Empire State Carnival

June 6, 2011

In a few hours we will pull into Riga, Latvia, having completed a major portion of our training journey for this first half of the Summer Sea Term. I watched as the cadets went from station to station in our “Empire State Carnival” and have some nice pictures to share once we reach port. I’m sure they each had their favorite exercises!

From my perspective, the most challenging station involved cadets practicing how to plug leaks in a ruptured bulkhead (wall) as water gushed out at 200 gallons per minute from a half dozen differently shaped holes and cracks. The most successful cadets started by fixing the larger holes at the bottom of the bulkhead as it filled, forcing the water to flow instead out of smaller cracks. To add to the realism, cadets were sprayed with “fog” from a fire hose.

The point of the exercise is not only to stop the flooding, but to build team work through careful planning and lots of persistent practice. By design, it is impossible to stop all the water, but just stopping enough of the water so that pumps could keep ahead of the ruptures until proper repairs can be made in a real life flooding situation, which would affect the stability of the ship or worse.

Another station was a search and rescue exercise using SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) for practical firefighting. In this case, two cadets enter a dark compartment to look for an “injured” shipmate. One cadet places their left hand along the wall and his partner holds onto his right arm. The two “rescuers” crawl in a sweeping motion around a room filled with obstacles to find the victim. Cadets learn quickly that in the hot and disorientating room, it is nearly impossible to talk using the SCBA and communication is facilitated with trained hand signals.

On deck, cadets also trained in the safe use of blocks and tackles, boatswain chairs and scaffolds, and deck rescue/quick response boats. Riding around in the RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) is popular with the students.

Although these real life training exercises are playfully referred to as “Carnival,” students recognize the true application of the stations and come away from the experience as stronger, more devoted shipmates.