Saving the Shipwrecked
Lifesaving Equipment on Ships
However good the systems for preventing shipwrecks and other
accidents, human errors and the power of the sea ensure that
disasters will still happen. So, as well as improving safety,
efforts have been put into saving lives when things go wrong at
sea. Here you can learn how lifesaving equipment and methods have
developed, just how successful the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution has been, and how government agencies play their part
in saving the shipwrecked. Lifeboats 
 Lifeboat drill |
The ship`s best-known piece of equipment for saving life is the
lifeboat, although it was not until as late as 1929 that
regulations made it compulsory for a ship to have enough for
everyone on board. It was argued that, if the ship took a heavy
list, it would be impossible to launch all the boats anyway. This
now sounds like an argument to have more boats rather than
less! Like other equipment, lifeboats have evolved greatly. Even 1950,
many cargo ships would have boats that could only be propelled by
rowing (difficult when it was crowded with survivors) or sails.
Nevertheless, there were many epic voyages made in such boats,
particularly in wartime when ships had been sunk by enemy
submarines far from land. Perhaps the most extraordinary story is
that of Poon Lim, a Chinese steward on the British
ship Benlomond, which was torpedoed in the South
Atlantic in November 1942. Poon Lim survived for an incredible 133
days on a liferaft, using a hook he found to catch fish. When
eventually rescued by a Brazilian fisherman, he could not walk, but
soon recovered and expressed a desire to go back to sea! Motor
lifeboats were first provided for big passenger ships and these
were often fitted with wireless radios. The biggest difficulty with lifeboats has always been launching
them, especially if the sea is rough, or the ship has heeled [definition] over. Passengers
or crew need to get into the boats, which then need to be swung out
over the ship`s side and then lowered carefully into the sea. All
this can be difficult and dangerous for those in the boat if the
ship is listing or the sea is rough. Along with lifeboats
themselves, the devices for lowering them, called davits, have
evolved to make launching safer. 
Lifeboat on `Oceana` |
Today, ships are often fitted with lifeboats that are totally
enclosed. This protects those inside from the weather, but also
means that the crew have a better chance of escaping if their ship
has a dangerous cargo which is leaking. Imagine trying to escape
from a tanker whose cargo is leaking on to the sea and is ablaze.
Where possible, the lifeboat is mounted on a steep ramp fitted
above the stern [definition] of the ship. This
means that it can be launched even if the ship has a heavy list
[ definition] and it
can safely move away from a burning ship. Liferafts and other buoyant apparatus As well as lifeboats, ships carry other sorts of buoyant
apparatus. On ferries and other craft which are never too far from
land, the seats on deck are designed to float, and have lifelines
attached. The hope is that rescuers will soon come along if the
vessel sinks. Liferafts have also become very popular. They can be stored on
deck easily and quickly inflated when needed. Unlike a lifeboat,
they cannot be steered, and rely on rescuers finding them.
High-sided passenger ships have marine evacuation systems, where
chutes lead down to huge liferafts. Radio transmitter The most effective piece of lifesaving equipment on a ship,
however, does not float at all: the radio transmitter. It can be
used to summon help unless the disaster happens very quickly, in
which case there is little chance of the boats or rafts getting
away. Now, there is even an automatic way of sending distress
messages, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. Ships
carry an EPIRB, a radio set in a container designed to float off if
the ship sinks. It then automatically sends out an alarm signal
that is picked up by navigation satellites that can monitor its
position very accurately. Of course, this can send out false
alarms. A distress signal was once picked up whose position was
found to be in the middle of England. The equipment off a ship was
being driven to an inland depot for maintenance when it was
accidentally set off!
|
