Port and Marine Cranes: Salt, Cycles, and Corrosion

By Patrick SalazarSep 30, 202624 min read

OSHA 1917.50 requires shore-based cranes that move cargo in a marine terminal to be certificated by an OSHA-accredited agency or a compatible state program, with an annual examination and a unit proof test every four years. Under 1917.45, designated persons also check them each day of use and inspect them thoroughly every month.

Salt does not wait for a hoist cycle, and neither should a marine crane inspection. It works on the gantry parked for the weekend, on the spreader lying on the quay, on the pendant rope nobody has touched since commissioning.

Put that chemistry under a container berth’s duty cycle, where one crane can run shift after shift with a loaded box under the spreader on most picks, and you get the combination that ages lifting equipment faster than anything on land: fatigue loading applied to steel that is already losing section, in air that never lets the process pause.

The rulebook is different too, and that is the part crane owners most often get wrong. A crane that moves cargo inside a marine terminal is not inspected under the construction standard or the general industry standard the rest of the country runs on. It is certificated under 29 CFR Part 1917, by an agency OSHA has accredited under Part 1919, on a four-year unit proof-test cycle with an examination every year in between.

Bring a clean annual inspection report to a terminal audit and you may find you have answered the wrong question.

Which rulebook applies on the waterfront

OSHA divides the waterfront by activity rather than by machine. Part 1917 applies to employment within a marine terminal, which 1917.2 defines as wharves, bulkheads, quays, piers, docks and other berthing locations plus the adjacent areas and structures associated with moving cargo between vessel and shore, including areas devoted to maintaining the terminal and its equipment. Production and manufacturing areas and their storage facilities are carved out.

Part 1918 covers longshoring, the cargo work aboard the vessel, and 1918.1(a) sends every cargo transfer done with shore-based material handling devices back to Part 1917. Part 1919 is not a workplace standard at all. It is the accreditation rule for the agencies that certificate cargo gear and shore-based devices, and 1919.1(a) says it exists to implement 1915.115, 1917.50 and 1918.11.

Two consequences follow. First, 1917.1(a)(2) lists the only Part 1910 provisions that apply inside a marine terminal, and 1910.179 is not among them. An overhead crane in the terminal’s own maintenance shop falls under 1917.45, not 1910.179, although OSHA’s cargo gear program explanation is explicit that shop cranes and chain hoists that do not move cargo are not required to be certificated. Second, construction at a port is still construction.

1926.1400(a) names floating cranes, cranes on barges, pedestal cranes, portal cranes, overhead and gantry cranes, straddle cranes and derricks in its scope, so a crawler crane driving piles for a new wharf deck is under Subpart CC while the container crane on the next berth is under 1917. It is the boundary problem covered in 1910.179 versus 1926.1412, with a third rulebook stacked on top.

What certification under 1917.50 actually means

1917.50(a) prohibits using a listed device until the employer has ascertained that it has been certificated, evidenced by current and valid documents. For cranes and derricks the whole requirement in 1917.50(c)(1) is two sentences: tested as a unit quadrennially and examined annually, with certificates of the tests and examinations readily available for inspection. Certificated does not mean inspected by a competent person and signed.

It means surveyed by a person currently accredited by OSHA under Part 1919, per 1917.50(b)(1), or, per 1917.50(b)(2), under standards established and enforced by a state or political subdivision that the Secretary of Labor has found compatible with Part 1919, by a person the state designates as competent and the Secretary recognizes.

The list of accredited agencies OSHA publishes is dated April 14, 2026, and each entry carries letters for the five functions an agency can hold: full-function vessels, floating cranes and derricks, shore-based material handling devices, loose gear and wire rope testing, and nondestructive examination. A terminal crane needs an agency holding the shore-based letter, and because accreditation runs no more than three years at a time under 1919.5, check the agency against the current list rather than last cycle’s certificate.

The clock rules sit in 1917.50(g). A unit requiring quadrennial certification must have had it within the previous 48 months. Annual certification must be within the previous 12 months, except that no annual is required within 12 months after a quadrennial. Annual examinations may be done up to one month early without moving later due dates, which is the only slack the rule gives.

Then 1917.50(g)(2) closes the lay-up loophole: equipment out of service for six months or more beyond a certification due date gets an examination equivalent to initial certification, including the unit proof load test, before it re-enters service. A crane that missed its annual in March and sat idle until October is not one annual behind. It is back to a proof test, and the return-to-service inspection it needs is a different job from the one that was skipped.

Three more clauses matter. 1917.50(d) says disassembly and reassembly do not require recertification if the equipment is reassembled and used consistent with its certification, so a boom-length change on a mobile harbor crane does not trigger a new survey by itself. 1917.50(a)(2) requires an owner’s warranty for foreign-manufactured cranes that the design is enough for the intended use, based on a registered professional engineer’s examination of the design specifications.

And 1917.50(f) says in so many words that certification is not a substitute for the normal operational inspection and maintenance routine. The daily and monthly inspections in 1917.45(k) continue regardless.

The exemptions in 1917.50(j) are narrow: small industrial crane trucks as described in the 1959 edition of ASME B56.1, powered industrial trucks, straddle trucks that cannot straddle two or more 16-foot-wide containers, and gear used only for handling hoses, ship’s stores or the gangway. Container-handling top-loaders and sideloaders, chain hoists, small industrial truck-type cranes and straddle cranes too narrow for two 16-foot containers are kept out of the crane section by 1917.45(a)(2).

Everything else that hoists cargo, from a ship-to-shore gantry to a pier-side jib, is a crane under 1917.45(a)(1) and, if it moves cargo, is certificated.

The proof load and what the surveyor examines

1919.71(a) sets three triggers for a unit proof test of a shore-based crane: before initial use of a new crane and every four years after. At initial certification of a crane already in use and every four years after. And after important alterations and renewals or repairs due to failure of, or damage to, major components. The third trigger is the one owners forget.

A boom section replaced after a vessel strike restarts the test regardless of the calendar, and 1919.70(b) requires any replacements or repairs the accredited person deems necessary to be carried out before the proof load goes on. Inspect, repair, then test, in that order.

The load is defined in 1919.71(c). For cranes other than trolley-equipped bridge types, it is 10 percent in excess of the manufacturer’s load ratings for the conditions of use, applied at maximum and minimum radii and at whatever intermediate radii the certificating authority deems necessary. Trolley-equipped cranes, which is what a ship-to-shore gantry is, take 25 percent in excess of the manufacturer’s rating.

1919.71(b) puts the boom in the least stable direction relative to the mounting, and the weight of magnets, hooks, slings, clamshell buckets and any other handling device counts as part of the load. Specifications for foreign-built cranes must be approved by the certificating authority as equivalent to U.S. practice. 1919.60(c) requires dead weights. Dynamometers may be used only where that is not possible, and any such equipment the agency owns must have been checked for accuracy within the six months before its accreditation application.

Derricks follow their own table in 1919.73: 25 percent over the safe working load up to 20 tons, 5 tons over between 20 and 50 tons, and 10 percent over above 50 tons, a ton meaning 2,000 pounds for shore-based gear under 1919.70(c).

Those numbers differ from the ones crane people carry around. 1910.179(k)(2) caps the test load on a new or altered overhead crane in general industry at 125 percent of rated load unless the manufacturer recommends otherwise, the subject of load testing overhead cranes, and mobile cranes under Subpart CC have no routine proof test at all. Among OSHA’s crane rules, only the maritime ones load a crane past its rating on a fixed calendar.

The examination that goes with the test, in 1919.71(d), runs through fifteen headings, and 1919.72 applies the same list to the annual examination in the three years between tests, which an accredited person must complete no later than the anniversary date of the quadrennial.

It opens with the functional operating mechanisms, with particular attention to sheaves, pins and drums, and an operational run with partial load through every function including maximum rotation in both directions, then covers safety devices, hydraulic leakage, hooks and rope and terminations with attention to sections not normally exposed for examination, reeving, deformed, cracked or excessively corroded structure and boom members, loose bolts and rivets, brake and clutch wear, indicators over their full range, the rating chart, the junction areas of removable boom sections, and counterweights.

Cracked or deformed hooks are discarded, not repaired. Where disassembly can be avoided, 1919.78 lets the accredited person substitute electronic, ultrasonic or other nondestructive examination provided the procedure and the examiner are acceptable to OSHA. The measured limits for those sheaves and drums come from the manufacturer and the applicable B30 volume, because Part 1919 only says excessive.

One check that is easy to skip: 1917.46(a)(1)(iii) requires the load indicating device to be checked for accuracy against known loads at every certification survey. The tolerance in 1917.46(a)(1)(ii) is an indicated load between 95 and 110 percent of the actual total load, slings and blocks included. Under (a)(1)(vii) an indicated radius must fall between 97 and 110 percent of the true radius, and (a)(1)(vi) judges accuracy on actual applied load rather than full-scale capacity. The failure modes are the ones in why LMI calibration fails inspections.

On a terminal crane the check simply has a fixed date.

Corrosion works from the inside out

Chloride does its worst where inspection is hardest. Wire rope is the clearest example: spray wicks into the core, the internal wires corrode against each other, and the crown wires the daily walkaround sees can look bright while the rope loses diameter from the inside. 1910.179(m)(1)(i) describes the condition exactly, as reduction of rope diameter below nominal due to loss of core support, internal or external corrosion, or wear of outside wires. The section does not apply in a terminal, but the physics does.

Part 1919 builds the same expectation into the survey. 1919.71(d)(4) directs particular attention to sections of rope not normally exposed for examination, and 1919.24(e), which it applies to shore-based rope, singles out the sections adjacent to terminal connections: the dead wraps in the drum grooves, the lengths parked over trolley sheaves, the socketed ends where water collects and cannot drain.

The marine terminal removal criteria are stricter in one respect than the construction rule and blunter in another. 1917.42(b)(2) says wire rope or wire rope slings with any of the following shall not be used: ten randomly distributed broken wires in one rope lay or three or more broken wires in one strand in one rope lay. Kinking, crushing, bird caging or other distortion of the rope structure. Evidence of heat damage.

Excessive wear or corrosion, deformation or other defect in the wire or attachments, including cracks in attachments. Any indication of strand or wire slippage in end attachments. Or more than one broken wire in the close vicinity of a socket or swaged fitting.

Compare 1926.1413, where six randomly distributed broken wires in one rope lay is a Category II deficiency that stops use until the rope is replaced or the manufacturer’s removal criterion is met, and major corrosion is a Category I condition the competent person must evaluate for hazard before deciding. In the terminal there is no evaluation step. Excessive corrosion means the rope is done.

Replacement rope under 1919.79(a) must be the same size, the same or better grade and the same construction the manufacturer furnished unless the equipment or rope manufacturer recommends otherwise, with a safety factor of 4 verified by a wire rope test certificate where no specific requirement applies. The running-rope and sling distinctions are in wire rope sling versus running rope, and the field method in the crane wire rope inspection guide.

Structure corrodes the same way, from the pockets outward: box-section booms and portal legs at painted-over drains and gusset pockets, pin bores and bushings under grease, anchor bolts and grout at a pier-mounted pedestal in the splash zone, festoon and conductor systems at the contacts and junction boxes.

1919.71(d)(6) requires deformed, cracked or excessively corroded members in the structure and boom to be repaired or replaced and 1919.71(d)(7) requires loose bolts, rivets and connections to be corrected, but the survey only finds what it can see, which is why an owner’s program should open drains, pull covers and clean grease off pin bosses before the surveyor arrives. In construction, prolonged exposure to a corrosive atmosphere is one of the conditions that put equipment into severe service under 1926.1412(g), the category explored in severe service inspections.

A marine terminal crane is in that atmosphere every day of its life.

Cycles on top of chemistry

Fatigue and corrosion multiply rather than add. A corrosion pit is a stress raiser, and a stress raiser under repeated load becomes a crack. A container crane that makes a full-rated pick on most cycles, with the shock of a twistlock set on every one, loads its boom-hinge connections, pendant lugs, A-frame welds, portal corners and trolley rail supports at a rate construction equipment, which spends most of its life waiting, never approaches.

That is why marine structural inspection leads with nondestructive testing at the known detail points instead of waiting for visual evidence, which arrives late. Part 1919 anticipates it: 1919.2(i) defines nondestructive examination as examination of structure or parts by electronic, ultrasonic or other suitable nondestructive methods, and 1919.71(d)(13) calls for careful examination of the junction areas of removable boom sections.

The criteria beneath the federal rule come from ASME B30, and the marine fleet spans more volumes than any other single site. The ship-to-shore and yard gantries that handle boxes are the subject of ASME B30.24, Container Cranes, current edition B30.24-2018 reaffirmed in 2023, which covers construction, installation, operation, inspection, testing and maintenance of power-operated container cranes of single, double or box girder construction that run a trolley and a container-handling spreader or other lifting apparatus. Portal and pedestal cranes on piers fall under B30.4-2020, reaffirmed in 2024.

Wheel-mounted mobile harbor cranes and the crawler and truck cranes on bulk berths are B30.5 machines, with B30.5-2025 listed as the current edition. Floating cranes and derricks are B30.8-2020, reaffirmed in 2026. Top-running overhead and gantry cranes in the shops are B30.2-2022. Lifting beams and spreader beams are below-the-hook devices under B30.20-2025, although the container-handling spreader itself is written into the B30.24 scope. Slings are B30.9-2025, and rope across all of them is B30.30-2023. Part 1919 names none of these.

The surveyor works to the manufacturer’s ratings and the 1919.71(d) list, and the B30 volumes supply the wear limits that the word excessive leaves undefined.

The pieces that get missed

Wind devices, rail clamps and storm securing

1917.45(g)(3) requires every rail-mounted bridge and portal crane outside an enclosed structure to carry an operable wind-indicating device that warns at a warning speed and a shutdown speed, neither exceeding the manufacturer’s recommendations, with high-wind instructions posted in the cab. At the warning speed, 1917.45(g)(4) requires gantry travel to stop and the crane to be readied for shutdown.

At the shutdown speed, any portion of the crane spanning a vessel is moved clear if safe to do so and the crane is secured against travel using all available means, and 1917.45(g)(5) requires the employer to monitor local weather through a weather service or an equally effective means. The anemometer, its readout, the posted instructions, the rail clamps, the tie-down pins and their sockets are therefore inspection items with a regulatory basis, not seasonal extras.

The rail-and-leg mechanics are in the gantry crane inspection guide and the pre-storm sequence in hurricane season crane preparation.

Spreaders and twistlocks

A container spreader lives in the hardest duty on the terminal and has its own certification track. Under 1917.50(c)(5)(iii), every spreader not part of ship’s gear is tested before initial use to a proof load 25 percent greater than its rated capacity and retested after any damage needing structural repair; Appendix I to Part 1917 adds a retest every four years, which an accredited agency or an employer designated person may perform, while the initial and post-repair tests are accredited-agency work.

1917.71(f)(2)(ii) requires twistlock systems designed and used so that a suspended load cannot accidentally be released, 1917.71(h) prohibits hoisting a container until every engaged chassis twistlock is released, and 1917.71(c) prohibits hoisting one whose actual gross weight exceeds the weight marked on it or the crane’s capacity. Any crane that hoists personnel, including on a spreader-mounted platform, needs an anti-two-block device under 1917.45(j)(10). Between surveys the spreader is inspected as any below-the-hook device is, and the two-block protection tested as described in anti-two-block systems.

Hooks, drums and reeving

1917.45(e)(2) requires crane hooks to be latched or otherwise secured against accidental disengagement, and 1919.71(d)(4) says cracked or deformed hooks are discarded and not reused on any equipment subject to Parts 1918 and 1919. The measurement side, throat spread and twist, is in crane hook inspection limits. 1917.45(f)(11) requires at least three full turns of rope on ungrooved drums and two on grooved drums under all operating conditions, rope secured to the drum by clamps, U-bolts, shackles or equivalent, and no fiber rope fastenings.

Reeving follows the manufacturer’s recommendations under 1919.71(d)(5). All three are daily walkaround and monthly items long before the surveyor sees them.

The small fleet

Davits, dockside jibs, workboat cranes and the service-truck crane that lifts fender panels fall between the big-crane program and no program at all. 1917.45(a)(1) applies the crane section to every kind of crane and derrick and to any other equipment performing the functions of a crane, and 1917.50(c)(1) says each crane and derrick is tested and examined, so a jib that handles cargo on a pier is certificated on the same cycle as the gantry beside it.

OSHA’s program explanation draws the line at cargo: devices used for purposes other than moving or handling cargo, such as maintenance-shop overhead cranes and chain hoists and cranes engaged in construction, are not required to be certificated. The shop overhead crane remains a crane under 1917.45 with its daily and monthly inspection duty, the chain hoist is excluded from that section by 1917.45(a)(2), and the construction crane answers to 1926.1412. The small-crane specifics are in jib crane inspection requirements.

Access, foundations and the things nobody owns

1917.45(f)(4) requires ladders, stairways, grab irons and footsteps to every part of the superstructure employees must reach, footwalks capable of supporting 100 pounds per square foot, vertical ladders over 20 feet meeting the paragraphs of 1917.118 that 1917.45(f)(4)(ii) names, and a warning sign plus a buzzer or bell at the foot of any ladder a revolving house could strike. Pedestal-to-pier interfaces are nobody’s line item: the crane owner assumes the pier owner watches the anchor bolts, and the pier owner assumes the opposite.

Put them in the monthly inspection under 1917.45(k)(2), which covers all functional components and accessible structural features.

Documentation a terminal audit will ask for

A compliance officer or terminal auditor asks for the current certificate first. Under 1919.90(b)(1) a unit test certificate identifies the crane by manufacturer, model, serial number and ownership, states the basis for the safe working load assignment, gives the proof test details including radii, proof loads and direction relative to the mounting, records any limitations imposed, and names the accredited person and the representative who did the work, with signature, date and place.

1919.90(d) requires the accredited person to tell the owner that the latest unit test certificate, every subsequent annual certificate, and the wire rope test certificates for any rope replaced since must be available at or near the worksite.

The forms are federal. OSHA’s guidance for accredited agencies says the Form OSHA-71, the certificate of unit test and examination of a crane, derrick or other material handling device, and the Form OSHA-72, the notice to the owner of deficiencies found on a certification survey, have been generated electronically since January 1, 2009, and may legally be used only for equipment the maritime regulations require to be certificated.

An inspection of the same crane against Part 1910 or Part 1926 goes on the agency’s own form, which is the quickest way to tell a maritime certificate from a voluntary inspection report. No certificate issues until the deficiencies the accredited person considers currently unsatisfactory are corrected, under 1919.90(e), and a copy of each unit test or thorough examination certificate goes to the nearest OSHA local office within 10 days under 1919.11(f).

The employer’s own records sit alongside: 1917.45(k)(4) requires the monthly inspection record to be kept six months in or on the crane or at the terminal, and 1917.50(h) and (i)(2) require loose gear obtained after October 3, 1983 to carry a legible test mark and cargo gear rated over five short tons to be marked with its safe working load. The habits that make those records useful are in crane inspection documentation and monthly crane inspection records.

A marine crane inspection checklist before the surveyor arrives

1. Pull the certificate dates. Confirm the last unit proof test is within 48 months and the last annual examination within 12, and flag any crane that sat out of service six months or more past a due date, because its next survey is an initial certification with a proof test.
2. Stage known test weights. 1919.60(c) wants dead weights, and 1919.71(b) and (c) put them on at maximum and minimum radius with the boom in the least stable direction, with the weight of the spreader, hook block or bucket counted in. Certified weights save the argument about what was actually lifted.
3. Verify the load indicating device against known loads before the survey rather than during it, to the 95 to 110 percent tolerance in 1917.46, so a drifted transducer becomes a maintenance item instead of a deficiency on an OSHA-72.
4. Run the wind system and the clamps. Confirm the indicator reads, the warning and shutdown alarms trip at the set speeds, the posted instructions match the manufacturer’s speeds, and the rail clamps and tie-downs engage without persuasion.
5. Open the rope and the structure. Inspect the dead wraps, the sections parked on sheaves and the socketed ends against the 1917.42(b)(2) criteria. Open drains, pull covers at gusset pockets and pin bosses, and look at anchor bolts and grout at pedestal bases, because corroded members and loose connections are 1919.71(d)(6) and (7) items and cheaper to fix on your schedule than on the surveyor’s.
6. Bring the paperwork the certificate does not cover. The spreader’s initial, post-repair and four-year proof tests under Appendix I, the rope test certificates for any replacement rope, and six months of 1917.45(k) monthly records on the machine, with hooks, drum turns and reeving already checked against 1917.45(e)(2), 1917.45(f)(11) and the manufacturer’s reeving diagram.

Common questions

What belongs on a portable jib crane inspection checklist at a marine terminal?

Two lists. The daily check under 1917.45(k)(1) covers the functional operating components: hoist, brake, controls and limits, the hook and its latch under 1917.45(e)(2), the rope for the 1917.42(b)(2) conditions with a look at the socket and the drum, and the minimum three turns on an ungrooved drum or two on a grooved one under 1917.45(f)(11).

The monthly inspection under 1917.45(k)(2) adds all accessible structural features: the mast base and its anchor bolts for corrosion and looseness, the slewing ring or pivot, the boom and its connections, the base and casters on a portable unit, and the rating and chart required by 1917.45(b), with the record kept six months under 1917.45(k)(4). What changes on a pier is the paperwork.

A portable or fixed jib that handles cargo inside a marine terminal is a crane under 1917.45(a)(1) and is certificated under 1917.50(c)(1), with an annual examination by an accredited agency and a unit proof test every four years, unless it fits one of the narrow 1917.50(j) exemptions. A jib in the maintenance shop that never touches cargo still gets the daily and monthly inspections but not the certificate.

What are the gantry crane inspection requirements at a marine terminal?

Three layers. Routine inspection under 1917.45(k): a visual check by a designated person on each day of use and a thorough inspection of all functional components and accessible structural features monthly, with records kept six months.

Rail-mounted crane rules under 1917.45(g): rated loads marked on each side of a bridge crane and in the cab, a wind-indicating device with warning and shutdown speeds, posted high-wind instructions, securing at shutdown speed, stops or bumpers at the track ends, a travel warning device, and communication between the cab and the base of the gantry by something other than hand signals alone.

Certification under 1917.50: an annual examination and a quadrennial unit proof test by an accredited agency, at 25 percent over the manufacturer’s rating for a trolley-equipped crane, with ASME B30.24 supplying the criteria for container cranes and B30.2 for top-running overhead and gantry cranes.

How is marine proof load testing done, and at what load?

For shore-based cranes, 1919.71(c) sets the proof load at 10 percent over the manufacturer’s ratings at maximum and minimum radii, or 25 percent over the rating for trolley-equipped bridge cranes, with the boom in the least stable direction, the weight of any handling device included, and dead weights required under 1919.60(c) unless impossible. Derricks under 1919.73 and special stevedoring gear under Table A of 1917.50 use a sliding scale: 25 percent over the safe working load up to 20 tons, 5 tons over from 20 to 50 tons, and 10 percent over above 50 tons.

Spreaders are tested at 25 percent over rated capacity. Vessel cranes under 1919.28 use the same sliding scale on a 2,240-pound ton every five years, and a hydraulic crane that cannot reach the full proof load because of pressure limits lifts the greatest load it can.

Who inspects marine lifting gear such as slings, shackles and spreaders?

Loose gear and wire rope obtained after October 3, 1983 and used for material handling must be tested and certificated before use under 1917.50(c)(6), by the manufacturer or an accredited agency, and must carry a test mark. The proof loads in 1919.31 are steep: chains, rings, hooks, shackles and swivels at 100 percent in excess of the safe working load, single-sheave blocks at 300 percent in excess, and multiple-sheave blocks rated up to 20 tons at 100 percent in excess.

Special stevedoring gear rated over five short tons is tested as a unit before initial use by an accredited agency and every four years afterward by the agency or an employer designated person. Gear rated five short tons or less may be tested initially by a designated person. In-service inspection between tests follows 1917.42, which applies the same removal criteria to wire rope slings as to running rope, and the habits that keep gear serviceable between inspections are the subject of rigging storage.

Does OSHA 1910.179 apply to overhead and gantry cranes at a port?

Not inside a marine terminal. 1917.1(a)(2) lists the only Part 1910 provisions that apply there, among them electrical, hazard communication, respiratory protection and noise, and 1910.179 is not on the list. An overhead crane in the terminal’s maintenance shop is governed by 1917.45, including its daily and monthly inspection duty, and OSHA’s program explanation confirms it does not need certification if it does not move cargo.

1910.179 does govern an overhead or gantry crane in the production or manufacturing area of a plant that has its own dock, because 1917.2 excludes those areas and their directly associated storage from the definition of a marine terminal.

Does port crane operator training require NCCCO certification?

Federal marine terminal rules do not require third-party certification. 1917.27(a)(1) requires the employer to determine that an operator is competent by training or experience, understands the signs, notices and operating instructions, and knows the signal code in use, with trainees working under a designated person; 1918.98 says the same for longshoring. 1917.27(b) adds that immediate supervisors of cargo-handling operations of more than five persons must complete a course in accident prevention, within 90 days of a new assignment.

The 1926.1427 requirement that operators be trained, certified or licensed, and evaluated applies to construction cranes, so a crane erecting a structure at the port is covered while the terminal’s cargo cranes are not. Many terminal operators and port authorities adopt certification anyway as their evidence of competence, and a contract or a state rule may require it. Check those before assuming either way. The vocabulary behind all of this is untangled in competent, qualified and certified.

Salt does not care how the crane looks, only how long it has been since someone opened it up and measured, which is why marine crane inspection is built around measurement and early NDT rather than the walkaround.

Inspect to the waterfront, not the calendar

Marine duty ages a crane from the inside out, and the interval that works inland is the interval that misses it here. Talk to us about a marine-duty inspection schedule for your quay and yard cranes — corrosion mapping, NDT where section loss hides, and a tempo set by cycles and chemistry. See port and maritime crane inspections for how we scope that work.