| Emergency Procedures |
Musters and Drills |
 Musters and Drills are required
to be carried out regularly in accordance with Merchant
Shipping Regulations. The guidance contained in this Web
Page should be read in conjunction with information and
guidance on these regulations issued in the relevant
Merchant Shipping Notices. Musters and
drills have the objective of preparing a trained and
organised response to situations of great difficulty
which may unexpectedly threaten loss of life at sea. It
is important that they should be carried out
realistically, approaching as closely as possible to emergency conditions. Changes in
the ship's function and changes in the ship's personnel
from time to time should be reflected in corresponding
changes in the muster arrangements. The muster
list should be conspicuously posted before the ship sails
and, on international voyages and in ships of Classes IIA
and III should be supplemented by emergency
instructions for each crew member leg in the form of a
card issued to each crew member or affixed to individual
crew berths or bunks). These instructions should describe
the allocated muster station, survival craft station and emergency duty and all emergency
signals and action, if any, to be taken on hearing such
signals. An abandon ship drill and a fire
drill must be held within 24 hours of leaving port if
more than 25% of the crew have not taken part in drills
on board the ship in the previous month. As soon as
possible but not later than two weeks after joining the
ship, onboard training in the use of the ship's
life-saving appliances, including survival craft
equipment, should be given to crew members. As soon as
possible after joining the ship, crew members should also
familiarise themselves with their emergency
duties, the significance of the various alarm signals and
the locations of their lifeboat station and of all
lifesaving and fire fighting equipment. All the
ship's personnel concerned should muster at a drill wearing lifejackets properly
secured. The lifejackets should continue to be worn
during lifeboat drills and
launchings but in other cases they may subsequently be
removed at the Master's discretion if they would impede
or make unduly onerous the ensuing practice, provided
they are kept ready to hand. The timing
of emergency drills should
vary so that personnel who have not participated in a
particular drill may take part in the next. Any defects
or deficiencies revealed during drills and the
inspections which accompany them should be made good
without delay. |
| Fire Drills |
|
Efficient fire-fighting demands the full co-operation of
personnel in all departments of the ship. A fire drill
should be held simultaneously with the first stage of the
abandon ship drill. Fire-fighting parties should assemble
at their designated stations. Engine Room personnel
should start the fire pumps in machinery spaces and see
that full pressure is put on fire mains. Any emergency
pump situated outside machinery spaces should also be
started; all members of the crew Should know how to start
and operate the pump. The fire
parties should be sent from their designated stations to
the selected site of the supposed fire,
taking with them emergency equipment such as axes and
lamps and breathing apparatus. The locations should be
changed in successive drills to give practice in
differing conditions and in dealing with different types of fire so that
accommodation, machinery spaces, store rooms, galleys and
cargo holds or areas of high fire hazard are all covered
from time to time. An adequate
number of hoses to deal with the asumed fire should be
realistically deployed. At some stage in the drill, they
should be tested by bringing them into use, firstly with
water provided by the machinery space pump and secondly
with water from the emergency pump alone. The drill
should extend, where practicable, to the testing and
demonstration of the remote controls for ventilating
fans, fuel pumps and fuel tank valves and the closing of
openings. Fixed fire
extinguishing installations should be tested to the
extent practicable. Portable
fire extinguishers should be available for demonstration
of the manner of their use. They should include the
different types applicable to different
kinds of fire. At each drill, one extinguisher or
more should be operated by a member of the fire party, a
different member on each occasion. Extinguishers so used
should be recharged before being returned to their normal
location or sufficient spares should otherwise be carried
for demonstration purposes. Breathing
apparatus should be worn by members of the fire-fighting
parties so each member in turn has experience of its use.
Search and rescue exercises should be undertaken in
various parts of the ship. The apparatus should be
cleaned and verified to be in good order before it is
stowed; cylinders of self-contained breathing apparatus
should be recharged or sufficient spare cylinders
otherwise carried for this purpose. Fire
appliances, fire and watertight doors and other closing
appliances and also fire detection and alarm systems
which have not been used in the drill should be inspected
to ensure that they are in good order, either at the time
of the drill or immediately afterwards. Additionally the
relevant statutory requirements should be complied with. |
| Survival craft drills |
|
Arrangements for drills should take account of prevailing
weather conditions. Crew members
taking part in lifeboat or
liferaft drills should muster wearing warm outer clothing
and lifejackets properly secured. Where
appropriate, the lowering gear and chocks should be
inspected and a check made to ensure that all working
parts are well lubricated . When turning
out davits or when bringing boats or rafts inboard under
power, seamen should always keep clear of any moving
parts. The engines
on motor lifeboats should be
started and run ahead and astern. Care should be taken to
avoid overheating the engine and the propeller shaft
stern gland. All personnel should be familiar with the
engine starting procedure.
Hand-operated mechanical propelling gear, if any, should
be examined and similarly tested. Radio
equipment should be examined and tested, with the aerial
erected, by the Radio Officer or another trained person
and the crew instructed in its use. Water spray
systems, where fitted, should be tested in accordance
with the lifeboat
manufacturer's instructions. When a drill
is held in port, as many as possible of the lifeboats should be cleared and
swung out. Each lifeboat should
be launched and manoeuvred in the water at least once
every three months. Where launching of free-fall
lifeboats is impracticable, they may be lowered into the
water provided that they are free-fall launched at least
once every six months. When rescue
boats are carried which are not also lifeboats they
should be launched and manoeuvred in the water every
month so far as that is reasonable and practicable. The
interval between such drills should not exceed three
months. Where
simultaneous off-load/on-load release arrangements are
provided great care should be exercised to ensure that
the hooks are fully engaged before a boat is recovered,
after it has been stowed and prior to launching. Where
davit-launched liferafts are carried then on-board
training, including an inflation, must be carried out at
intervals not exceeding four months. Great care should be
taken to ensure that the hook is properly engaged before
taking the weight of the raft. The release mechanism
should not be cocked until just prior to the raft landing
in the water. If the raft used for the inflation is part
of the ship's statutory equipment and not a special
training raft, then it MUST be repacked at an approved
service station . Where the
handle of the lifeboat winch
would rotate during the operation of the winch, it should
be removed before the boat is lowered on the brake or
raised with an electric motor. If a handle cannot be
removed, personnel should keep well clear of it. Personnel in
a rescue boat or survival craft being lowered should
remain seated, keeping their hands inside the gunwale to
avoid them being crushed against the ship's side. Lifejackets should be worn. In
totally enclosed lifeboats seat
belts should be secured. Only the launching crew should
remain in a lifeboat being raised. During
drills, lifebuoys and lines should be readily available
at the point of embarkation. While craft
are in the water, crews should practice manoeuvring the
vessel by oar, sail or power as appropriate and should
operate the water spray system where fitted on enclosed
lifeboats. Seamen
should keep their fingers clear of the long-link when
unhooking or securing blocks on to lifting hooks while
the boat is in the water, and particularly if there is a
swell. Before craft
in gravity davits are recovered by power, the operation
of the limit switches or similar devices should be
checked. A portable
hoist unit used to recover a craft should be provided
with a crutch or have an attachment to resist the torque.
These should be checked. If neither device is available,
the craft should be raised by hand. Where
liferafts are carried, instruction should be given to the
ship's personnel in their launching, handling and
operation. Methods of boarding them and the disposition
of equipment and stores on them should be explained. The
statutory scale of lifesaving appliances must be
maintained at all times. If the use of a liferaft for
practice would bring equipment below the specified scale,
a replacement must first be made available. |
| Action in the event of fire |
| The risk of fire breaking out on board a
ship cannot be eliminated but will be much reduced if the
advice given elsewhere in the Code is conscientiously
followed at all times. Training in
fire-fighting procedures and maintenance of equipment
should be assured by regular drills in accordance with
previous sections, but it is important also that access
to fire-fighting equipment should be kept unimpeded at
all times and that emergency
escapes and passage ways are never obstructed. A fire in
its first few minutes can usually be readily
extinguished; prompt and correct action is essential. If fire breaks out, the alarm should be
raised and the bridge informed immediately. If the ship
is in port, the local fire authority should be called. If
possible, an attempt should be made to extinguish or
limit the fire, by any appropriate means readily
available, either using suitable portable extinguishers
or by smothering the fire as in the instance of a fat or
oil fire in a galley. The
different types of portable fire extinguishers on board
are appropriate to different kinds of fire. Water
extinguishers should not be used on oil or electrical
fires. Openings to
the space should be shut to reduce the supply of air to
the fire and to prevent it spreading. Any fuel lines
feeding the fire or threatened by it should be isolated.
If practicable combustible materials adjacent to the fire
should be removed. If a space
is filling with smoke and fumes, any personnel not
properly equipped with breathing apparatus should get out
of the space without delay; if necessary, escape should
be effected by crawling on hands and knees because air
close to deck level is likely to be relatively clear. After a fire
has been extinguished, precautions should be taken
against its spontaneous re-ignition. Personnel,
unless wearing breathing
apparatus, should not re-enter a
space in which a fire has occurred before it has been
fully ventilated. |
| Ends |
