Life-saving and firefighting equipment
- Liferafts, lifejackets, immersion suits, lifebuoys, EPIRB and SART — know their location, servicing dates and use.
- Fire extinguishers by class, any fixed firefighting system, fire detection, and the fireman's outfit as fitted.
- The muster list, the fire and safety plans, and the drill schedule.
- Keep all of it in date and working — that is the Master's continuing responsibility, not the surveyor's.
Leading the response
On a fire or flooding aboard
- Raise the alarm and account for everyone on board.
- Attack the fire with the correct medium, or control the flooding, if it is safe to do so.
- Contain the casualty — close boundaries, isolate fuel and power.
- Make a distress or urgency call as the situation warrants, and prepare the survival craft.
- If the vessel cannot be saved, order a controlled abandonment as a last resort with everyone accounted for.
WARNING — Abandonment is the Master's decision, and a last resort The vessel herself is almost always a better survival platform than a liferaft. Order abandonment only when the vessel is a greater danger than the sea, and only with everyone accounted for.
NOTE — Drills make the difference The calm, practised first minutes of a fire or flooding drill are worth more than any later effort. Brief and drill the crew so that when it is real, they act rather than freeze.