SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA

Life at sea is not only about performing tasks in a daily basis so much so with shore leave where sailors spend their free time gallivanting or slouching somewhere and purposely have their hard earned dollars slipped out of their hands so easily especially on girls who works as the “sailors’ delight.”
Besides, life at sea is a matter of being serious, brave, skillful, sense of alertness and every sailor knows his duties and responsibilities in case of emergency. To maintain the kind of preparedness at all time, officers and crew conduct regular trainings as per SOLAS 74 rules and regulations suggest.
Shipboard emergencies require different preparation and solution but the one that every sailor anxious is the abandon ship emergency. When general alarm sounded together with public address by the captain (with some exception though), abandon ship follows. And this is why boat drill is always conducted to familiarize all officers and crew in case of abandon ship emergency.
In the pictures, actual boat drill was conducted by the officers and crew of M.T. Minorca off the coast of Vung Tau Vietnam last 2009. The boat drill is not easy to execute. Many a disaster happened especially in lowering the boat from the davit.
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A HARD DAY’S WORK AT SEA

Working on deck is much of a challenge because it takes a lot of effort to get the work done. One must be patient, diligent, precise, enduring, with survival instinct, prayerful and extra careful. Deck chores vary according to job order i.e. ship’s parlance meaning identified chore or task. Usually, deck ratings and cadets do the routine of maintaining the ship’s external structure and other deck implements.

Normal routine chores like painting, chipping or rust removal, cargo hold and deck washing, fresh water and ballast tanks cleaning, greasing of deck machineries, pilot and gangway ladder rigging etc. forms part of significant challenge for deck ratings. Overcoming the rudiments of ship chores subsequently makes deck ratings pass the mark or grade of seamanship.

In the picture, a GP2D/OS doing his painting chores at the forward area and dangling in a makeshift ladder with his fellow deck crew while painting the forward’s starboard side.