This blog is about me (Tim Benson) and my time spent on the Africa Mercy working as a volunteer for the organisation Mercy Ships in West Africa. Everything here, however, is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Mercy Ships. For information on how to support me please click here.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Diver Rescue Training

As most of you know I am one of the lucky people that get to dive underneath the ship and help to clean out and maintain the intake vents for the ships salt water cooling system that keep the generators and air conditioning running.

A few weeks ago we had a drill to practice what would happen in case of an emergency with a diver been injured under the ship and how we could get them out of the water and treated best. The drill went really well and it was a good learning experience for everyone envolved as it was something new to almost all of us. Here are some pictures that show the events of the drill.


Getting ready for the drill


Jumping in




Waiting for the drill to start


Captain briefing everyone on what is going to happen


Brave volunteers jumping in to help out


Me pretending to be unconscious


Getting positioned in the rescue basket


Taking off my dive gear, ready to pull me out


Getting lifted up by the fork lift


Almost out
And safely on land.

Unfortunately not too much more than a week after we had this drill I found myself diving to save the piece of equipment that had saved me during the drill. There was a bit of an accident and our forklift ended up going for a swim. I got to be apart of the rescue effort as 2 of us dove in the murky water to find it on the ocean floor and attached a crane to it so that it could be pulled out. Needless to say its back to the drawing board on what we will do in case of needing to pull a diver out of the water.

(No Persons or animals where hurt in this forklift accident)