# Man Overboard Drill



## Citystalbans (Oct 1, 2007)

I've witnessed this farcical comedy a few times and I say that because the result was always the same.
We were all standing on deck in stategic earshot positions, with the ship at full steam someone would toss a 40gall drum over the side and shout "Man Overboard", this would be relayed all the way to the bridge where some 'lucky' cadet would get the chance to command the ship and rescue the 'man'. I think there was some sort of preplotted triangle course, taking wind and tide into consideration, that in theory would bring the ship back to the right spot......if any of you are still at sea keep your eyes open for some rusty barrels , we never did see them again. Still, the drill did teach me something...don't fall overboard!
Were the Ellerman cadets crap, the procedure wrong or something else , perhaps some of you ex deck officers can explain...


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

I seem to remember a notice on the bridge showing the course to be followed in the event of a man falling overboard.
The first thing done was to release the lifebelt and beacon from the bridge wing. 
Then turn away from the side the man went overboard? Do a complete circle and you would end up on the reciprocal course.
Saw it done once but it wasn't a man overboard. 
One of the lifeboats fell off!
Old man put us back alongside the lifeboat and stopped without batting an eyelid.


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

Referred to as the Williamson turn named after John Williamson, USNR who invented it, it is only useful for power driven vessels.
basically put the wheel hard over towards the side the dopey b....r fell over from - to avoid mangling him with the prop, when 60 degrees off course put the wheel hard over the over way, this will bring the ship back more or less directly onto the reciprocal track, whilst doing this final turn be ready to stop so as not to run said dopey b....r over.

There are other manouevres such as the Scharnow turn and the Anderson turn but these are more complex and the Williamson is the most commonly used.


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## Citystalbans (Oct 1, 2007)

Thank you, sounds good--- barrels probably sunk !


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## James_C (Feb 17, 2005)

Ken,
We used painted cardboard boxes. At least they sank after a while! LOL


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## Landlubber (Jun 19, 2007)

From my experience the Williamson turn proved to be very effective. I cannot remember a single occasion when we did not locate the man overboard.


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## Steve Woodward (Sep 4, 2006)

Landlubber said:


> From my experience the Williamson turn proved to be very effective. I cannot remember a single occasion when we did not locate the man overboard.


Just how often did you lose men overboard[=P]


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## agentroadrunner (Feb 2, 2006)

On one ship which shall remain nameless, while I was 2nd Mate with Cal-Mac I received a terrible b*ll*cking from the Captain on completion of our weekly man overboard drill.

As 2/O I was cox'n of the rescue boat which had been launched on passage ( with passengers ) to rescue our hand made dummy.

I was severely reprimanded for taking too long to find the casualty and then FAR too long getting back to the ship.

_..."the casualty would probably have died from exposure or hypothermia had this been a real situation" _

I then enquired if in a real situation he would have continued to steam away from the casualty at 15 knots while I made the rescue attempt.

_..."right go and put the gear away and get yourself a cup of tea"_


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## Cap'n Pete (Feb 27, 2006)

These days, returning the ship to the man overboard would be far better accomplished by pressing the "man overboard" button on the ECDIS and/or the GPS and making a slow turn. Nothing would be gained if half the containers were to fall overboard by making a quick turn with minimal stability at 24 knots, except to endanger the rest of the crew.

The entire point of the Williamson turn is to bring the ship back onto it's original course in order to assist finding the man in the water. This is not necessary when you have the electronic facility to find his position to an accuracy of 3 metres.


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## dom (Feb 10, 2006)

*dom*

remember hearing a story on one of the rigs,dummy in a boilersuit thrown off the chopper deck for man overboard drill,big nobby got it first before the standby boat


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## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

Think I made this post before about conducting a man O/B drill in the middle of the Atlantic. (we did not have the fancy gizmos that Cap't Pete mentions)
We had a dummy that was aslo used in fire drills for rescue purposes. One thing was for a crew member to keep his eye on the man/woman that had gone O/B and the lifering smoke float that was released.
It was an unusual day in that ocean (Atlantic) as it was flat calm and old lazy swell.
Did The Williamson turn etc and approached the victum and the boat was all ready to launch when one of our relieving deck hands commented "he doesn't expect us to go in a boat in the middle of the ocean" Another deckhand rightly remarked "Oh yes he does and would you think twice if it was you out there"


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## R58484956 (Apr 19, 2004)

On the Iberia we had a man O/B and it was at 19.00 hours when the saloon was ready to seat the hundreds of passengers. ship did a 180 at full speed and every table was cleared of all crockery etc. Check made of passengers/ crew nobody missing, apparently someone had seen two deck chairs go over the side and thought it may have been a person. Big clear up followed by a late dinner.


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## George.GM (Feb 8, 2006)

*Man overboard*

In 1989 the German destroyer Rommel was working up at Portland. As she left harbour for the "Thursday War" one of the FOST staff threw the dummy over the side and rushed to the bridge shouting "man overboard !".
The Captain ignored him and said "Full ahead".
"But Captain, you have a man overboard - aren't you going to stop ?" said the PO,
"I have" said the Captain, "three hundred men on board this ship and we are going to war - I am not stopping for one man".
There was no answer to that and I think the ship got a "very sat" for the serial,


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## MARINEJOCKY (Nov 25, 2007)

a deck cadet was washed off the deck forward of the mid-ships accommadation block and back onto the deck aft of the block. the engineers and crew were in the aft accommadation and did not know anything about it until the next day.


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

Citystalbans said:


> I've witnessed this farcical comedy .....
> Were the Ellerman cadets crap, the procedure wrong or something else , perhaps some of you ex deck officers can explain...


I’ve thought long and hard about contributing to this thread, but I really can’t let the post slide by without a comment.

These much maligned Middies would have been 17 or 18 year old young lads. Probably scared to death of anybody more senior than 3rd Mate. Suddenly without warning they’re shouted at by the Chief Officer or Master that there’s a “man overboard” and they’re to take command of the vessel handling both helm and engines from Full Ahead.

So far in their nautical career the closest to command they’ve been allowed is to fill in the Movement Book while berthing.

It takes skill and practice to be able to pull off a successful Williamson Turn and crews should appreciate the fact that some Masters take the time to introduce their junior officers to the concept and allow them to make mistakes while mastering it.

The sarcasm exhibited is an example of the sort of thing you’ll hear in any waterside bar between sups on the seventh or eighth pint ….. “So I said to the Second Mate if you don’t …” and “If I hadn’t gone hard a starboard while the old man stood there terrified we’d have been up on the rocks”.

All mouth and trousers.


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## Chouan (Apr 20, 2006)

As an Ellermans Cadet we did the Williamson Turn thing a couple of times, during my time, but never with me, or any other Cadet in charge, and we always ended up next to the floating object. 
Which proves ..... nothing at all really.


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## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

Going up the Persian Gulf, we were missing the TMM Mexcian cadet. 

We (ER crew) were about to give up the search and report "Man possibly overboard". Upon opening the door to the ship's laundry (which I had never seen before!) lo and behold! There he was, bless him, sound asleep on top af a big pile of sheets!

He also disappeared in Bangkok, but that's another story.

I can attest too to the effect of the "Collision Lever"! I can only imagine coming completely around at FS with the "Diners" ready for their evening chop! It's strange, I do not remember this drill at all!

Regards,

Dave


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## James_C (Feb 17, 2005)

On the British Skill a few years back we had an Old Man who decided he wanted to do a MOB drill. So, everyone was informed, drum prepared etc etc and everyone strategically position to await zero hour.
The Mate is on the fo'c'sle with the Pumpman and they throw this drum overboard, simultaneously shouting Man Overboard. Bearing in mind the ship is at ramming speed (12 knots), the helm is then put hard a starboard and........nothing. Rudder goes over, the big diesel decides it doesn't like the torque, engine stops, ship blacks out, Emgy genny fails to start (for the umpteenth time that trip)...
Ah well, time for a beer.


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## Citystalbans (Oct 1, 2007)

demodocus said:


> I’ve thought long and hard about contributing to this thread, but I really can’t let the post slide by without a comment.
> 
> These much maligned Middies would have been 17 or 18 year old young lads. Probably scared to death of anybody more senior than 3rd Mate. Suddenly without warning they’re shouted at by the Chief Officer or Master that there’s a “man overboard” and they’re to take command of the vessel handling both helm and engines from Full Ahead.
> 
> ...


Sorry if I offended you but thats the way it happened--- didn't know any the tech. stuff being only a Jnr Eng at the time myself


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## slick (Mar 31, 2006)

*Portland "Work Up"*



George.GM said:


> In 1989 the German destroyer Rommel was working up at Portland. As she left harbour for the "Thursday War" one of the FOST staff threw the dummy over the side and rushed to the bridge shouting "man overboard !".
> The Captain ignored him and said "Full ahead".
> "But Captain, you have a man overboard - aren't you going to stop ?" said the PO,
> "I have" said the Captain, "three hundred men on board this ship and we are going to war - I am not stopping for one man".
> There was no answer to that and I think the ship got a "very sat" for the serial,


All,
On a similar note once again (Exercises at Sea) involving a German warship at Portland during a Work up.
The Thursday War was in full swing and the previously detailed off sailors had been left around the ship suitably made up in all the gore, broken protruding bones and soot that Staff could manage.
One such "casuality" was placed at the bottom of a companionway, the lights were out and mayhem was everywhere, a Senior German Officer came across the wounded sailor.
When asked by nearby Staff what first aid he intended to give the sailor.
He replied after a cursory glance at the sailor "He is not sooo badly injured" he then stepped over the sailor and proceeded up the companionway.
No "Sat" for First Aid that morning.
Yours aye,
Slick


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## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

We had a slightly "manic" Chief who decided to make ER fire drills more realistic.

Now, just outside the control room, there was a pipe, just at forehead level. All us engineers would automatically duck when exiting. However, the chief was only down during stand-by and he would come in the rear CR door, straight from the lift flat and never venture into the ER.

The Chief's brilliant idea consisted in switching off all the ER lights to simulate smoke and fight a fire/rescue an eng. down on the bottom plates. The 2/E didn't think that this was such a good idea but he did get the chief to agree to "lead the fire party".

Yes, you guessed it.............the drill started, the chief charged out of the control room and promptly knocked himself silly on the pipe! Well, at least it counted as realistic! Subsequent drills were under normal cir***stances.

Later on another ship, relating the tale, another engineer was seething and told me that he was almost asphyxiated when the previously mentioned chief decided to "create more realism" by "simulating" a CO2 dump into the ER. The engineer told me that he was under the plates and didn't realize that the 28 tonnes of CO2 had just been discharged. He lived, the Chief also! Apparently the chief spluttered something about "I only thought...." I can't remember his name.......was it Jonah?

Rgds.
Dave


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