Seafarers as first responders: An ethnographic study of safety and survival training

Abstract

Seafarers are “on their own” at sea, isolated from medical care and unable to call 911 when requiring an emergency response. Critical, of course, is that organizations train seafarers in health and medical care at sea, as well as survival and safety – the latter being the focus of the current paper. Here, I strive to unpack what basic safety and survival training (STCW-95) means for future or current seafarers. Recognizing the role of the self in survival, I present a reflective, experiential, and analytic autoethnographic study of safety and survival training that brought to light and then reinforced the need to recognize seafarers as first responders. I unpack training as a participant in Basic Safety, a course necessary for a Transport Canada certification that is required to be part of crew at sea, to evidence the first responder roles of seafarers and to recognize the responsibility for survival of self, crew, and civilians that a seafarer bears. I then unravel the training experience, including experiences of fighting fires, search and rescue, and cold-water immersion, reflecting on implications for policy and practice, as well as to inform societal perceptions of seafarers.