Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: roo_ster on June 08, 2010, 08:35:34 AM
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No-knife policy would have doomed some of the crew of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig to death.
Video at the link.
http://towmasters.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/we-dont-need-no-stinking-knives/
This is one of those “stop the madness” moments that comes along periodically, so I have to take advantage of it. Starting last fall I ran a 3-part series (Part I, Part II & Part III) on the numerous types of knives that may be useful to working mariners, along with various sharpening implements to keep them sharp and functional. Knives are one of the oldest known tools invented by humans, and have been carried and used by seafarers for as long as we’ve been putting to sea. We need knives, and they must be kept sharp because a dull knife is ineffective at best and dangerous at worst. Everyone should know this by now…..
During the time that I was writing those posts I found several discussion threads on the gCaptain forums about the fairly widespread company policies in the Gulf of Mexico forbidding the possession of any edged “weapons” on board their boats and drilling rigs. I have to admit I was surprised by this, and also disgusted that the state of affairs for seamen had gotten so bad that we were now being systematically stripped of one of our most useful and traditional tools in the name of safety. “What the hell is the matter, has everyone lost their minds?”, I thought.
Since then there’s been a horrible “accident” in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon blowout and ongoing oil gusher (the term “spill” is both technically and rhetorically inaccurate) in Mississippi Canyon Block 252, roughly forty miles off the southeast Louisiana coast. In the course of following this tragedy I watched the coverage afforded it by CBS’s 60 Minutes. On their website was a 2:41-long video “extra” that tells in searing detail the recollections of Mike Williams, Deepwater Horizon‘s chief electronics technician, who survived the explosion and fire, and was one of the last people to make it off the rig alive. He describes how the last life raft full of survivors almost didn’t escape the burning oil slick under the doomed rig because no one had a knife to cut the sea painter with due to Transocean’s no-knife policy. WTF???!!!
Here it is…..
Yeah, I know that life rafts are supposed to be equipped with knives in their emergency equipment package. Was it missing, or there all along and they just couldn’t find it quickly enough when they needed it? Did they locate it but find it to be useless? Who knows? Given the scale of the disaster I have doubts that this small aspect of it will ever be looked at as closely as it ought to be. Regardless, if most everyone was carrying a knife in their pocket or on their belt someone would surely have remembered it in time. Redundant, back-up safety systems…..
Knives are simply tools that we need to do our jobs and, not least, to potentially save our own lives when things go badly wrong. Like all tools, they can be abused, but that is insufficient reason to do away with them. I’m well aware that sometimes humans hurt themselves, and others, with knives. Most of the time accidentally, but some of the time intentionally. But a no-knives policy for mariners and maritime workers is just stupidity of a higher order than we normally see. I wish the safety manager or management executive at Transocean that dreamed up their policy was in the liferaft that night, experiencing firsthand what happens when you are barred from having the tools you need by people who should but apparently don’t know any better, whose personal physical safety isn’t directly at stake, but are still in important decision-making positions nonetheless. Working on the water is no joke…..and at the risk of sounding extreme I would say that mariners faced with being stripped by company policy of their otherwise-lawful work knives should seriously consider wide-scale “civil” disobedience of those rules. This shows just how far the stupidity has permeated both our society and our profession.
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I strongly disagree with the knife policy, and back in the stone age when I worked rigs, there was more of a, "What, you DON'T have a knife on you?!? What the hell is wrong with you?" policy.
That being said, the painters on those lifeboats should have had a pressure break point on them which separates the raft from whatever sinking objects it's tied to as a backup for the no knife situation.
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I am speechless. They're protecting them from......what exactly? An insane coworker? Doesn't the fact that they are at sea in the middle of the gulf enter in to the equation?
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I still wonder how school cafeterias cut the food they prepare in the middle of a no knife zone.
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I operate ocean going vessels for the US Army.
As an NCO, I tell my soldiers that a knife is part of their uniform if they're on-duty on the boat. And it's one of my pre-op PMCS/Safety checks. "Everyone got a blade?" It's too easy to get into a situation where you need to cut/release something "right now!".
This policy is beyond stupid, and probably the result of a lawyer that's never been underway.
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I strongly disagree with the knife policy, and back in the stone age when I worked rigs, there was more of a, "What, you DON'T have a knife on you?!? What the hell is wrong with you?" policy.
That being said, the painters on those lifeboats should have had a pressure break point on them which separates the raft from whatever sinking objects it's tied to as a backup for the no knife situation.
Sea painters for life rafts generally have a 500 lb weak link (they all have a weak link, the breaking strength may vary with the size of the raft) so that the line will break and the raft will float to the surface of the ocean. Of course that weak link doesn't help when you are already on the top of the ocean tied to a burning oil rig.
Coast Guard boat crews are issued knives and there is also a knife attached to our pyro vests. For some stupid reason the knives we buy for the pyro vests have about a quarter inch of the tip machined off. It isn't blunt and you could still stab the sh$% out of somebody and kill them with it. But I guess there is still a perception that us stupid sailors are going to get into fights and start stabbing each other while underway.
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I operate ocean going vessels for the US Army.
As an NCO, I tell my soldiers that a knife is part of their uniform if they're on-duty on the boat. And it's one of
That's a good point -- I've never been on a Federal vessel (where if something stupid is going to be initiated, that's the place) where there was a "no knife" policy. Even when I've been on research cruises with commie-pinko hippy science teams, all of them carried knives or multi-tools. It's mind-boggling that an oil company would have that kind of a rule.
I avoid going to sea these days, but when I do, I always carry a knife AND a multi-tool AND a pocket flashlight (because you've never seen dark until you're in the middle of the ocean on a moonless night and the lights on the boat go out).
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Of course that weak link doesn't help when you are already on the top of the ocean tied to a burning oil rig.
Uh, yeah, good point. I should have paid more attention to the article... =)
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"commie-pinko hippy science teams"
Loved that line.
I recently bought a one-handed folder with only a 2.375" stout blade so nobody could challenge me on it.
Terry, 230RN
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There's a reason I always carry one on my dinghy. Read a story not too long ago of a very experienced fisherman being dragged to the bottom of the Puget sound by a crab trap.
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Our Health and Safety manager mentioned possible banning pocket knives at our plants. The reason was that too many people get themselves injured with them in one way or the other. If it is an injury on the job, it is reported. If an injury goes down as a recordable or lost time injury with OSHA, our management doesn't like it. I've never seen them go after an employee over it, but they will looks for changes to prevent it.
We had an engineer slice his hand pretty good trying to cut a tie strap. His knife was dull and wouldn't cut the strap well, but it slipped and cut his hand pretty good.
Anyway, I doubt it is a security concern and more of a safety hazard issue.
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The only logical, practical, and realistic solution is to provide inflatable suits of armor so (A) you can't cut yourself or get cut and (B) you can inflate it if you go overboard.
There ya go.
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I avoid going to sea these days, but when I do, I always carry a knife AND a multi-tool AND a pocket flashlight (because you've never seen dark until you're in the middle of the ocean on a moonless night and the lights on the boat go out).
Never been there, but I've been in caves, thank you very much. =)
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I avoid going to sea these days, but when I do, I always carry a knife AND a multi-tool AND a pocket flashlight (because you've never seen dark until you're in the middle of the ocean on a moonless night and the lights on the boat go out).
heck, I've never been to sea & I always carry a knife AND a multi-tool AND a pocket flashlight.
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I worked on a dinky lake at a freshwater marina for a few years, and even there my knife saved my life at least once, and saved some very expensive equipment multiple times. I still carry a brace of Wave'd Spydercos daily. You just never know.
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Never been there, but I've been in caves, thank you very much. =)
I love the dark and quiet of caves. I wish I could see the stars from one. I still carry three light sources when entering one though.
Heck, I carry two just to leave the house.
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That's a good point -- I've never been on a Federal vessel (where if something stupid is going to be initiated, that's the place) where there was a "no knife" policy. Even when I've been on research cruises with commie-pinko hippy science teams, all of them carried knives or multi-tools. It's mind-boggling that an oil company would have that kind of a rule.
I avoid going to sea these days, but when I do, I always carry a knife AND a multi-tool AND a pocket flashlight (because you've never seen dark until you're in the middle of the ocean on a moonless night and the lights on the boat go out).
Try the inside of a sub at 400' :D
I don't think the boats I was on would have been heavy enough to dive if they had made us all leave our knives at home.