Risking your life

As an officer on board a ship you are trained in the operation s of all the fire fighting equipment and life saving appliances on board. In an emergency situation it is you who is responsible to use the equipment to best aid the situation. On a passenger ferry in a real emergency it is the officers who are in charge of the LSA operation. For an Abandon ship emergency an officer is to do all that they can to ensure all passengers are accounted for and evacuated into lifeboats. This may mean that the fire party have to conduct search and rescue patterns in passenger areas and cabins to account for anyone who may be missing. Working on a passenger ferry, passengers are put first. You may lose your life saving people in a fire on board your ship but at least you will be know as the one who risked their life to save others. Passengers place their faith in ships crew before they board. They have to be sure that they are going to step on board a ship where there is crew who know what to do in an emergency and will save them if need be. People still have the picture and memory of the Titanic disaster in the back of their minds. That is always going to be an issue and something that we don’t have control over. What we do have control over is the present. We are able to reassure passengers that they are in good hands with fully qualified competent crew.