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Abandoning Ship in Polar Waters
The Polar Code requires ship owners to determine the maximum expected rescue time for their intended operations in polar waters. This determines the type and amount of survival equipment the ship must carry onboard. The Code requires that this must be at least five days. When operating in some remote areas, it may be considerably more than five days.
A ship navigating in Ice. Photo: Jörgen Språng
Abandoning Ship Requirements
The Polar Code specifies that:
All ships must have the means to safely evacuate people and deploy survival craft and equipment when operating in ice-covered waters. Free-fall lifeboats cannot be safely launched in free-fall mode in ice-infested waters. Ships must be arranged with an alternative lowering mechanism and adequate means for the crew to access the lifeboat safely. Lifeboats must be partially or enclosed. Life rafts are inferior to lifeboats for supporting survival in a polar environment. Where a ship’s lifeboat capacity is insufficient for the entire complement, that personnel designated for evacuation in life rafts must be provided thermally insulated immersion suits.
All ships must be able to operate life-saving appliances independently of the ship’s main source of power.
To enable survival after abandoning a ship, all ships shall provide adequate resources to support survival after abandoning the ship, whether to sea, to ice or land, for the maximum expected time of rescue. These resources shall provide a ventilated environment that will protect against hypothermia, sufficient food and water to sustain life, and the ability to communicate with rescue assets.
Group survival equipment is required if there is a potential for abandonment onto the ice or land. Containers for group survival equipment shall be designed so that two people can lift them from the water onto an ice floe (a vertical distance of approximately 0.5 meters). Container weight should not exceed 25 kg.
Everyone aboard shall be provided thermal protection and personal survival equipment that adequately maintains core body temperature and prevents frostbite of extremities.
Survival craft and group survival equipment shall provide effective protection against direct wind chill for all persons aboard.
Where required, personal and group survival equipment will be provided for 110% of the persons aboard, stowed in easily accessible locations in or near the survival craft.
Containers for group survival equipment shall be floatable and easily movable over the ice.
Lifeboats shall be equipped with searchlights for detecting and identifying ice for ships operating in extended periods of darkness.