Twenty-two Lives Saved By AMVER Ships!

Recently, merchant ships participating in the U.S. Coast Guard’s AMVER Search and Rescue System safely recovered twenty-two survivors in two separate incidents at sea. The types of rescues demonstrate the wide range of emergency situations which can be encountered by Amver ships, which participate in the program voluntarily.

The first case involved the 684-foot product tanker M/T Inca, owned by Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. of Athens, Greece. While underway off the coast of Colombia, enroute to Cristobal, Panama, a crewmember sighted a 7-meter capsized fishing boat with 4 persons on it and notified the officer on watch. Inca’s Master, CAPT Kontomihis, who was on the bridge, changed his ship’s course to assist and recovered three of the four, who had to be treated for shock.

Unfortunately, they advised that the fourth crewman was already deceased and had been tied off to the boat. The tanker’s crew attempted to recover the body and take it aboard, but to no avail. M/T Inca, was on charter to ChevronTexaco, and Company Official Ian Meadows advised Amver that the ship’s crew had “gone the extra mile” in this rescue, with both the Chief Mate and Bosun jumping into the very rough seas, with a high easterly swell, to assist with the rescue and recovery effort. Within a few hours, the capsized boat was lost under the waves.

Upon the arrival of a Colombian Coast Guard vessel, an attempt was made to transfer the survivors, but was aborted due to the wind force 6/7 Beaufort. The survivors were delivered in good condition to Panamanian authorities in Cristobal and transported to the Colombian Embassy for repatriation, as Inca began its transit of the canal to its next port of call in San Francisco.

Only two weeks later, on the other side of the world in the Arabian Sea, the Singapore-flagged container ship APL Pusan collided head-on with the Panamanian product tanker Delta 1 in heavy fog. The tanker caught fire, broke in two and sank. The APL Pusan was enroute to the port of Mundra from the Dubai port of Jebel Ali. The collision occurred off the western coast of India and, although the tanker was carrying diesel fuel, lube, gear and heavy oil, the Indian government expected no resulting environmental damage.

The Delta 1 sent out a distress signal and its crew of (19) abandoned ship. The M/V Kota Teguh, a container ship also of Singapore registry, copied the Mayday call on VHF Channel 16. CAPT Peter Brakocevic turned his ship and proceeded to the position of the collision, 6 nmi away. Guided from the bridge, his crew lowered the rescue boat and made their way toward the survivors. Within two hours 18 crewmembers were embarked in Kota Teguh.

There was zero visibility, a strong current, and the tanker was on fire during the rescue operation, which brought Kota Teguh within 0.7 nmi of M/T Delta 1. The crew were all in good condition except for the second mate, who suffered a fractured collar bone and a deep gash wound in his right leg. The APL Pusan came about to recover the one remaining crewmember from the tanker for a full accounting of the crew of 19. In this case, the merchant ship even took the extraordinary initiative to assume the duties of on-scene rescue coordinator.

Page last modified: