52
FOGHORN
elements when conducting a drill or 
exercise include:
• General alarm signal and  
communication with passengers
• May day call to the Coast Guard – 
the captain must be able to provide 
specific information regarding the 
emergency including nature of 
distress, vessel location/position, 
and persons on board
• Accountability – crew must verify 
that all passengers are accounted  
for and the number of passengers 
leaving the vessel matches the 
number who boarded
• Drill variables such as simulating 
blocked escape routes or missing 
crew members
• Interacting with first responders – 
knowing the basics of the Unified 
Command structure and how 
company personnel will be involved
• Media relations – who from the 
company will talk to the media
At the end of any drill or exercise it 
is important to review the event to 
identify communication breakdowns 
or equipment issues, ensuring lessons 
learned are applied to future opera-
tions both by the vessel owner/opera-
tor and the first responders.
ENGAGING PORT  
PARTNERS AND LOCAL 
FIRST RESPONDERS 
Following some high-profile casualties 
involving passengers abandoning ves-
sels due to fire, PVA developed tools to 
help start discussions between vessel 
operators and local fire departments. 
Those tools are located in the Member 
Resources area of the PVA website.
While this may seem daunting to some 
operators, many ports have Harbor 
Safety Committees or Marine Exchang-
es to foster relationships among port 
partners. These groups also identify ar-
eas of concern within the port and help 
coordinate various port-level exercises. 
NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS
Regarding abandon ship drills and 
exercises, some ports take it to the 
next level. The San Francisco Bay 
Area’s Vessel Mutual Assistance Plan 
(VMAP) and Chicago’s Cooperative 
Rescue Agreement are well established 
and provide invaluable opportunities 
to the vessel operators and port part-
ners that participate.
PVA encourages our members to get 
involved in drills and exercises within 
your port community. By bringing all 
concerned parties to the table in ad-
vance if an incident, identifying areas 
of improvement, and putting into place 
practical response solutions we can mit-
igate many of the high consequences 
associated with abandoning a vessel.
SAFETY MATTERS
San Francisco Vessel Mutual Assistance Plan (VMAP) exercise. 
PHOTO: GOLDEN GATE FERRY

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