# Lifeboat drill incident.



## Mechanic-H (Apr 21, 2009)

That bulker, mv King Charles, (late seventies) had an incident where the lifeboats had been cleaned out and painted during the trip by the deck cadet. During the next drill, they were swung out. As far as I remember, some of the catering staff were told to climb onboard. There was some resistance to this so the boat were lowered a few feet when one of the hooks gave way, leaving it suspended.
Rather unexpectedly, the same thing happened at exacly the same time on the other side of the ship. 
Afterwards it was found that the (bowsing intakes?) had been tied out of the way of the drying paint and they had caused one of the hooks to be released.
I still have the pictures I took, but at the time I kept it quiet. 
We were rather shocked that this could happen particularly as we were under way at the time. If those staff had been aboard, they would have probably been killed.


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