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LIFEBOAT ACCIDENT (TRUE STORY)-Abhishek Sabharwal

Today ill share one of my bad experiences which involve a lifeboat accident.I was on a Panamax size bulk carrier which was at anchor.I was a trainee those days and I had a crooked master and a very nice mate.
It was around 3 in the afternoon,weather was  a bit windy ,force 4 and a swell of around 1.5 meter , when the Master of the ship all of a sudden realised that he wants to conduct a drill.
Despite of the fact that the chief mate didnt want to lower the lifeboat under such circumstances and neither of the crew members wanted to do the same,still all of us forcefully had to lower and launch the boat because of the masters decision.Just pissed from the decision all concerned parties reluctantly commenced preparing and consequently lowered the lifeboat into the water with the master,bosun,3rd officer,one os on the top and chief mate,me,ab,3rd engineer,second officer in the boat.The VTS had been duly reported.
We reached the water level,tried out engines, and were consequently released the hooks but while releasing the aft hook the A.B just saved his head because of the heaving motion of the boat the aft fall block almost hit his head.Once waterborne, the lifeboat started heaving badly and that day i actually realised ,what a 1.5 mtr swell looks like...hehe...
Lifeboat engines were started and we moved away from the ship.....she was pitching very badly and everyone in the boat ,staring at each others faces were cursing the master....all of us starting vomiting all over as its a normal human tendency....no one could resist that feeling...We moved a few metres away from the ship and then we realised that a ship was passing by at a distance of around 5 cables and because of the size of the wake of the ship (which was moving towards us) we decided to move back towards our ship.
We tried turning back but couldnt as she started behaving abruptly because of the following factors....wake of the other ship,wind,swell....so we decided that we will tell our bosun who was on the lifeboat deck to throw a gantline to us for our assistance.Following which , he did threw a gantline at us (Somehow!!!) , and we secured the same to our boat but left a lot of slack in the water , which the bosun did not pull in time and the chief mate without checking that the propellers are clear or not started the boats engine with a full ahead and within seconds the propeller blades and the shaft itself got absolutely entangled with the gantline. Hence, now to make situations worse we didnt had our engines either and we were still fighting with the tremendous heaving motion of the boat....With  alot of efforts of the ships crew on deck they managed to pull us alongside to some extent using mooring winches and what not....As we were approaching towards our own ship....we realised that because of the push of the wind and the waves we approaching at a fast rate towards our ship and hell broke loose on us....
We banged hard into the ship-side thereby producing a crack to the portside of our boat, and our immediate reaction was to use our boat hooks to push away , and then boat oars but all of our efforts went in vain....and we landed up with broken oars,cracked boat,and broken boat hooks....to make situations worse we further started moving into the rudder and were banging continuously to the ship side.....
Again a gantline was passed and we just managed to fall right below the fall blocks following again a series of hardwork ,ideas,efforts we were pulled up and the boat stowed.Later on a accident report was prepared all crew members briefed and was a learning lesson for the master and the other members of the ship.

Unfortunately i dont have those interesting lifeboat damage fotos available , but ill surely search for them and will post them in due time.....

Despite of so much of awaeness onboard and in being a very proactive industry i just dont understand as to why people ,even today dont understand the meaning of the word "SAFETY"......???

Please send me your valuable feedback or any suggestions / comments on the above topic....
"BON VOYAGES"....