# Tragedy on the Ocean Countess



## Bob S (Jul 12, 2004)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-sea-botched-rescue-attempt-cruise-ship.html


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## Ian6 (Feb 1, 2006)

It is very sad. The lady was said to have been very ill when her transfer was originally arranged. Clearly being immersed in the sea off Norway at this time of year must be harmful but did it cause her death or contribute to it ? It isn't clear from what I've read.
In any case my sympathy and condolence to her unfortunate husband and also to those involved whose well intended actions had this tragic outcome.
Ian


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## slick (Mar 31, 2006)

All,
I have only seen a few still pictures of the incident, but I could not sight any safety ines.
In view of sea temperature and weather conditions, I would have thought that the patient should have been in a Immersion suit prior to the transfer taking place?
Does anyone have any more information.

Yours aye,

slick


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## lazyjohn (Mar 3, 2011)

I was on the vessal last year.

She has a very good helipad on the afterdeck. The Jackstaff has been permanently removed to aft end of a lower deck and the helipad marked correctly. Two overhead lines of lights will unplug and drop in minutes. (I checked)

I was not impressed with the staff (ship staff that is), the hotel side of the vessal is very good indeed.

She is a Bahama registry but is essentualy a Greek ship under charter to a UK holiday company (Cruise & Maritime)

First thing I did after assessing the ship was to find the life rafts and check the lashings. 

I did experiance boat handling when we the passengers were landed from lifeboats for an excursion ashore, not good in my opinion due to lack of coordination and no common language used by the staff.


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## Gollywobbler (Dec 4, 2010)

Hello

I'm female and all I've done is to crew on privately owned yachts, purely for pleasure. I'm not a marine expert. 

However I'm puzzled by the incident and wondering whether you guys can shed any light, please? 

Apparently evacuating the lady by helicopter was considered but a decision was made to evacuate her by boat instead. 

She was suffering from internal bleeding, which might have been why she was not put into an immersion suit. Somebody chucked a lifebelt off the ship as soon as the accident happened and the lady managed to grab it - which at least kept her afloat. 

According to the witnesses, the ship didn't stop before the lady was moved, the rescue boat was not tied to the ship and no lines were attached to the stretcher. The stern of the rescue boat suddenly kicked outwards, away from the ship, just as the men were trying to transfer the stretcher from the ship to the rescue boat. 

That seems to have been what happened as far as the witnesses (other passengers) know. 

What surprises me is that a Norwegian rescue boat was involved and from what I've been told about them (by a shipbroker in Sweden) the Norwegian maritime rescue people are every bit as competent and as safety conscious as the RNLI in the UK.

So is there a generally-accepted "usual drill" for this sort of situation, please? 

Thanks

Gill


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## blobbybluey (Apr 22, 2006)

Gollywobbler said:


> Hello
> 
> I'm female and all I've done is to crew on privately owned yachts, purely for pleasure. I'm not a marine expert.
> 
> ...


there certainly was in my time at sea,from what ive seen she actually came out of the stretcher,why wasnt a stokes stretcher or suchlike used,and for the life of me i cant understand why no line was attatched to the stretcher,ive done arial and underground rescue using stretchers aswell,and not to have the stretcher whatever type used unsecured is criminal,or maybe the cheap labour employed these days are unable to tie knots(EEK)


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## lazyjohn (Mar 3, 2011)

I saw a similar transfer off Southampton, when a crewman broke his thigh, including the dip in the sea. Here are my uninformed thoughts (Given they had made a, perhaps, dodgy decision not to use a helicoptor)

I would have thought that lines from the ship to the patient should have been paid out as lines from the launch to the patient were hauled in. 

I cant understand why she wasn't secured to the launch by at least a safety line.

Keeping the vessals moving to avoid wallowing in waves was probably correct.

Any proper sailors out there who can confirm the procedure please?

Are Robertson stretchers still in use?


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## Satanic Mechanic (Feb 23, 2009)

Before we all go getting all sniffy about things, worth remembering we do not know the Norwegian procedure or rationale behind it - these things tend to develop from experience and they may well have been followed precisely. We definitely don't know what actually happened since it is a newspaper report. Maybe worth waiting for the official report to see what went wrong/ if procedures were followed and of course recommendations. 

There are any number of thing which were once considered normal and conventional wisdom which are now looked on as being outdated. By way of an example say fixed fire fighting - now a first response not a last resort or the use of fish oil as a spray calming measure.


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## lazyjohn (Mar 3, 2011)

I take your point about waiting for the enquiry and agree. I mean no offence SM when I write this.

We know a helecopter transfer was rejected.
We know the transfer attempt was made.
We know the patient fell into the sea and was not secured either to ship or launch.
We know the patient is now dead.

Whatever the modern thinking on the matter, something caused a chain of events that ended with the patient dropping unsecured into freezing water.

People will naturaly want to discuss this event.


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## NoR (Mar 24, 2008)

lazyjohn


> We know a helecopter transfer was rejected.
> We know the transfer attempt was made.
> We know the patient fell into the sea and was not secured either to ship or launch.
> We know the patient is now dead.


Pretty damning. Furthermore it appears that the patient wasn't secured in the stretcher otherwise she'd have drowned.


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## Satanic Mechanic (Feb 23, 2009)

lazyjohn said:


> I take your point about waiting for the enquiry and agree. I mean no offence SM when I write this.
> 
> We know a helecopter transfer was rejected.
> We know the transfer attempt was made.
> ...


No problem at all John - What I am mainly getting at is lets not go shooting the Norwegians until we are in full possesion of the facts.


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## Satanic Mechanic (Feb 23, 2009)

NoR said:


> lazyjohn
> 
> 
> Pretty damning. Furthermore it *appears that the patient wasn't secured in the stretcher otherwise she'd have drowned*.



How about that eh!!!


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## lazyjohn (Mar 3, 2011)

What we need is someone experianced in ship to ship transfers. 

I've seen it done, so somewhere out there is somebody who actualy has informed experiance they might care to share.


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## Chris Isaac (Jul 29, 2006)

I have only had one experience of such an exercise and that was transferring a sick crew member from a Greek cargo ship to Capetown Castle for treatment aboard for suspected appendicitis in the middle of the South Atlantic at 0200.
We took a lifeboat from CT Castle to the cargo ship, the patient was lowered to the water in their life boat and the transfer was effected from one lifeboat to another at the same level.
Once back to CT Castle the patient was hoisted up in the lifeboat to the Promenade Deck where he was transferred, again at the same level, onto CT Castle and thence to ships hospital.
Very smooth operation and nobody died. Probably because transfers were always made at the same level, the patient was never dangled in the air as seems to have happened in this case on the Ocean Countess.

British officers, british crew, british certificates of competency........'nuff said!


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## NoR (Mar 24, 2008)

Yes I've seen it done 3 times once by helicopter when the patient was just transferred into the helo and hence to the receiving vessel. And twice ship to ship via boat. Both times in a neil robertson stretcher and both times the stretcher had a gantline attached, and steading line at one or both ends.


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## jimthehat (Aug 5, 2006)

NoR said:


> Yes I've seen it done 3 times once by helicopter when the patient was just transferred into the helo and hence to the receiving vessel. And twice ship to ship via boat. Both times in a neil robertson stretcher and both times the stretcher had a gantline attached, and steading line at one or both ends.


Almost a mirror image of my own experience watched it being done twice from the Arcadia,same proceedure as previously mentioned.Operation professionally carried out in an efficient manner.was involved about 50 years ago in the far east,patient lowered in ships lifeboat then transferred to rescue launch.SOP.

jim


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