Entry & progression
Certificate: STCW Personal Survival Techniques (A-VI/1-1) — one of the four STCW basic safety training elements every seafarer must hold. It teaches how to survive if the ship has to be abandoned. Entry: none. Revalidation: refresher training (STCW updating) required, typically every 5 years.
Emergencies and the emergency organisation
A ship may face fire, flooding, collision, grounding, a person overboard, or any casualty that could lead to abandonment. The ship prepares for these through its emergency organisation, set out in the muster list, which tells every person their station and their duties for each type of emergency. The general emergency alarm — seven or more short blasts followed by one long blast — calls everyone to their muster stations, where they are accounted for and briefed. Knowing your muster station, your lifejacket, your survival craft and your duties, before anything happens, is the first step in survival.
- The muster list assigns every person a muster station and duties for each emergency.
- The general emergency alarm is seven or more short blasts followed by one long blast.
- On the alarm, go to your muster station properly dressed, with your lifejacket and immersion suit.
- Learn your muster station, escape routes, lifejacket and survival craft before an emergency, not during one.
WARNING — Learn it before you need it In a real emergency there is no time to work out where your muster station is or how your lifejacket fastens. Learn your stations, routes and equipment on joining the ship, so that under stress you act rather than search.
TIP — Dress for survival on the alarm When the alarm sounds, take the moment to put on warm clothing and your immersion suit under your lifejacket if you can. What you are wearing when you enter the water largely decides how long you survive.