Real Life Incident: Service Boat Hits Rock During Crew Change

In the dark early morning hours, a service boat had been ordered to transport five crew members to an anchored tanker. There was rain and a two-meter swell, and the windshield wiper of the service boat was not effective.

One of the tanker crew remembers thinking ‘How can the service boat skipper see where he is going?’ Then, the service boat hit some rocks and an emergency ensued. The tanker crew, wearing lifejackets, abandoned the service boat onto the rocks while the service boat crew stayed on their stricken boat.

One of the tanker crew was able to use his mobile phone to call for help. It took well over an hour