Offshore Survival

People react differently in times of trouble! I remember from the news, the statement of the skipper on cruise ship that sank a few years ago upon being asked why he was one of the first people off his ship and into the rescue boats! As a bit of background, the ship foundered with many passengers onboard and the Captain, who decided that he would not be going down with his ship and that it would be Captain, woman and children, was one of the first into the lifeboat! He said, "I wanted to get ashore quickly so that I could conduct the rescue operations".

I have seen Chief Engineers panic when faced with a fire and I have seen some who have appeared scatter brained in normal life turn into cool, calm and efficient machines when faced with disaster. Emergency situations cause officers and crews to react in different ways, some to panic and others to take charge and often the people themselves do not know how they will react until faced with the actual situation.

Over the last ten years or so safety has become the overriding issue in all work related matters onboard a ship. It has reached the stage that crew-members and officers are so bogged down with permits to work, safety signs and regulations that the actual task that they set out to do seems all but impossible to start. Whilst this era of heightened safety awareness has become a nuisance and an assault course to work through there are some benefits, one of which is the fact that training courses are held frequently and continuing onboard drills familiarize personnel with the equipment they will use should an emergency arise. Training and the drills basically enable people faced with emergency situations to react in a prescribed manner, to overcome panic through action orientated tasks and to hopefully improve the outcome of the situation by putting out the fire, surviving on a life raft after the ship has gone down or to save a life by re-enacting life-saving actions.

Officers and crew undertake rigorous courses from First Aid Practices to Fire-Fighting. Those workers offshore, on Rigs and Production Platforms, tend to do slightly less demanding courses that cover three days instead of twenty; an insight into the procedures and practices involved rather than being the team leader during an emergency. The most basic of courses is the Boiset Course (Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training) with included modules that cover Sea Survival, Fire Fighting and Self Rescue, First Aid and Hypothermia and last but not least (the helicopter underwater escape training) HUET course. Seafarers who work in the Offshore Industry, on Anchor Handlers and Supply Vessels may have to do the training prescribed for Offshore Workers because they may need to take a helicopter from the platform or rig to depart their vessel on leave.

For the most part the course is a refresher of subjects covered endlessly before, except maybe the HEUT course which provides light entertainment and moments of throat-in -mouth panic when turned upside down underwater.

One particular BOISET Course held my MSTS Asia SDN. BHD is held on a purposely built barge permanently berthed in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The barge comes equipped with classrooms, swimming pool, helicopter simulator, life rafts and lifeboats with an additional area in another part of the port for fire-fighting training!

As we stood that day by the edge of the swimming pool, with an instructor explaining to us the exercises that we would be doing that day, the smell of fear rose slowly into the air! Twelve grown men, two or three of them enjoying the paid-for opportunity to escape the desk back in the office, some more pretending that nothing untoward was happening and three or four more wishing that they had chosen a different career all of those years ago!

The Helicopter Survival Simulator
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

The HEUT course we were doing this fine day is designed for survival in cold-water should the helicopter have to ditch and so an extra piece of equipment is thrown into the equation. A re-breather! This is a small piece of equipment that is called by the instructors, a second lung, but serves the purpose of providing some valuable time to the escape proceedings. Humans can re-breath their own air! By fitting this re-breather, which consists of a bag, a hose with mouthpiece and a directional valve, an additional few seconds is given to the escapee. In basis, the air is expelled into the bag and breathing is conducted normally by re-cycling the expelled air. With the knowledge to hand that the first batch of expelled air still contains plenty of oxygen then it can be used again. It is estimated that after fifteen more breaths it will be close to pure carbon dioxide but those fifteen breaths may just be enough time to stay underwater whilst the helicopter settles, the window is pushed out and an escape to the surface is made.

Exercise one; learn to use the re-breather underwater.
NB's: Extremely frightening to breathe in the same air that you have just expelled. But after a couple of times, the panic subsides.

Exercise two: Escape from helicopter simulator on surface of the water
NB's: Easy and fun

Exercise three; Escape from helicopter that is partially submerged
NB's: Easy and fun but with worry starting to creep in about the final exercise.

Exercise Four: Escape from helicopter that is fully submerged with re-breather
NB's: Panicked a bit and escaped before the imaginary blades had stopped turning but not quick enough as to have to do it all again.

Exercise five; Escape from helicopter fully submerged that is upside down!
NB's: Knees are a'nockin now! Instructor suggested that as we were the more self-assured group that we should stay upside down and underneath for as long as we could - to show the other groups that it was not that difficult. I decided that the instructor was off his rocker. Did it, had a moment of panic when the water reached my chin and when the machine turned upside down but overcame it all - see drills do work! I managed to stay underwater for thirty seconds whilst re-breathing my own air. Came up feeling a little dizzy, that might have been the elation that it was all over or that the CO2 was affecting my brain.

What grown men will do!

Apart from this module of the course the rest is something that I have done time and time again, and so I could therefore relax and watch my fellow course attendees in their practical tasks, read the inside of my eyelids through the spiel on offshore working conditions and read the newspaper when all else failed!

And that is the BOISET course.