Distress
Distress at sea is a situation in which there is an imminent and unavoidable danger to the health or life of the crew or passengers of a watercraft , e.g. B. by sinking or other accidents at sea.
term
Distress at sea occurs if, from the point of view of the master, and exercising his due discretion, there is an insurmountable and compelling emergency with danger for the ship, cargo or people on it. The cause is irrelevant. Caused or by the crew indebted emergencies make factually a distress. This is a sub-category of legal principles of the state of emergency ( distress ) in mortal danger and the need ( necessity ) for other dangers if impaired to address them legal interests of third parties.
Assistance
A radio distress call or distress signals can be used to draw attention to the distress at sea , so that the emergency situation can be remedied through assistance (e.g. rescue). In addition to rescuing the vehicle and the endangered people, in the event of major accidents it is also important to prevent possible environmental damage from leaking fuel or loading a vehicle in distress.
A distress situation may directly or indirectly by bad weather , technical defects (engine failure, rudder broken , flooding, fire ), accidents, grounding, errors and misconduct of the crew (navigational error, overloading, not given or instructions incorrectly performed) or by attack by pirates arise , often as a combination of the factors. During a naval war, those involved attempt to sink opposing watercraft (especially warships and submarines ) (see also list of significant ship sinkings ).
Recognizing and assessing potential dangers that (can) lead to a distress at sea is naturally subjective and depends heavily on the experience and skills of the people involved and the size and condition of the ship concerned. Accordingly, there are no generally binding rules as to whether there is a distress at sea, but this depends on the skipper's feelings.
There is no distress at sea if a watercraft suffers damage or damage that does not pose an imminent danger to the vehicle or to the life or limb of the crew. A broken mast on a sailing yacht that can reach a port on its own in calm weather, for example, does not justify an emergency call : this often triggers extensive search and rescue services . There would be little or no benefit compared to a high expenditure . If several unfortunate circumstances coincide, an emergency can arise from a harmless but annoying situation, for example if a ship drifts on a reef after an engine failure.
Every person is obliged to provide assistance to ships and people in distress as soon as possible or, if necessary, to provide assistance.
history
When the British Admiralty rejected the quaker William Hillary's proposal to found a sea rescue organization, the latter founded the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck in 1824 , which in 1854 was named the Royal National Lifeboat Institution . Today it is one of the largest and most prominent NGOs and is represented with over 200 rescue stations in Great Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands. When the emigrant ship Johanne sank off Spiekeroog in 1854, when people drowned in sight, there were no sea rescue organizations in Germany. Looting the wreck when the sea was calm seemed to the islanders as a natural right. After the incident was scandalized, various private sea rescue associations were formed on the German coast, which in 1865 merged to form the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People , before the founding of the empire .
In the 1930s, coastal strips and warships were equipped with radar technology or radar stations in many countries (main article: history of radar ). During the Second World War, large parts of the Atlantic were regularly observed by reconnaissance aircraft ; there the Atlantic battle was fought. Then came the Cold War , a decades-long battle of strength between the Warsaw Pact and NATO . In the course of this, both sides shot numerous spy satellites into space; these were a great contribution to the almost complete permanent observation of the world's oceans (including the vast expanses of the Pacific). Intercontinental merchant shipping has increased significantly since 1945 (e.g. in the course of globalization and the rise of the People's Republic of China to become the world's largest exporter). As a result, numerous sea routes are very busy. A ship in distress therefore usually has other ships nearby that come to the rescue quickly in an emergency. B. can accommodate castaways. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) , which is now mandatory on all merchant ships, enables every ship to be identified within radio range and via the Internet using satellite technology.
Alerting
The alarm is usually issued by the ship's crew themselves, using distress signals or marine radio . A “ Mayday ” call can be made on the shortwave frequencies 500 kHz or 2182 kHz and on VHF channel 16 . The emergency call does not have to be the only indication of a distress, a distress can also be accepted if third parties make appropriate observations, if a ship does not arrive according to plan (is overdue) or if parts of the wreckage have been sighted. Emergencies at sea in international waters are dealt with by sea emergency centers in accordance with certain standards of shipping . Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers (MRCC) are national control centers for coordinating sea rescue . They monitor coastal waters.
Planning and implementation of the search for an object in need
The Federal Republic of Germany has assigned the tasks of search and rescue at sea as provided for in the International Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 to an association under private law, funded by donations, the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS). In fact, the DGzRS has been performing these tasks since it was founded in 1865.
In particular, the effective conduct of search and rescue operations requires cooperation between the organizations and units, which may include aircraft, ships and sea rescue facilities on land. If specialized SAR ships (including warships ) and aircraft are at the scene of the accident at the same time as merchant ships , it can normally be expected that a special unit will take over the duties of the search director . If no special ships are present to take over the search lead tasks, but some merchant ships are involved in the operation, one of these ships must take over the task of search lead. This search line is formed by mutual agreement between the ships concerned, taking into account their suitability and estimated time of arrival at the scene of the accident. However, the first ship to arrive should take any necessary immediate action. In order for ships to be able to carry out an effective search together with SAR ships / aircraft, it is necessary that the search patterns are planned in advance. To this end, a number of search programs have been set up with regard to various accident situations. Which search pattern should be used is usually decided by the search line.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Schult; Sailors lexicon; Bielefeld 2008; Keyword “distress at sea”; ISBN 978-3-7688-1041-8
- ^ Inken von Gadow-Stephani: Access to ports of refuge and other places of refuge for ships in distress. Springer 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-30518-7 , p. 236.
- ^ Inken von Gadow-Stephani: Access to ports of refuge and other places of refuge for ships in distress. P. 329 f.
- ↑ Sea rescue in the Mediterranean . Bundestag.de. February 13, 2018. Accessed January 13, 2019. Page 11
- ↑ United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 98 ( German translation )
- ↑ 1824: Our foundation . Royal National Lifeboat Institution, accessed January 17, 2019.
- ↑ Hilton, Crowson et al. a .: A Historical Guide to NGOs in Britain: Charities, Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector since 1945 . Palgrave 2012, ISBN 978-0-230-30444-4 , p. 399.
- ^ German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS) . Society for Schleswig-Holstein History, accessed January 18, 2019.
- ↑ See Vesseltracker , MarineTraffic
- ↑ United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 99, paragraph 2 ( German translation )