The Maritime, IMO (International Maritime Organization) has prescribed the SOLAS Convention and other maritime-related standards, the safety of human life is paramount. Ships and other craft must have life-saving appliances including lifeboats, lifebuoys, life jackets, life rafts and many others. A crew and passengers are informed of their availability in case of an emergency at sea.
Life-saving appliances are mandatory as per chapter 3 of the SOLAS Convention. “The International Life-Saving Appliance (LSA) Code” gives specific technical requirements for the manufacture, maintenance, and keeping of record life-saving appliances. The number and type of life-saving appliances differ from vessel to vessel, and the code gives a minimum requirement to comply to make a ship seagoing.
Life rafts are provided as a life-saving appliance on every seagoing merchant or passenger ship, in addition to the lifeboats. They are much easier to launch than lifeboats. In case of emergencies, evacuation from the ship can be done without manually launching any of them, as the life rafts are designed with an auto-inflatable system. Life rafts are stored in a fiberglass container, incorporated with a high-pressure gas used for inflating life rafts at the time of emergency and the Hydrostatic Release Unit (HRU) is connected to the raft container and ship, which release the raft even after the ship sinks in water.
M.V. SEAFDEC carrying a total of 6 life rafts onboard separated by 3 life rafts on each side, capacity 25 persons on each life raft, the total capacity available each side for all persons onboard.
