Welcome to Emergency Services Week!

Emergency services vessels, very fortunately, are almost everywhere. I only need to look out my office window to see fireboats and rescue boats ambling past. Basically, wherever commercial or leisure vessels of any shape or size operate, emergency service vessels (ESVs) become a necessity.

Where I live, in a northern suburb of Sydney, Australia, where there is forest down to the high tide line, the ever-present threat of bushfires requires the presence of fireboats. Further, the vast number of locally based leisure boats, combined with the incompetence of some of their “captains”, necessitates a flotilla of rescue boats. It seems that running out of fuel is by far the biggest problem they have to solve!

In some areas, such as the west coast of Norway, the fragmented highway system means that ambulance boats are the fastest means of transporting injured people to hospital. Who would have thought, for example, of a requirement to rescue survivors and recover the bodies of cruise ship passengers from an erupting volcano off New Zealand? So, the world needs vast numbers of search and rescue, fire, ambulance and lifeboats. They form a very important sector of the overall workboat market.

Firefighting • Search and Rescue • Police • Coast Guard

Not only are they important, but they have proved over the years to be a fertile source of innovation that has benefited many other sectors of the wider maritime industry. Speed, safety, stability, seaworthiness, durability, comfort and endurance are all important factors in the choice of emergency services vessels. Improvements in all such fields are readily and gratefully transferred to other vessel sectors.

Such improvements are facilitated by innovations in terms of design, construction, engines, propulsion systems and equipment. ESVs come in all shapes, sizes and materials. They come with a very wide range of equipment, both electronic and deck. Some, such as the US Coast Guard’s “airboats”, require very little water in which to float.

This week, Baird Maritime presents a wide selection of the latest in ESVs from all over the world that have been designed and built for a very wide range of roles. Those vessel reviews are supported by news and information about masses of new equipment that will facilitate their operations. We trust you find it all interesting and usefully inspiring.

Vessel Reviews:

• Ryde Inshore Rescue – Compact, all-weather SAR boat to serve Isle of Wight
• LS-Elara & LS-Cilene – Spanish Red Cross to operate rescue boat pair
  
• FB-21 & FB-73 – New high-speed response boats enter service with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
  

Features and Opinion:

COLUMN | Tugs to the rescue [Tug Times]

“Proponents of autonomous tugs continue to bombard us with good and not-so-good reasons for getting rid of our crews.”

– by Alan Loynd, former General Manager of the renowned Hong Kong Salvage and Towage company

News, Gear, and Book Reviews:

• Turkish maritime safety authority takes delivery of locally built rescue tug
• NTSB publishes preliminary report on Seacor Power capsizing
• Rescuers find two more victims of Central Java tour boat capsizing
• British Virgin Islands Ports Authority acquires interceptor boat
• Boat collision leaves one dead in Elizabeth River, Virginia; two others injured
• US Coast Guard cutter Active offloads US$220 million in drugs following four interdictions
• NTSB to hold virtual public board meeting on fatal sinking of crab boat Scandies Rose
• Pittsburg Public Safety adds newbuild to river police and rescue boat fleet
• Italy re-opens probe into 1991 ferry disaster that left 140 dead
• RNLI, partners respond to fishing boat fire off West Cork, Ireland
• Seven dead, two missing after tour boat capsizes off Central Java, Indonesia
• NTSB report finds lack of continuous monitoring an issue in fire on dive support vessel undergoing repairs
• Future Defense’s newest response boat undergoes sea trials
• Nine rescued after tug runs aground off Kaup, India
• Fire hinders Golden Ray salvage operations
• US Coast Guard, partners respond to containership fire off Monterey, California

Recent Important Features:

COLUMN | Seacor Power: a sobering note on incident reporting [Offshore Accounts]

“Preventing another accident and preventing future loss of life is something that everyone in the industry should make their number one priority, even if it causes embarrassment to vessel operators and flag states.”

– by Hieronymus Bosch, anonymous commentator and Baird Maritime’s insider in the world of offshore oil and gas operations

OPINION | Boosting regional cooperation and training in maritime law enforcement

“An Indo-Pacific maritime law enforcement centre would reflect the position that MLE and maritime safety are common interests of all regional countries and necessary tasks, regardless of any discord or disagreement.”

– by Anthony Bergin, senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Remember to come back every day to see the latest news, opinion and vessel reviews!

Call for content!

Any news or views about the global emergency services industries? Send it through to [email protected] ASAP (between now and May 21), so we can add it to this current edition of Emergency Services Week!

We are after:

• Vessels – Orders, new deliveries, under construction
• Gear – Latest innovations and technology in the emergency services sectors
• Interviews – Owners, operators, equipment manufacturers etc.
• Reminiscences – Do you have any exciting, amusing or downright dangerous anecdotes from your time in the emergency services world? (example here)
• Other – Any other relevant news

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