The course that all of us navy types had to take. This course was supposed to teach us everything about how to be a sailor in 2 months – I think it was 2 months, I could be wrong, my memory retrieval system is a little fuzzy these days.
Our course instructor was a decent enough person and so my journey to becoming a sailor began. There was the marching as a group, the short time for lunches, the yada yada yada about the history of the navy…… a lot of boring stuff that we needed to know.
One of the two really interesting parts of this course was life raft drills. For anyone who has been on a ferry or other passenger vessel, you have probably seen the inflatable life raft containers secured out on the upper deck. They are a 6 foot long by 3 foot in diameter fiber glass tube. The theory is that if the ship goes down, these things will automatically release from their brackets, rise to the surface and self inflate. While theory is a wonderful thing, it is always good to actually see it work and know that you actually can use it properly.
This is how they actually work. A hydrostatic release device connects the life raft securing straps to the ship. There is also a 20 foot long line, called a painter, that one end is tied to the ships deck, the other end goes into the life raft container and is connected to a pin. When the ship sinks and gets to about 20 feet underwater, the hydrostatic release device lets go and the life raft floats to the surface. Once the life raft is 20 feet away from the sinking ship, the painter is pulled taught and the pin gets pulled free. That pin triggers a carbon dioxide canister to discharge and then the life raft inflates.
The fun part of this lesson is that we actually get thrown into a pool, trigger the life raft to inflate and then get into the raft from the water. The last part isn’t quite as easy as it appears. The other drill we were taught is how to right the raft if it inflates upside down, again, not as easy as it appears.
Once the powers to be were satisfied that we knew what they wanted us to know, we were treated to a lovely movie, made sometime in the 60’s by the Royal Navy about what to do when your ship decides to decorate the sea floor. A very stirring performance in which a group of 20 sailors survive for a couple of days on the high seas, with only the instruction book, some good old British naval discipline and a deck of cards. It is amazing what you can do with a standard deck of playing cards.
Next story – Fire Fighting/Damage Control
John Looks Out On Life 