SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA

Life at sea is not only about performing tasks in a daily basis so much so with shore leave where sailors spend their free time gallivanting or slouching somewhere and purposely have their hard earned dollars slipped out of their hands so easily especially on girls who works as the “sailors’ delight.”

Besides, life at sea is a matter of being serious, brave, skillful, sense of alertness and every sailor knows his duties and responsibilities in case of emergency. To maintain the kind of preparedness at all time, officers and crew conduct regular trainings as per SOLAS 74 rules and regulations suggest.

Shipboard emergencies require different preparation and solution but the one that every sailor anxious is the abandon ship emergency. When general alarm sounded together with public address by the captain (with some exception though), abandon ship follows. And this is why boat drill is always conducted to familiarize all officers and crew in case of abandon ship emergency.

In the pictures, actual boat drill was conducted by the officers and crew of M.T. Minorca off the coast of Vung Tau Vietnam last 2009. The boat drill is not easy to execute. Many a disaster happened especially in lowering the boat from the davit.