Following on from last year’s inaugural award to Survitec, we are delighted to announce the 2023 recipients of the MV Derbyshire Award as Recall Recover.

This annual award for maritime safety is named after the MV Derbyshire, a Liverpool ship that was tragically lost on 9 September 1980 during Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan. She is the largest British ship to have been lost at sea, with the deaths of 42 crew members, plus two wives. For decades, the MV Derbyshire families focused not just on justice for their loved ones, but on the wider issues of maritime standards and safety, seeking to ensure that no more innocent lives are lost at sea.

The Society has awarded the 2023 MV Derbyshire Award to Recall Recover Limited for its work developing and promoting trauma-informed approaches to investigating critical incidents at sea, employing its innovative trauma-informed interviewing model, which in turn is part of an end-to-end suite of psychological and crew wellbeing support services.

Recall Recover was founded by Captain Terry Ogg, an independent marine investigator and consultant, and Dr Rachel Glynn-Williams, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist working in the maritime industry, specialising in trauma, PTSD and crew wellbeing support. The partnership grew out of shared concerns for the wellbeing of those impacted by incidents at sea and the need for organisations and the industry at large to understand as much as possible about how such incidents have occurred, so that lessons can be learned and fair accountability can be attained.  

Recall Recover’s twin objectives are to ensure “supported people, better evidence”. By virtue of this centrally-held trauma-informed approach, they aim to contribute to safety improvements and loss prevention measures for the broader maritime sector, protecting the wellbeing of those working at sea, as well as commercial interests.