Info Diving and Seamanship

[Akimbo]

With all the talk about red & green lights and buoys no one mentioned "Red, Right, Returning"...

Rich,

That's what I thought too, but not always. Check posts #9, #18, #24, and #35. Hackdive corrected me on this one. I learned something new.

 

[nolatom]

Who needs Chapman's??

Just remember, "red is green, and port is starboard"!


;-)

 

[Akimbo]

Difference between a boat and ship?

It was pretty simple before about the mid-1960s when the offshore oil industry began to muck up the definition. According to the US Navy a boat is "A small craft capable of being carried aboard a ship". The advent of 5000 ton vessel-mounted cranes blew a big hole in that definition along with ships like the MV Blue Marlin that carried the USS Cole halfway around the world.

One clear exception is submarines, which have always been called boats in most (maybe all?) navies.

You are probably safe to call any vessel commonly used for diving a boat, even 400' DSVs (Diving Support Vessels) used for Saturation Diving in the North Sea oilfields.

Another confusing question is: What’s with all those acronyms preceding the name? A comprehensive list would be really long, but recreational dive boats, at least in the US, most commonly use MV for Motor Vessel. These days, nearly all merchant ships qualify for this designation because even the largest of vessels are driven by Diesel engines instead of steam turbines.

Here are some other common vessel prefixes in English-speaking countries that come to mind:
USS = United States Ship, mainly naval vessels
SS (USN) = Submarine, SSN is Nuclear, SSBN is Ballistic missile
RMS = Royal Mail Ship or Royal Mail Steam-ship
HMS = His/Her Majesty's Ship in the Royal Navy
RV = Research Vessel

More info: Ship prefix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bob DBF]

Who needs Chapman's??

Just remember, "red is green, and port is starboard"!


;-)

Yeah, watch Red Green and Drink the Port. Got it.


Bob
------------------
I may be old, but im not dead yet.

 

[DMDavid]

Yeah, watch Red Green and Drink the Port. Got it.

I thought it was "Port is to Starboard as Red is to Green".

 

[AfterDark]

The Coast Guard Auxiliary offers a lot of classes, some of them free. one called suddenly in command is only a 2-4 hour class. I would highly recommend anyone that is not a boater who's going to be on boats take this class. IT could save your life
here's a link to the courses they offer Welcome to the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Official Web portal

My wife and I took one back in 80's, when I thought I knew a lot about seamanship and thought my wife should learn also, turns out we both learned a lot. The lines of the ship I know like the back of my hand from 20 years inspecting SSNs and SSBNs I was laid off before the SSNGs.

 

[Wingy]

With all the talk about red & green lights and buoys no one mentioned "Red, Right, Returning". The Red buoys are always on your Right hand side when you are Returning to port. Just an add on to fire fighting, if you cannot put out a fire with two good size fire extinguishers the fire is out of your control and it is time to leave.

+1 - Cant stress how important this is. If you are on a passenger/commercial vessel and dont know where the fire extinguishers are and a fire breaks out please stay out of the way of the crew - we do drills every time the ship leaves port and have found sometimes well meaning passengers have added valuable seconds by getting in the way or asking questions. We have a very strict rule, if the fire hoses are running, the extinguishers are being used and the hatches are closed and the fire is not under control within 2 minutes - get off the ship. The third minute is more valuable for launching life rafts than trying to save her (tall ship, wooden vessel so shes going to burn very well) ....we'd rather have a multi million dollar bonfire than a funeral.

Do drills on a regular basis if you own a boat of any kind. Its seconds not just minutes that count.

 

[Bob DBF]

Whenever I have had boats, my most important drill was to have everyone on board man the helm, act as skipper, and complete a successful man overboard drill. I always figured that the biggest problem, and the most likely, would be if I was the one in the drink.


Bob

 

[Rich Keller]

Whenever I have had boats, my most important drill was to have everyone on board man the helm, act as skipper, and complete a successful man overboard drill. I always figured that the biggest problem, and the most likely, would be if I was the one in the drink.Bob

Just an add on to the man overboard. If you see someone fall overboard you do not want to just yell "man overboard", you want to add to that "port side" or "starboard side" so the captain knows which way to turn for the quickest response. I know it may not sound like much but it makes a difference, the faster the boat is going the bigger the difference it will make.

 

[Hickdive]

One of the most basic things is to keep a look out especially if you're on a dive boat and even if you're not crew.

One of my bugbears is surfacing safely from a dive and signalling ok to the boat only to spend several minutes waiting to be spotted and acknowledged because everyone is heads down fiddling with equipment or chatting.

You just have to raise your head and scan round every few moments to spot things like approaching vessels or divers on the surface and let the crew know if you spot something. Understanding the idea of a constant bearing helps too.