Afloat in Fate

It was the morning of a warm sunny Sunday. People were just heading out to work and looking forward to routinely normal day. Everything seemed to be in place up until someone on deck heard the stifled screams – screams of a guy. On closer observation, he saw a guy floating in several metres of swell and waves, screaming for help.

All ship personnel gathered in a swift and efficient manner. The officer swung the ship around. Personnel came to the bridge to sight that person again. The wind was steadily strong and the sea was rough. We lost sight of him for a while among the hard hitting waves. A perfectly executed turn that brought us back on our course line helped us sight him again, this time much closer to us on the starboard side steadily drifting aft. The vessel was stopped immediately and the man overboard marker buoy thrown over the side.

Meanwhile, the rescue boat had been prepared for launch. Among the heavy pitching and rolling of the small boat, we headed for the orange smoke marking the buoy’s position. The survivor had managed to hold on to our marker buoy. His eyes were shut and he looked very tired. We pulled him onboard the boat and returned back to the ship among smiles and relief in the crew.

Returning after picking up the survivor

The official excerpt was as below:

0815 Man overboard sighted (port side).

0816 OOW turn hard to port to conduct Williamson's turn.

0820 MOB life rings stb side thrown out to the person.

0824 Ship stopped

0826 Man Overboard Boat launched

0830 Man rescued into MOB boat

0837 Start MOB boat recovery

0842 MOB boat on board with rescued person who was picked up stark naked.

“I am Joun. I live in Thailand. I have a wife there”, he said with a wry smile on his face. He slept for most of the day, but when he turned up for lunch we all knew he was going to be fine. He had fallen overboard from a small fishing boat in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else was asleep.

It was a great experience for all of us onboard Rita Maersk. The efficiency and performance under testing conditions was exemplary and has to be accredited to a diligent and attentive crew onboard Rita Maersk, and of course to the importance of drills.

Signed

Team Rita Maersk