Safety, Emergency & Life-Saving Systems

Low-location lighting

Photoluminescent strips or lights along corridor floors on passenger ships, marking escape routes visibly even when smoke fills the upper part of a corridor.

PA / general emergency alarm system

The public-address loudspeakers and the general alarm signal that reach every space on board — the system that tells everyone, at once, that something is wrong and what to do.

SRtP arrangements

A survivability design regime for passenger ships constructed on or after 1 July 2010 that are at least 120 m long or have three or more main vertical zones. Specified systems must remain available for return under the ship's own propulsion after a fire within the casualty threshold and after flooding of any single watertight compartment.

Lifeboats & davits

The enclosed boats, and the launching arms that lower them, in which the whole crew abandons ship; bulk carriers typically carry a free-fall boat launched down a stern ramp.

Rescue boat & davit

A fast small boat kept ready to launch for recovering a person from the water or marshalling liferafts — for rescue of individuals rather than abandonment.

Liferafts & hydrostatic release

Inflatable rafts in canisters that crew can throw and board; the hydrostatic release frees them automatically if the ship sinks before anyone can launch them.

Marine evacuation system (MES)

The passenger-ship evacuation arrangement: inflatable slides or chutes down which hundreds of passengers descend directly into large liferafts, far faster than davit-launched boats allow.

Personal LSA (jackets, suits, lifebuoys)

The individual survival equipment — lifejackets for everyone, immersion suits against cold water, and lifebuoys ready to throw to someone overboard.

Radiation monitoring and protection system

Detectors and shielding arrangements on nuclear-fuel carriers that continuously measure radiation levels and confirm the cargo casks and spaces stay within strict safety limits.

Emergency escape breathing devices (EEBD)

Simple hooded breathing devices staged along escape routes, giving anyone caught in smoke roughly ten minutes of air — enough to escape, not to fight fire.

Portable atmosphere-testing instruments for enclosed spaces

Handheld meters that measure oxygen, flammable gas and toxic gases inside tanks and confined spaces before anyone enters — the instrument standing between routine entry and a fatal one.

Line-throwing appliance

A rocket device that fires a light line several hundred metres to another ship or to shore, establishing the first physical connection for rescue or towing.

Emergency survivor-recovery and rescue system

The equipment a standby rescue vessel uses to recover people from the water — fast rescue craft, recovery cranes or scoops, and space to treat survivors.

Oil tankers

Chemical tankers

LNG carriers

LPG, ethylene, ethane, ammonia, CO2, hydrogen and gas-bunkering carriers

Bulk carriers and specialised dry-bulk carriers

General and specialised break-bulk cargo ships

Multipurpose, open-hatch, deck, heavy-lift and heavy-transport ships

Container ships

Ro-ro cargo and vehicle carriers

Refrigerated cargo ships

Fishing vessels, factory trawlers and live-fish carriers

Cruise and passenger ships

Ro-ro passenger ferries

PSV, AHTS, OSV/SOV and CTV

Cable, pipe, diving, subsea construction, WTIV and intervention vessels

Drillship, FPSO, FSO, FSU, FLNG and FSRU

Dredgers and hopper dredgers

Tugs, ERRV/standby, pilot and search-and-rescue craft

Research, hydrographic, seismic and icebreaking vessels

Large yachts and superyachts

Patrol and government service vessels