ASTM F1878 Escort Vessel Evaluation

ASTM F1878-21, Standard Guide for Escort Vessel Evaluation and Selection, is the published method for matching escort vessels to a waterway and a ship. It sets out methodologies for predicting the control forces needed to constrain a ship that has lost propulsion or steering within the navigational limits of the waterway, the control forces an escort vessel can be expected to impose given ship design, transit speed, wind, current and sea state, and how to integrate the two into an escort plan for a particular ship and waterway.

The standard sits in ASTM Committee F25, Subcommittee F25.01, runs to 21 pages, and states values in inch pound units. The current edition replaced F1878-98 with its 2004, 2009 and 2015 reapprovals. It is the method document behind the performance based escort requirements in 33 CFR Part 168, which prescribe what escorts must be able to do rather than what they must be.

The full article will cover the force prediction method, the waterway constraints it takes as inputs, its relationship with class escort notations and with ISO 4827:2022, and how an escort plan built under it is reviewed.