Abandon Ship and First Aid

If an order to abandon ship is communicated via the sound system or crew radio, keep calm and inform guests about what is happening. Remember; this is a situation you and your colleagues have practised and trained for on many occasions while the guests have not. It can be calming for both you and guests to refer to the captain's orders:

Crew: “Orders from the captain, we have to abandon ship. Stay calm and follow the instructions. Keep your lifejackets on at all times.” 

When abandoning ship via lifeboats or MES stations, stairs and corridors tend to get crowded. Try to calm guests while keeping the process efficient, as time might be of the essence. Keep informing guests to show a presence and the competency of leadership:

“Move forward, please”

“Please make room”

Importance of Standards

In cases of distress and emergency situations, following standards for communication is extra important to avoid misunderstandings. 

Listen to an example of radio communication during ship abandoning: 

First Aid

A very serious potential incident is an accident involving a man overboard. Procedures, when someone is missing, presumed to be in the water or located in the water, are to:

• Throw the lifebuoy.
• Alert the bridge.
• Keep sight of the person in the water.

Further, necessary measures can then be taken, such as marking the spot of the incident with a smoke float, GPS position or deploying a fast rescue boat. Important vocabulary for MOB occasions:

• Man overboard (MOB).
• Lifebuoy.
• Fast rescue boat (FRB).
• Smoke float or Lifebouy with Smoke.