RU2282554C2 - Shipboard collective rescue facility - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: shipboard collective rescue facilities.

SUBSTANCE: proposed shipboard rescue facility includes hermetic capsule secured on ship for release of it in case of flooding of ship; capsule is provided with saloon for persons with survivability units, emergency lighting fixtures and communication means. This capsule is located in trough-shaped recess of ship under detachable part of upper deck plating. This part of deck plating has positive buoyancy; capsule is provided with ballast reservoirs in its lower part which are filled with water when respective command is received from capsule.

EFFECT: considerable reduction of scope of rescue jobs; avoidance of panic.

2 cl, 2 dwg

Description

Numerous cases of loss of life from shipwrecked ships that have sunk even at a depth accessible to rescuers are known. In the vast majority of cases, a significant amount of time elapses between the cause of the accident and the flooding of the vessel, which is quite sufficient for giving the SOS signal and organizing rescue operations.

All this time, it is usually used to prepare rescue floating equipment for emergency evacuation of passengers and crew.

For obvious reasons, there are not enough lifeboats at all. In this case, the remaining people are forced to rush into the open sea, often even without individual boats. All of them are in great danger both when leaving the ship, and in the open sea (not everyone, especially passengers, can not only swim, but also stay on the water. Especially elderly or sick people and small children.). In the southern latitudes, sharks and simply fear threaten swimmers, in the northern latitudes, being in the water is significantly limited in time. For these reasons, the vast majority of shipwreck victims die. Especially passengers of civilian ships. The main reason for this is the lack of swimming equipment, especially on large motor ships and superliners carrying thousands of civilians, when it is almost impossible to provide crew and all passengers with places in lifeboats. For example, the case of “TITANIC” is widely known, when people’s understanding of their inevitable death led to panic and unrest, which hinder the conduct of rescue operations in a very limited time.

There are known cases of the deaths of passengers of ships that sank even at an accessible depth, when before the approach of rescue ships people who were at sea, even able to sail, died, and some of the boats sank during their unorganized loading and during the storm.

Based on the foregoing, a collective ship rescue tool (KSS) for saving the lives of shipwrecked people is proposed, which is a cabin equipped for emergency accommodation of people in it and pre-equipped with means of their life support: a supply of oxygen, water, food and communications. The cabin is mounted inside a special sealed capsule, which can be separated from the vessel (at the time of the shipwreck or by rescuers). The capsule is mounted under the removable part of the deck of the upper deck of the ship (for example, under a tennis court or volleyball court) in a trough-shaped depression. The flooring consists of several plates made of lightweight materials with positive buoyancy (for example, wooden boards, sandwich-type materials made of foamed polymers bonded to a thin metal sheet, etc.), they are bonded to each other and the ship’s hull with easily removable fasteners (e.g. with pins). In normal condition, the capsule is securely fixed to the bottom of the trough-like recess with grippers installed on the sides of the capsule.

Figure 1 shows the location of one collective rescue vehicle (KSS) in the stowed state; figure 2 is a top view of two KSS in the stowed position (with remote removable flooring).

In these drawings are indicated:

1 - flooring of the upper deck of the vessel;

2 - adjacent compartment;

3 - compartment for installation of KSS;

4 - one of the KSS (side view);

5 and 11 - eyebolts for raising, installing and lowering KSS to water;

6 - the top hatch for the evacuation of rescued accident workers from the KSS;

7 - a hatch that closes the recess with air tubes and electrical contacts;

8 - entrance door (manhole cover) for loading property and passengers on board a ship in distress;

9 - a float that pops up when the associated capsule is flooded (on command from the capsule);

10 - hole in the upper deck (with removable flooring removed);

12 - trough-shaped depression, contributing to the ascent of the freed KSS;

13 - quick-release grips for fastening KSS to the hull.

In case of a threat of flooding of the ship and a lack of swimming facilities, some passengers, mainly those who are unable to swim, elderly, sick and children, can be placed in advance in the cabin of the capsule, closed by a hermetic hatch, and the capsule is prepared for separation from the ship (freed from mutual fastenings and removed plates of the removable part of the deck deck (in case of acute lack of time, the most time-consuming operation to remove these plates may not be carried out)). People are seated in chairs equipped with seat belts. In addition to the desirable physician and psychologist, the salvage must also include a specialist rescue management capsule commander.

As a rule, the cause of flooding of the ship is damage to its lower part. The upper deck, as a rule, is free from superstructures cluttering it during a ship accident. Therefore, the separation and cleaning (if necessary) of removable flooring plates do not require much time.

It is possible to use the proposed collective rescue equipment in case of a threat of flooding of the ship in each of 4 options:

1. If there is such a possibility, then the capsule (s) are unloaded overboard the sinking ship with the same lifting means of the ship that were used during their loading and installation. In this case, it is advisable to tow the capsules 100-200 meters from the sinking ship by boats. For this purpose, small electric motors with a power reserve of 200 meters can be mounted on the capsules.

2. If there is no opportunity to launch and tow a capsule for 100 meters, then we can limit ourselves to only disconnecting the flooring plates.

After the flooding of the ship, the floor plates of the upper deck float (if the flooring has not been removed), and the capsule independently ascends to the surface from the trough-like depression due to its natural positive buoyancy. Moreover, in the event of a storm, at the command of the capsule, the ballast tanks attached under it can be filled, providing it is flooded to a shallow depth to mitigate the effects of the storm. A bright large float floats to the surface of the sea, indicating the location of the capsule, with a mounted beacon and antenna for communication.

Prior to the arrival of rescuers, the capsule drifts into the sea in a flooded state at a depth that provides optimal reduction of the effect of the storm on the oscillations of the capsule.

3. In the event of an emergency when it is not possible to separate the capsule from the sinking ship (which is unlikely), the people in the capsule (on a sunken ship at an accessible depth) are provided with the necessary life support equipment (oxygen, water, food, medicines, lighting the compartment, medical assistance, etc.) for a time sufficient for the arrival of rescuers and the organization of rescue operations.

4. In the event of a threat of flooding of the ship at a shallow depth (up to 100 meters) and an extreme time deficit, only the passengers and crew are loaded into the capsule cabin and sealed. The small, most trained part of the crew, by properly opening the kingstones, provides a smooth (and possibly horizontal) immersion of the ship and meets rescuers on surface rescue equipment.

If it is impossible to relatively quickly approach the rescue vessel and quickly organize work to separate from the emergency ship, lift the capsule and save the people in it, they can be provided with prompt psychological assistance and maintenance of vital resources. For this purpose, in a special recess of the outer capsule body (closed by a hatch), 2 air ducts are mounted connecting the external environment with the internal compartment. On the outside of the tubes are air taps to connect an external duct. Under the same sunroof, special electrical connectors are installed to supply emergency compartment lighting from an external source and acoustic communication with rescuers (telephone). Electrical connectors can be duplicated on a float.

In the case of rescuers arriving at the accident site, an oxygen cylinder is connected outside (or two tubes to the inlet hose from the compressor supplying compressed air from the rescue vessel and the outlet hose connected to the external atmosphere), and the compartment is pumped almost unlimited amount of fresh air. Instead of batteries, the ship’s electrical system can be connected. This can significantly increase the time for rescue operations, which is especially important in the 3rd and 4th rescue options.

Currently, when saving people, the time factor of the approach of the rescue vessel to the place of flooding is of tremendous importance. When equipping ships with the proposed device, the start time of rescue operations can be significantly reduced. The equipment necessary to provide operational assistance to the crew to maintain its life until the approach of the rescue vessel can be delivered to the accident site by helicopter. A team of divers- (scuba divers-) rescuers, if necessary, can even be dropped from an airplane with a set of necessary equipment. The set of equipment that is directly necessary for providing first aid for life support has a small weight and dimensions; it consists of oxygen cylinders and an adapter hose for connecting an oxygen cylinder to the device's tap, batteries (for autonomous emergency lighting) and acoustic information communication equipment (for example hands-free phone with external power source).

A significant reduction in the time before the start of rescue operations is extremely important psychological value for people who every hour of uncertain waiting in a confined space seems like an eternity.

Modern ships carrying thousands of passengers, of course, cannot provide everyone with places in boats. However, it is quite realistic to provide for the placement of detachable capsules designed for emergency placement of the required number of passengers in their cabin when building (or modernizing) ships in their hidden cavities (tweendecks) under the upper deck (for example, under a tennis or volleyball court). Such (hidden) placement will not affect the appearance of the vessel. Moreover, the estimated volume of emergency placement per passenger in the capsule is an order of magnitude less than in lifeboats. The equipment of such (comfortable) rescue salons designed to save all passengers on modern liners (in 4 emergency situations) will have a tremendous psychological effect, relieve the TITANICA syndrome and serve as a good advertisement. At the same time, the costs of their construction are largely offset by a significant reduction in the number of expensive lifeboats requiring constant prevention, and the placement of people in the cabin is much calmer and safer than their evacuation on boats. At the same time, the danger of the death of the boats during the storm and the acquisition of their rowers is eliminated, a significant time for the storage of water, food, and medicines in the boats is freed.

The implementation of the proposed device in the form of a sealed cabin, covertly placed on a modern (passenger) ship with the possibility of emergency separation, is technically possible. In this case, the size, number of seats and configuration may vary depending on the design of a particular vessel and location.

The design of the device for the operational (prior to the approach of the rescue vessel and during rescue operations) maintenance of life support resources (connecting oxygen cylinders, power for lighting and information communication with rescuers) consists of components and parts that are widely known in the art: air ducts, air taps , an adapter for connecting an oxygen cylinder (or air supply from the compressor of a rescue vessel), a hose, electrical connectors for connecting the battery and telephone, the batteries and telephones themselves, electric ktricheskie wires for connecting the lighting module to the onboard vehicle network. Moreover, their use, in the implementation of this proposed device, does not impose any special requirements on them and allows the use of these widely known products commercially available from industry.

The implementation of this proposal will allow:

1. Significantly increase the possibility of saving the lives of people in a shipwreck, and significantly reduce the fear of sea voyages. At the same time, those rescued in the capsule are in more comfortable conditions and are free from the threat of injury during loading or drown on a boat during a storm, since the rescue team is given by the rescuer.

2. Save the lives of passengers doomed to death today: those who cannot swim, the elderly, children, the sick and the weak.

3. Save people from dangers on the high seas and death from hypothermia.

4. Improve the situation during the shipwreck, giving people real hope for salvation and saving them from panic.

5. Provide real psychological assistance to the rescued people by promptly delivering rescuers to the accident site by air, capable of supporting life support until the rescue vessels approach.

Claims (2)

1. A collective ship rescue device containing an airtight capsule mounted on a vessel with the possibility of separation when the latter is flooded, while the capsule is made with a cabin equipped with chairs with safety belts to accommodate people, means for supporting their vital functions, autonomous emergency lighting and communications, characterized in that the said capsule is located inside the vessel in a trough-shaped recess under the removable part of the upper deck flooring, while the specified part of the flooring is made with positive buoyancy, and the capsule has in the lower part ballast tanks filled with water on command from the capsule. 2. The collective ship rescue equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that in the upper part of the capsule, outside, in the recess of its hull, enclosed by a hatch, an air duct pipe is installed, which is externally blocked by a tap and connects the external environment to the interior, as well as electrical connectors for acoustic communication with victims and interior lighting from an external source.

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