Master Mariner

By MasterMariner

Search and Rescue

It is an old law of the sea that all ships have to give assistance in case of emergencies. A man overboard is regarded by a lot of seamen as emergency no.1 So yesterday evening we arrived on scene at 19:30 and started search patterns immediately. A French Rescue Aircraft assisted us. At 20:00 we found and picked up an empty liferaft of the vessel 'Magic Orient'. According the Rescue Aircraft the second raft and probably the lost man couldn't be more than a mile off. The rafts were spotted earlier with daylight from air in a SE-NW direction, but which of the two rafts did we pick up? Was it the SE or the NW one? Our searching area was doubled instantly and we continued searching until 02:30 when the Rescue Aircraft had to leave the scene to refuel. Also the vessel 'Magic Orient' showed suddenly up. The captain told us that the missing man threw two liferafts overboard before jumping himself. Strange story. Any way; we got permission to proceed to Cabinda and the 'Magic Orient' took over our duties. This afternoon we got the message that the second raft was found very close in the direction we were searching. We should definitively have found it. The raft was drifting only a little bit faster than we anticipated. From the man is up till now still no news, if he is still alive, he is in the water for 36 hours now, reducing his survival chances almost to zero. On the picture you'll see the raft. It is an 25 persons inflatable raft, it is packed in polyester shells, you throw it overboard, you pull the activation cord (called painter line) and the two gasbottles visible on the side are opened and fill the raft. Survival equipment for 25 persons is inside. You will get seasick for sure in these rafts, even experienced and salted crews. But that's better than swimming in cold water.

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