Course Topics
- Introduction and Safety
- Safety Guidance
- Definitions of survival craft and appliances
- Emergency Situations
- Types of emergencies
- Collision
- Fire
- Foundering
- Grounding
- Flooding
- Loss of Stability
- Blackout
- Training, drills and operational readiness
- Actions when called to survival craft stations
- Emergency Escape Breathing Device
- Abandon ship
- Master's orders to abandon ship
- Abandoning ship - last resort
- Actions when required to abandon ship
- Evacuation Procedure
- Actions when in the water
- Need to prevent panic
- Swimming for the shore
- Crew duties to passengers
- Crew duties - launching survival craft
- Abandoning ship drills
- Man-Overboard Procedures
- Initial Actions
- Recovery Process
- Sequence of Actions when a Person is Seen to Fall Overboard
- Survival Craft and Rescue boats
- Lifeboats
- Partially enclosed life-boats
- Totally enclosed life-boats
- Free-fall lifeboats
- Liferafts
- Inflatable liferafts
- Rigid liferafts
- Hydrostatic release unit
- Equipment in survival craft
- Marking of Boat Compass
- Rescue boats
- Operation of survival craft
- Stowage of survival craft
- Survival craft embarkation
- Survival craft launching
- Launching and embarkation appliances
- Davits
- Survival craft recovery
- Rescue boat Embarkation, Launching, Recovery
- Launching Arrangements
- Lifeboat davits
- Liferaft davits
- Rescue boat davits
- Free-fall arrangements
- Float-free arrangements
- Marine evacuation systems
- Lifeboat Release Mechanisms
- Life Boat Launch and Recovery Procedure
- Fast rescue boat
- Lifeboat hook release procedure
- Evacuation and recovery of survival craft and rescue boats
- Launching of Survival craft
- Clearing the ship's side
- Marshalling liferafts and rescuing survivors from the sea
- Recovery of survival craft and rescue boats
- Launching survival craft and rescue boats in rough sea
- Recovery of rescue boats in rough sea
- Boat work under oars
- Actions to take when clear of the ship
- Life Boat Engines and Accessories
- Starting the engine
- Cooling systems
- Battery charging
- Fire extinguisher
- Water spray system
- Self-contained air support system
- Rescue boat outboard engine
- Handling survival craft and rescue boats in rough weather
- Boats
- Liferafts
- Beaching
- Actions to take when aboard a survival craft
- Initial Actions
- Survival in the water
- Means of Survival
- Dangers to Survivors
- Routines for survival
- Use of equipment
- Extra Equipment and Survival
- Apportionment of food and water
- Action to maximize detectability of survival craft
- Star identification
- Methods of Helicopter Rescue
- Communicating with the helicopter
- Evacuation from ship and survival craft
- Helicopter pick-up
- Correct use of Helicopter Harness
- Personal Life-saving Appliances
- Lifebuoys
- Lifejackets
- Immersion suits
- Thermal protective aids
- Anti-exposure suits
- Radio Equipment
- Two-way VHF radiotelephone apparatus
- Emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs)
- Search and Rescue Radar Transponder (SART)
- Distress signals
- Pyrotechnics
- Life-saving signals
- Line throwing appliances
- Search and Rescue
- Public address systems
- Hypothermia
- How Heat is Lost from the Body
- How the Body defends itself against Cold
- Survival in Cold Water
- Frostbite
- First aid
- Resuscitation techniques
- Use of first-aid kit
- Casualty Handling
- Drills in launching and recovering boats
- Precautions
- Crew expertise
- Muster List and Emergency Signals
- Crew and emergency instructions
- Drills in launching liferafts
- Davit-launched liferafts
- Throw-overboard liferafts
- Boarding a liferaft from the water
- Righting an inverted liferaft
- Drills in launching and recovering rescue boats
- Maintenance, Inspection and Operational Readiness of LSA
- Instructions for Maintenance of the Life Saving Appliances Onboard
- Servicing of Inflatable Liferafts / Lifejackets, Marine Evacuation Systems
- Specific Procedures for Maintenance and Servicing
- Recovery of survival craft and rescue boats
- Crew and emergency instructions
Introduction and Safety
Introduction and Safety
Ships are a running plant and a major number of facilities are provided - the machinery space, the accommodation, the pump room etc. Accidents on board are common and people will have to be rescued from such locations to a safe area where medical care can be provided.
All closed or poorly ventilated compartments, particularly those in which a fire has just occurred, are potentially dangerous. The atmosphere may lack oxygen, contain poisonous gases, or have presence of fire and explosion hazards.
If you are faced with the problem of rescuing an individual threatened by fire, explosive or poisonous gases, water or some other emergency, or if the ship is involved in a collision or grounding or stranding, do not take any action until you have had time to determine the extent of the danger and your ability to cope with it.
Ship’s staff will have to be conversant with all Life-saving Appliances (LSA) gears and practice regular drills in being familiar with the LSA and safety procedures during a rescue operation.
In the event of abandoning a ship, chances of survival can be high, provided a few important principles are followed.
The four cardinal principles for survival at sea are:
Keep Afloat
Maintain Warmth
Prevent Water Ingress
Seek Search and Rescue Assistance
Use of Survival Equipment
Life saving appliances are provided onboard merchant ships and include survival crafts, personal life saving appliances and other equipment. The survival craft consists of lifeboats and life rafts. Personal life saving equipment consists of lifebuoys, life jackets, immersion suits and thermal protective aids. Other equipment includes portable radios, SART, EPIRB, line throwing apparatus and pyrotechnics. Pyrotechnics consists of buoyant smoke floats, rocket parachute flares and hand flares.
Safety of personnel and ship
Before a seafarer is assigned to shipboard duties, he should be trained ashore and should be familiarised with the various safety appliances used onboard a ship.
Personnel should be trained in the donning procedures of lifejackets, thermal protective aids, immersion suits, breathing apparatus and should be briefed on the operation of various other equipment. The images show the following procedures of donning an immersion suit and a lifejacket.
Key personnel in charge of launching, handling and operating safety equipment should be sufficiently trained.
Onboard training should focus on training the ship's personnel in the use of ship specific equipment. Training and maintenance manuals should be provided for reference. Instructional training on the “Launching and recovery procedures of lifeboats” survival procedures and first aid treatments should be imparted to all the ship's personnel.
Safety movies will help to weed out any misconceptions in operating safety equipment. A structured training program on operating safety equipment should be conducted. Training manuals, “muster lists” and instructions for onboard maintenance should be updated.
Proficiency in handling emergencies makes the crew’s ability to prevent disasters. For emergency preparedness regular onboard training, instructions and drill for crew is very important.
