Leading the response
Command actions on a major emergency
- Raise the alarm, muster all on board and account for everyone.
- Assess the situation and the threat to the vessel; take the con.
- Contain the casualty — fight the fire or control the flooding, isolate fuel and power, close boundaries.
- Communicate — make a distress (MAYDAY) or urgency (PAN-PAN) call as warranted, via GMDSS.
- Decide — if the vessel cannot be saved, order a controlled abandonment with the survival craft prepared and everyone accounted for.
Distress and survival
- Know the GMDSS distress and urgency procedures and the equipment carried — VHF DSC, EPIRB, SART.
- Know the survival principles and the launch, management and recovery of the liferaft.
- Care for the passengers and any casualties, and obtain radio-medical advice for a serious injury.
- Keep a record of the times and actions taken for the subsequent report.
WARNING — MAYDAY for grave danger, PAN-PAN for urgency A distress (MAYDAY) call is for grave and imminent danger needing immediate help; an urgency (PAN-PAN) call is for a serious situation that is not yet an immediate threat to life. Use the right one, and give position and the nature of the distress.
TIP — Step up into the raft Abandon to the liferaft only when the vessel can no longer support you. A disabled small vessel is almost always a better survival platform than a raft, so you 'step up' into the raft as a last resort.