Who we are
The FIRST-project is a cooperation founded by the Swedish Sea Rescue Society - SSRS, and Stena Line. FIRST is organized as a project under the SSRS, and is strictly non profit.
Last update 2012-05-10
Support us!
The FIRST-project has been made possible through the resources of the SSRS, and Stena Line. Do you have relevant resources, ideas, contacts, influence, or forums that you wish to share with us, please contact Capt. Mikael Hinnerson.
If you would like to support the project with funding, please do this through the SSRS and specify that the funding is intended for FIRST.
Industrial Designer Fredrik Falkman is heading technical development and public communication for the project
Capt. Mikael Hinnerson of the SSRS is the Project Director
The project is headed by Capt. Jörgen Lorén of Stena Line, chairman of the SFBF
R&D Photo and Video Archive
The archive is a chronological log over our tests and experiments. We look for the windiest days that co-incide with Captain Lorén being onboard the Stena Jutlandica.
Twitter feed
News
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•The FIRST-Project featured in German Science TV-show Welt Der Wunder. 2012-03-26
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•An official Brochure for the IMRF:s second Mass Rescue Conference, hosted by the SSRS in Goteborg, Sweden, June 3-5 2012 is available now. Get it here!
2012-03-16 -
•Go here for a press invitation to our March 20 live test on the approaches to Goteborg.
2012-02-27 -
•Nice article (in Swedish) in Sjömannen (The Seafarer). Sjömannen-1-2012.pdf
2012-02-27
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•An advance notice is out for the IMRF:s second Mass Rescue Conference, hosted by the SSRS in Goteborg, Sweden, June 3-5 2012. Check it out an book your seat now!
www.international-maritime-rescue.org/images/gothenberg.pdf
2012-02-10 -
•New shorter video from our december 2010 raft recovery. Two minutes well spent! On the frontpage and in the album.
2012-02-10 -
•Shanghai 24-28 august
The FIRST Team is participating in the World Maritime Rescue Congress, hosted by China Rescue & Salvage. The event is part of IMRF´s quadrennial meeting. The FIRST Project will be presented as one possible way forward to develop ships capability to assist in mass rescue situations.
www.wmrc2011.org
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•Wednesday may 4, the project will be presented at Sjömanshusstiftelsens yearly ceremony in Långedrag. We will also conduct a live trial with a timed transfer between two rafts with volunteers participants from the ceremony.
2011-05-02 -
•The FIRST-team visits Viking Life-Saving Equipment in Esbjerg, Denmark, to give a presentation of the project to the direction, to learn more about raft design and to discuss cooperation.
2011-02-09
Feature movies
This narrated movie shows our March 2012 test recovering a 39-pax Davit Launch Life Raft. It explains in 3 minutes why the world needs new regulations regarding mass rescue at sea, and our take on how a feasible mass rescue system might work.
Links
SSRS - Swedish Sea Rescue Society
IMRF - International Maritime Rescue Federation
TheThe Swedish Mercantile Marine Foundation - Stiftelsen Sveriges Sjömanshus
Fredrik Falkman Design AB
Lots of Rescuerunner Photos an more
Library
We collect research and other info wherever we can find it. Find more on our Library Page.
HSE Report - Provision of Lee.pdf
Advance notice - IMRF Second Mass Rescue Conference.pdf
IMRF Mass Rescue Conference 2010 Press Release.pdf
IMRF-ICAO-IMO-JWG-SAR-17WP.pdf
IMRF Mass Rescue Conference 2010 Report.pdf
Peacetime disasters
This list is a compilation made from the Wikipedia-article "List of maritime disasters"
It was manually updated on 2012-03-15.
The list shows peacetime maritime disasters from RMS Titanic 1912, botom, to present day, top. The list is limited to 500 casualties or more before, and more than 100 casualties after 1980.
2012 The MV Shariatpur 1 was a double deck ferry that capsized on March 12, after colliding with a cargo ship on the Meghna River, Bangladesh. At least 116 people died.
2012 On the morning of 2 February 2012, the MV Rabaul Queen capsized due to rough conditions in the Solomon Sea. 321 people dead or missing.
2011 On 10 September 2011, the MV Spice Islander I, a passenger ferry carrying at least 800 people, sank off the coast of Zanzibar. At least 240 people have been confirmed dead.
2011Bulgaria (near Syukeyevo, Tatarstan, Russia) – sank in the Kuybyshev Reservoir of the Volga river on 10 July 2011 in a storm while when sailing from the town of Bolgar to the Kazan. Of the 201 people aboard 112 perished.
2008MV Princess of the Stars (Philippines) – On 21 June 2008, the ferry Princess of the Stars capsized and sank in Typhoon Fengshen off the coast of San Fernando, Romblon, in the Philippines. Of the estimated 747 people aboard, only 57 survived.
2006Al Salam Boccaccio 98 (Egypt) – On 3 February 2006, the ro-ro passenger ferry Al Salam Boccaccio 98 sank in the Red Sea en route from Duba, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga in southern Egypt. The ship was carrying 1,312 passengers and 96 crew members at the time of the disaster. Only 388 persons were saved and over 1,000 were lost.
2003MV Nasrin-1 (Bangladesh) – At midnight on 8 July 2003, the passenger ferry Nasrin-1 capsized and sank in the Meghna River near Chandpur, Bangladesh, killing more than 400 people.
2002Le Joola (Senegal) – On 26 September 2002, the overloaded ferry Le Joola capsized in rough seas with an estimated death toll of more than 1,800.
2002MV Salahuddin-2 (Bangladesh) – On the night of 3 May 2002, the ferry Salahuddin-2 sank in the Meghna River south of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing more than 450 people.
2001SIEV X (Australia) – A boat carrying over 400 Asylum seekers to Australia sank on October 19, 2001. 353 people died in the disaster. The Australian government has been strongly criticized for not doing anything to help the survivors for three days.
2000MS Express Samina (Greece) – On 26 September 2000, the RO-RO ferry Express Samina hit a reef and sank at 23:02 near the island of Paros. 143 people died: 82 of the 473 passengers, plus 61 crew.
The Mass Rescue problem
Ships go down. There are ways to evacuate, but there is no dependable way to rescue large numbers of people at sea.
There is no one to help you. Mass rescue at sea means by definition that rescue services, if at all available, will be overwhelmed, and other ships don't have the means to help.
Transfer is messy. Whoever comes to your rescue can only help one or a few persons at a time. Getting people from lifeboats or life rafts to any means of rescue is time consuming and exhausting even under benign conditions.
Mass Rescue - It can be done
We think that any number of people evacuated from a stricken ship must be rescued, whatever the circumstances, wherever they are.
There are always other ships nearby. These ships can shelter a lot of people. We want to give these ships the means to help in a mass rescue situation.
If all ships carried liftable life rafts for use in case of an evacuation, and any ship of opportunity could connect and lift these rafts filled with people to the safety onboard, then mass rescue could be achieved.
Helping hands
The project has recived various kinds of support from the following organizations:
Donations
We received generous funding from:
Press / Media
We have been lucky to have tons of press. Here are a few examples
Welt Der Wunder 2012-04-15
(TV, German)
SVD 2012-03-21 (Video, Swedish)
TV4 2012-03-20 (TV, Swedish)
SR Ekot 2012-03-20 (Radio, Swedish)
Sjömannen-1-2012.pdf (Swedish)
TRITON 3-2011.pdf (Swedish)
GP-2010-11-20.pdf (Swedish)
Newsletter
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This movie shows how a liftable life raft is connected by a small rescue boat and lifted to the safety onboard a ROPAX-ship. It also shows how more rescue boats and new rescue crews can be flown in using helicopters.
2010-06-07 Live Trial at the IMRF:s Mass Rescue Conference
FIRST
c/o Sjöräddningssällskapet
Talattagatan 24, 426 05 Västra Frölunda, Sweden
077-579 00 90
The FIRST-project is organized as a project under the SSRS, and is strictly non profit.
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