international Rules, including how a vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre acquires and loses that status through her work.
UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982. The law-of-the-sea backdrop: the maritime zones, the right of innocent passage, and the framework within which the Rules apply. Used in the guide for the questions of where the Rules bite and how sovereign immunity sits against them.
CUES, the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea. The multinational protocol for what warships and naval aircraft do when they meet unexpectedly. Drawn on for the naval scenarios, where the Rules are the floor and CUES adds a layer of agreed conduct.
ATP-1, the Allied Maritime Tactical Signal and Manoeuvring Book. The allied publication governing formation manoeuvring and signals. Relevant where vessels in company are manoeuvring under tactical control while still owing the Rules to other traffic.
Further reading
The COLREG Convention 1972, IMO consolidated edition. The full convention with its four Annexes (technical detail of lights and shapes, extra signals for fishing vessels in close proximity, technical detail of sound appliances, and distress signals) and the official IMO interpretations. Worth having for the Annexes, which the Rules repeatedly point to but do not reproduce.
Farwell’s Rules of the Nautical Road. A long-standing and thorough treatment of the Rules, strong on the reasoning behind them and on worked situations. A good second commentary to read against Cockcroft, since seeing two careful writers handle the same Rule sharpens your own reading.
Marsden and Gault, Collisions at Sea. The major legal text on collision liability. Beyond what most watchkeepers need, but the place to go when you want the law in depth: how fault is apportioned, how the Rules are applied in court, and what the leading cases actually decided.
Official collision investigation reports. The reports of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) are free, readable, and sobering. Reading a handful of real collisions, with the track plots and the findings, does more to fix the Rules in mind than any amount of recitation, because you see exactly where judgement failed.
The Nautical Institute publications on watchkeeping and bridge resource management. For the human side the Rules assume but do not write down: how a bridge team actually keeps the look-out, shares the picture, and avoids the single-point failures that put a ship into a close-quarters situation in the first place.
This completes the back matter. With the glossary, the annotated rules and this list, the reference apparatus promised in the front matter is in place.