What to do in case of an emergency? For all of us ashore this question is quite easy to reply: calling the emergency number and waiting for help.
But for all of our crew members on board of our vessels it’s much more complicated than this. In most cases they have to help themselves; just making an emergency call and waiting for help would take too much time.
This shows the importance of the lifesaving appliances. They are often the only way to escape from board and guarantee the crew survival in case of fire, sinking, etc. Therefore their maintenance and knowledge about the right handling is com-pulsory.
But not only our crew gets in contact with the different lifesav-ing appliances. Also their colleagues ashore have to deal with them, for example when working in our inspection depart-ment and arranging services.
That’s why our colleague Mr. Thomas Oberschelp organized a little Safety Course at the MARIKO (Maritimes Kompetenz-zentrum – a kind of training centre for seamen and people working in the maritime industry) in Leer. This course was attended by all our trainees. Currently thirteen trainees do an apprenticeship as shipping clerks at Briese and support the staff members in the different departments, e.g. inspection, purchase, crewing, etc., as well as assuming own duties.
At first all of us attended a short theory lecture in which the different life saving appliances, their history, the nowadays de-velopment as well as the legal requirements were presented.
After that we started to do some practices.
Practice 1 - Launching of the Free Fall Boat:
Under coordination of the trainers of the MARIKO everyone of us took a seat in the Free Fall Boat and after some prepara-tion the boat was finally launched. After manoeuvring in the harbour of Leer and some volunteers at the helm it was up to us to hook the boat again and to bring it back in its original position. When the FFB was hooked (not all of us “survived” this manoeuvre safe and dry – later it was said that the water in our harbour was quite cold) we could go back ashore and the boat was lifted by a crane to its final position.
Practice 2 - Immersion Suit and Life Raft:
After the successful launching of the Free Fall Boat we went to our next practice. We took on our immersion suits and our life jackets and jumped into the inner harbour where we did some formation exercises. Then we had to enter the life raft. Finishing this last practice, our little safety training was already about to end and so we went back to the safe shore.
At the end of the day we can say that it was a lot of fun and a very interesting way to be introduced to the different life-saving appliances we all heard of before. We have gained a lot of knowledge and information about their importance and the necessity of safety drills on board of our vessels.
And I guess you all know now that an apprenticeship at Briese is more than just sitting in the office; it also means learning by doing!