gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore » rescue-swimmer

Photo Of The Week – LNG Tanker Lokoja

John Konrad — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:30:15 +0000

gCaptain’s photo of the week is a helicopter shot of LNG Tanker Lokoja (IMO# 9269960). Built by the Korean shipyard Daewoo in 2006 she is owned by BW Gas and chartered to Suez LNG.

What makes this the photo of the week is both the amazing perspective and the photographer himself. gCaptain believes every mariner has a specialty, hobby or interest that makes him unique and we love to showcase their work. This is a great example because, like our friend OneEighteen’s best work, Carlos Ferreira, the photographer, took this shot while performing his everyday duties at sea. Carlos also happens to have a day job that every mariner deeply appreciates, Rescue Captain aboard Spain’s Rescue Helicopter “Pesca 2″.

For more of Carlos’ amazing photos CLICK HERE.

USCG History: Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers

gCaptain Staff — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:27:04 +0000

Extending yesterdays celebration of Coast Guard Day 2009, we will be keeping up with the coast guard theme here all week on gCaptain’s blog. Today’s post is an interesting story written by William H. Thiesen, Ph.D., an Atlantic Area Historian of the U.S. Coast Guard, offering insight into the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Program through this historical account.

via Coast Guard Compass:

LT Robert Prause provides a classic example of the Coast Guard’s core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty. On June 22, 1915, Robert Henry Prause, Jr., was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He spent most of his childhood in Norfolk, Virginia, where he attended Matthew Fontaine Maury High School. He excelled in the technical preparatory curriculum offered by that school and became a member of Maury’s math, science and literary clubs. Based on his academic achievements in high school, Prause received a scholarship at the Norfolk Division of William & Mary College, now known as Old Dominion University, and studied engineering in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s division of that school.

After over a year of studies in the Virginia Tech division, Bob Prause decided to follow his passion for technical studies and took the entrance examination for the Coast Guard Academy. In 1935, he passed his examination and received an appointment for the class of 1939. After graduation, Prause served on board the cutter MODOC homeported in Wilmington, North Carolina. He next served as watch officer and navigator on board the cutter ONONDAGA based out of Astoria, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.

In early 1942, LTJG Prause received orders to serve as executive officer on board the cutter ESCANABA, homeported in Grand Haven, Michigan. By June, ESCANABA had changed stations from the Great Lakes to Boston to serve as part of the Coast Guard’s Greenland Patrol. Soon after ESCANABA joined the Greenland Patrol, Prause received a wartime promotion to full lieutenant. Over the course of the next year, ESCANABA served as a workhorse for the Greenland Patrol’s convoy escorts. The cutter escorted cargo vessels and troop transports between U.S. and Canadian ports and on to Greenland in arguably the worst and most forbidding sea and weather conditions in any theater of operations of World War II.

On June 15, 1942, an event took place that made a lasting impression on Prause. During the early evening, while escorting a convoy from Nova Scotia to Greenland, ESCANABA made sonar contact with a U-boat, depth-charged the submarine and likely sank it. Within an hour, ESCANABA attacked a second U-boat, but could not confirm a kill. Around midnight, a U-boat attack on ESCANABA’s convoy sank the transport USS CHEROKEE, sending 173 personnel into the icy waters. Within minutes, the shock of the water’s temperature had incapacitated CHEROKEE’s survivors. Desperate to retrieve as many men as possible, Prause dangled head first over the side of the cutter while his shipmates clutched his legs. In spite of the ever-present threat of submarine attack and a heavy seaway, ESCANABA managed to rescue twenty-two survivors.

The difficulty of retrieving men from the frigid heavy seas of the North Atlantic prompted Prause to work with the ship’s commanding officer, LCDR Carl U. Peterson, to develop a safer and more effective method for recovering debilitated survivors from Greenland’s icy cold waters. Prause relied on his technical background to devise a system of tethered rescue swimmers equipped with rubber exposure suits normally issued to aviators that flew over expanses of cold water. Prause experimented with one of these suits, which trapped water near the swimmer and kept it warm through body heat. Prause worked with three crewmembers that volunteered to serve as retrievers and drilled them and their support crews. They became very proficient in working from ESCANABA’s rolling deck under the blackout conditions required during combat operations.

On February 3rd, 1943, a convoy bound from Newfoundland to Greenland provided the ultimate test of Prause’s experiments and training. Cutters ESCANABA, TAMPA, and COMANCHE escorted a group of three steamers, including the U.S. Army Transport DORCHESTER, which carried 904 passengers and crew. At 01:00 in the morning, a U-boat torpedoed the DORCHESTER, sinking the transport within twenty minutes. Prause’s men were ready, donning their special exposure suits and preparing to put their training to use.

USAT DORCHESTER

Rescue operations on board ESCANABA and in the water proved far more effective in recovering survivors than any previous attempts. Navy regulations forbade the use of lights on American ships at night; however, life preservers on board DORCHESTER had been equipped with blinking red lights, making it easier to locate the floating survivors in the dark. Wearing their exposure suits, the retrievers swam out to the DORCHESTER’s men to determine whether they were still alive and ESCANABA’s deck crew hauled in those that had survived. Prause supervised this eight-hour evolution in less than ideal conditions. In the end, ESCANABA had saved 133 lives, over six times the number rescued from USS CHEROKEE. Prause’s tethered rescue swimmer system had proven a great success.

Unfortunately, the success of Prause and his system proved short lived. In June, ESCANABA joined cutters STORIS and RARITAN to escort a convoy bound from Greenland to Newfoundland. At 05:00 in the morning of June 13, almost a full year after the CHEROKEE disaster, ESCANABA fell victim to a catastrophic explosion whose cause has remained a mystery to this day. In a matter of just a few minutes, the cutter went up in smoke and sank, taking 100 crewmembers and LCDR Peterson down with it. Ray O’Malley, one of only two survivors of the ESCANABA, later recounted how LT Prause had survived the explosion and struggled to the surface. The crew from Cutter RARITAN threw Prause a line, pulled him on deck and took him below for medical attention; however, Prause lost consciousness and could not be revived. Due to the great distance to land, RARITAN’s commander chose to bury Prause at sea with full military honors.

Despite its success, the systematic use of tethered rescue swimmers developed by LT Prause failed to catch on after the loss of ESCANABA. For his efforts and deeds, Prause received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, Purple Heart Medal and several World War II campaign medals. Even though Prause’s system may not be characterized as a prototype for the modern Coast Guard rescue swimmer program, it represents one of the first successful cold-water rescue methods to succeed in the heavy sea and weather conditions of the North Atlantic.

Popular Mechanics takes a look inside the USCG’s Advanced Helicopter Rescue School

Mike Schuler — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:21:39 +0000

In its April Edition, Popular Mechanics gives its readers an inside look into the USCG’s Advanced Helicopter Rescue School by enrolling one of its authors to attend the course along with 16 other students. The school, located in Astoria Oregon, is where Coast Guard helicopter pilots and crews receive training in conducting rescues in heavy weather and heavy surf conditions. The course was started to provide specialized skills to Aviation Survival Technicians when dealing with the challenges of cold water, high seas and cliff rescue work.

The one-week course is held eight times a year in the mouth of the Columbia River – an area commonly known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. In order provide the most effective training possible, the timing of the courses – generally in the Spring and Fall – are chosen to take advantage of the most hazardous conditions this region can produce.

Here is a video provided by USCG Imagery of a typical “classroom” excersise:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read the article by Popular Mechanics

USCG Advanced Helicopter Rescue School HOME

M/V Selendang Ayu Oil Spill and Sinking

Mike Schuler — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:36:42 +0000

On Monday, Alaskan state officials announced that the owners and operators of the bulk freighter, M/V Selendang Ayu, that sank off the north shore of Unalaska Island in the Bering Sea in 2004 have agreed to pay the state of Alaska nearly $850,000 to settle oil spill, wreck removal and lost fish tax claims.

The settlement with the vessels operator IMC Shipping Co. Pte. Ltd. (IMC) of Singapore and owner Ayu Navigation of Port Klang, Malaysia, brings the total amount of clean-up costs and fees to more than $112 million for the December 2004 sinking. The accident resulted in the a spill of approximately 336,000 gallons of fuel oil and diesel fuel.

With the exception of the Exxon Valdez, the penalty collected is the largest civil oil spill penalty ever recovered by the state of Alaska.

Flashback to December 2004

The Malaysian-registered bulk carrier M/V Seledang Ayu was on it’s was to China from Seattle, Washington with a crew of 26 and 60,200 metric tons soybeans. On December 6, as the vessel transitted through the Unimak Pass in the Aleutian Islands, she encountered heavy weather. Shortly after, the vessels engine failed from a crack in the liner of the main engines No. 3 cylinder and the freighter went adrift.

On the night of December 6, approximately 11 hrs after the engines initial failure and subsequent usuccessful attempts to restart it, the master made his first attempt to contact the harbormaster at Dutch Harbor over VHF channel 16. At a distance of 90 miles from Dutch Harbor, the Selendang Ayu was well out of VHF range and received no response. After a few more hours, the master finally contacted Dutch Harbor via the ship’s satellite phone and the USCG Cutter Alex Haley was dispatched to the vessels position.

On December 7, the cutter arrived on the scene along with the oceangoing tug Sidney Foss. Despite 25-foot waves and 45- to 55-knot winds, the Sidney Foss was able to maneauver around the vessel and begin to tow freighter.

Later, in the early morning hours of December 8, the harbor tug James Dunlap arrived to assist with the tow which was being hampered by the continuing strong winds and high seas that restricted the freighter’s bow from turning into the wind. Because of the sea state and the darkness, the masters of the Sidney Foss and the James Dunlap decided to wait until daylight before attempting to swing the bow of the Selendang Ayu around by putting a line on the stern. At 0732, the towline broke.

The Selendang Ayu, which was quickly closing in on the Unalaska Island coast, began to take precautionary measures to reduce the danger of a spill if the ship grounded and, upon recommendation of the Alex Haley, the Selendang Ayu dropped its port anchor.

At first it appeared the the anchor was going to hold, but after only a short period it began to drag and the vessel again began to drift towards the shore. Requests to drop its starboard anchor were denied by the master, as the port’s chain was wrapped tight around the vessels stem (shown above). Last minute efforts by the Alex Haley to tow the drifting freighter were unsuccessful and attention was turned to evacuation of the crew.

About 1400, the Coast Guard began hoisting the first group of nine Selendang Ayu crewmembers from the deck of the freighter into the first HH-60 helicopter that had arrived from nearby Cold Bay. At 1430, the second HH-60 helicopter arrived on scene.

The Selendang Ayu master lowered his starboard anchor. The Alex Haley’s deck log reports that at 1450, the vessel was about 1 mile from the beach, holding to two anchors with 10 shots of chain on each.

At 1450, the first HH-60 helicopter completed its hoist and flew the nine Selendang Ayu crewmembers to the Alex Haley. Hovering above the cutter’s deck, the helicopter lowered the crewmembers one at a time in a basket.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Beginning at 1455, the second HH-60 helicopter hoisted on board the other group of nine crewmembers, all wearing lifejackets, and flew directly to a rendezvous point on Unalaska Island. Nine Selendang Ayu crewmembers were still on board the Alex Haley. Eight crewmembers remained on board the Selendang Ayu in an attempt to finish with the engine repairs.

With both anchors dragging, the master order the remaining crew to be evacuated, and the Selendang Ayu ran aground. The master noted the time of the grounding as 1705 on December 8.

When the vessel ran aground, the master ordered for immediate helicopter evacuation. With one of the two Jayhawk helicopters 30 min. away in Dutch Harbor, a smaller, medical helicopter which had been aboard the Alex Haley stepped into assist. The remaining HH-60 Jayhawk lowered a rescue swimmer to help the crewmembers into the basket that would hoist them into the helicopter. After the seventh crewmember had been hoisted on board the helicopter and while the Selendang Ayu master and the Coast Guard rescue swimmer waited on the freighter’s exposed bow, a wave larger than any yet encountered, according to witnesses, struck the bow of the freighter, sprayed up, and engulfed the HH‑60.

The HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from the Alex Haley had been hovering nearby observing the rescue effort when it witnessed the wave and the crash of the HH-60 Jayhawk and it immediately went into rescue mode. By 1836, the HH‑65 had recovered all three of the Jayhawk’s crew from the water but only one of the Selendang Ayu’s seven crewmembers.

Finally, at 1913, with the master of the Selendang Ayu and Coast Guard rescue swimmer still awaiting rescue, the freighter broke in half on the rocks.

The chief engineer of the Selendang Ayu, the second engineer, the chief electrician, the chief mate, the third officer, and the bosun died in the accident. None of their bodies was recovered and they are presumed drowned.27 The accident resulted in a spill of approximately 336,000 gallons of fuel oil and diesel fuel that led to an environmental cleanup lasting until June 2006

You can read the full NTSB Abstract MAB HERE

Rescue On The High Seas- USCG Helicopter Crew Interviewed

John Konrad — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:13:52 +0000

INTERVIEW WITH USCG RESCUE HELICOPTER CREW

This past July, in a gCaptain and Robin Storm exclusive, we brought you the Lessons Learned by North Atlantic freak wave survivor Jean Pierre de Lutz. Just two months prior to that article Jean was aboard the sailboat Sean Seamor II when he found trouble in the north Atlantic. In the final logbook entry he writes:

On or around 7 May 2007 the s/v Sean Seamour II was struck by a what is believed to be a “freak wave”, during Subtropical Storm Andrea. The sailboat was broadsided by a wave that did an great deal of damage to the boat and sent the crew flying about the cabin doing 360’s and causing its Master to break his ribs. The wave caused the sailboat to immediately list starboard.

After a harrowing time riding the waves a EPIRB signal was received by the USCG and a C-130 over fight located the wave riding crew. A J-Hawk Helicopter was dispatched to the area and launched a rescue swimmer, who injured his back during the insertion into the water, when a wave dropped from beneath him and he dropped some 50 to 70 feet. All of this done in 50 to 70 foot seas, with winds estimated at 80 knots.

Today we bring you an MAIS Podcast interview with the entire crew of the J-Hawk Helicopter that came to their rescue. It’s a story of survival in nature’s harshest conditions so be sure to listen.

THE HEROS

Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Drew D. Dazzo, H-60 Rescue Swimmer
Lieutenant Commander Nevada A. Smith, H-60 Aircraft Commander
Lieutenant Junior Grade Aaron G. Nelson, H-60 Copilot
Aviation Maintenance Technician Second Class Scott D. Higgins, H-60 Flight Mechanic