Survival tips · Based on official sources

Life Raft Survival Tips: From the Emergency Alarm Until Rescue

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Ship accidents are rare, but when one happens you must decide within minutes and may have to endure for days afterwards. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) set the order out clearly in the survival instructions placed in life rafts (resolution A.657(16)). This article goes through each stage in the order you would actually face it.

1. What to do first when you board a ship

Find the muster station and your life jacket. Read the plan behind your cabin door and watch the safety briefing right after boarding to the end.
Remember the emergency alarm. Seven short blasts and one long blast is the emergency muster signal (SOLAS).
To report a maritime accident, call 122 (Korea Coast Guard).

2. When the alarm sounds

Put on your life jacket and pull the straps tight. If it is loose, it can come off or hit your chin when you enter the water (Korea Coast Guard).
Leave your bags and go to the muster station. The crew checks the headcount and directs abandoning ship.
Stay low in smoke. Cover your nose and mouth with a wet cloth and follow the escape lights near the floor. Don't take the elevator (Korea National Fire Agency).
Layer on long clothes. The night sea drains body heat fast in any season.

3. Abandoning ship: stay dry, and feet first if you must jump

If you can, board the raft directly by evacuation chute or ladder. Staying dry keeps body heat far longer.
If you have to jump, check that no people or debris are below and jump from as low a point as possible. Press your life jacket to your chest with one arm, pinch your nose and mouth with the other hand, keep your legs together and go in feet first (basic seafarer safety training, sea survival).
In the water, pull your knees up in the HELP position to keep body heat, and huddle together in a circle if there are several of you. Don't swim for nothing: go to the nearest raft (US Coast Guard).

4. Once on the raft: five things to do at once

This is the immediate action order from the IMO survival instructions.

Cut the line to the ship and move away from it.
Find and pull in people in the water.
Deploy the sea anchor (drogue): it reduces drift and capsizing, and keeps you near the search area.
Close the entrance.
Read the survival instructions.

5. Holding on: a person in charge, lookout, seasickness pills, warmth

Choose a person in charge and post a lookout. Take turns so you don't miss passing ships and aircraft.
Take seasickness pills before you feel sick. Vomiting drains the body's water. The raft has pills and bags.
Wrap wet people in a thermal protective aid and sit close together. Bail out water on the floor.
If there are other rafts, tie them together and stay together.

6. Water: hold off for the first 24 hours, never drink seawater

Sea survival training teaches giving no water in the first 24 hours except to the injured and the sick. After that, share the remaining water at set times.
Count water and food in front of everyone and decide the ration (IMO survival instructions, “decide the water and food ration”).
Never drink seawater or urine. The salt pulls even more water out of your body (US Coast Guard).
When it rains, collect rain in the canopy's rain catchers and throw away the first salty runoff.
By day, stay in the shade and move less to save sweat. Don't go into the sea to cool off.

7. Signals: only when you see something, and the radio

SOLAS life rafts normally carry 4 rocket parachute flares, 6 red hand flares and smoke signals, plus a signaling mirror and a whistle (LSA Code). The numbers are fixed, so use them only when a ship or plane is actually in sight. Orange smoke and the mirror show up best by day, flares at night.
VHF channel 16 is the international distress, safety and calling channel. Say “Mayday” three times, then briefly the vessel name, position, number of people and situation, and turn the radio on only at set times to save the battery.
If you have a SART or EPIRB, keep it on. A SART marks the raft's position on the radar of a nearby rescue ship or aircraft. The higher you mount it, the farther away it is picked up.

8. Don't leave the raft

A raft is far easier to find than a person. Don't pull in the sea anchor and paddle or swim toward a distant light. Dehydration can make you see and hear things, so before firing a flare, check with your eyes and the radio. When rescuers arrive, sit down and wait for instructions, and don't jump in on your own or crowd to one side.

Practice it in the simulation

Reading a list is easy, but recalling it in a tilting ship and a smoke-filled corridor is hard. Life Raft Adrift: 72 Hours to Rescue is a free browser game where you make these decisions yourself under time pressure (the ship and characters are fictional). See the game guide

Sources

IMO resolution A.657(16), survival craft instructions (UK MCA MGN 77)
SOLAS Convention · LSA Code (life raft equipment)
Korea Coast Guard: maritime accident reporting 122 · life jacket guidance
Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries: passenger ship safety guidance
US Coast Guard (USCG): cold water and sea survival guidance
Korea National Fire Agency: fire evacuation guidance
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations (VHF channel 16)

FAQ

What should I do first when the emergency alarm sounds on a ship?

Put on your life jacket and pull the straps tight, then leave your bags and go to the muster station. The crew checks the headcount and directs abandoning ship.

What is the right posture for jumping into the sea?

Check below, jump from as low a point as possible, press your life jacket with one arm, pinch your nose and mouth with the other hand, and go in feet first with your legs together.

What do I do first once I am on the life raft?

Cut the line and move away from the ship, pull people from the water, deploy the sea anchor, close the entrance and read the survival instructions (IMO A.657(16)).

Shouldn't I drink water on the first day?

Sea survival training teaches giving no water in the first 24 hours except to the injured and the sick. After that, share the remaining water at set times.

Is a little seawater okay?

No. Because of the salt, seawater pulls even more water out of the body and speeds up dehydration. The same goes for urine.

When do I fire flares?

Use them only when a ship or plane is actually in sight. Orange smoke and a signaling mirror show up well by day, and flares at night.

Which radio channel do I use?

VHF channel 16 is the international distress, safety and calling channel. Say Mayday three times, then briefly the vessel name, position, number of people and situation.

What number do I call to report a maritime accident?

The Coast Guard emergency number is 122.

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