“Phillips said he knows nothing about such a plan”. The ‘plan’ is the Ship Security Plan (SSP), required on every ship by the ISPS Code. It MUST be read and acknowledged by the signature of the Master and Ship Security Officer (SSO) upon joining the ship. These two officers are they only persons allowed to hold the SSP.
And what of the crew who says that fire and boat drills are only carried out once per year? On every ship that I was Master of, these drills were done monthly, if not more often.
Were the drills required to be done monthly or were you conducting them more frequently based on your own judgment? Captains of the Navy ships that I served on had their own preferences to conduct some drills more frequently than other captains did. While I’m quite sure that they all met the minimum standards, most , if not all of them, would exceed the minimum requirements.