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Systems from STN Atlas ElektronikGmbH
Life rescue . . .
(Continued from page 12)
degrees 22 minutes east, 21 knots,
distance 16 nautical miles”. The position
is registered on the electronic chart
of the Alfried Krupp and the foreman
calculates how long it will take for the
freighter to reach the search area.
Every minute counts in such situations:
even with modern rescue vests,
the chances of survival in water are limited.
Besides the obvious danger of
drowning (that is reduced significantly
by the rescue vests) there is the very
serious risk of hypothermia which can
start after only a few minutes at water
temperatures below ten degrees Celsius.
Even if rescue services get there
fast, it may still be too late. This is why
perfect coordination between all those
involved in a rescue operation is essential,
why radio messages should
contain unmistakable instructions to
avoid confusion and why everybody
has to know exactly what to do. In our
example, the exercise was finished after
about an hour and a half – with a
positive outcome. All who were on board
the aircraft have been rescued
thanks to the good coordination of the
rescue mission.
Heiner Lübbers of the German Lifeboat
Institution knows that operations
are not always this successful. Communication
problems are often encountered
in reality, ultimately also
because the situation in shipping has
changed. “Sometimes, we can count
ourselves lucky to find a crew member
Shipwreck – this meant certain
death for sailors on the coast of
the North and Baltic Seas in the
middle of the nineteenth century. Cargo
ships, steamers, sailing boats and barges
which had run aground were really
only interesting for those on shore as
the general rule was “finders keepers”
for any cargo washed ashore. Besides,
cross-border cooperation was literally
unknown in those days. The rulers of
the duchies were only marginally interested
in the welfare of their sailors.
Things changed after the sailing vessel
Alliance hit the dreaded Borkum-
Riff off the North Sea coast and sank in
September 1860. Not one single crew
member survived the accident. This in-
Newsline
on board a freighter
who can speak
at least some English”.
Ships are increasinglyoperated
under a foreign
flag, they are registered
in countries
with relatively
slack rules regarding the training standards
of their crews, shipping companies
exert considerable time pressures
on their captains – all these aspects
have changed shipping drastically in
the last years. Nevertheless any ship
which is sufficiently near the location
of an accident is obliged to come to
the rescue. All captains stick to this
iron rule – after all, they may face the
same situation one day.
Simulator training is mandatory for
the foremen of the German Lifeboat Institution.
Every foreman has to repeat
such a training every other year. The
engineers of rescue cruisers take part
whenever possible. This is important
because the tasks on board ship can
change and ideally every crew member
should be able to take over practically
any job; it is quite conceivable
that the foreman leaves the task of radio
coordination to another crew
member because he is busy maneuvering
the ship.
In addition to the installation of an
advanced training center for rescue
services, the Caesar project has also
involved a complete renewal of the
cident prompted the navigation teacher
Adolph Bermpohl, the lawyer Carl
Kuhlmay, the journalist Arwed Eminghaus
and the senior customs inspector
Georg Breusing to publish an appeal
for the establishment of a maritime rescue
organization for Germany. Associations
for the rescue of shipwrecked
persons were thereupon founded in
Emden, Hamburg, Bremerhaven and
on the East Frisian Islands; in the year
1865 the German Lifeboat Institution
(DGzRS) was then established in Bremen
where the organization still has
its headquarters today.
Rescue stations were established
along the coast, equipped with rowing
boats and launching devices to
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The rescue cruiser Vormann-Steffens in operation.
maritime rescue control center in Bremen
from where rescue services in the
German territory of the North Sea and
Baltic Sea are coordinated; whenever
a distress signal is transmitted, this is
received directly by the control center
of the German Lifeboat Institution.
Technical processes have changed
considerably in recent years. Distress
messages are rarely received by VHF
radiotelephony nowadays; instead of
this, international regulations demand
that ships of a certain size should have
modern electronic distress systems
on board. The alarm is triggered at the
push of a button, within a matter of seconds
rescue services will know not
only the name of the ship in distress
but also the type of emergency and
the exact position. Even if the crew
does not have the time to send a message,
the automatic distress buoys
that are activated as soon as a ship
starts to sink will do the job. It is then
up to the officers working at the MRCC
in Bremen to assess just how serious
the situation is and who can assist
best in which way – systems from STN
Atlas help them to do this.
shoot the rescue lines on board ships
in distress. Whereas maritime rescue
services were nationalized in the German
Democratic Republic after World
War II, the principle of voluntary service
introduced by the founding mem-
DGzRS: A team
driven by idealism
bers of the German Lifeboat Institution
was upheld in the Federal Republic
of Germany. The institution still
depends exclusively on donations –
and by tradition, the German president
has always been the patron of
the Lifeboat Institution.