August 30, 2010
Thousands of yacht crew span oceans around the globe, but the deaths of a few reverberate like a boulder tossed into a small pond. Be it murder, suicide or accident, any death in yachting gets captains and crew thinking about how they are affected.
“Death is something that’s not usually talked about,” a captain said at this month’s Triton From the Bridge captains luncheon as we discussed how captains handle a death on the job.
“The commercial industry has guidelines on what to do, but we have none,” another captain said. “We have procedures for everything else -- mayday, pan-pan -- but there is no format to follow for this.”
“The industry is really light on this subject,” said a third. “There should be standard protocol.”
As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are identified in a photograph.
When someone dies in a television drama, the authorities arrive, process the body, handle crowd control and do the paperwork. But things are different on a yacht.
“In the U.S., on land, I would call 9-1-1,” a captain said. “You do that and it starts to take care of itself, but that doesn’t happen at sea. It’s up to you.”
“If it happens at the dock in your home port, then it’s easier,” another captain said.
On land or at the dock in a home country, captains said they would call local emergency services like anyone else. Under way, captains said they would first call the local coast guard.
“Then the owner,” a captain said.
“If it’s a guest and there is a management company, I’d call them,” another captain said.
“If it’s a crew member that dies, then I think it’s my responsibility to make the calls,” said a third.
“I think a guest’s death would be a lot easier to deal with than a crew’s,” another said. “We’re like family.”
Death quite often is a shock, even without unknown variables, but the captains said when out of the home port, it is more challenging.
“I have a standing rule on my boat: Put an oxygen mask on the body and call med-evac, get him out; no one dies in the Bahamas,” a captain said. “There is a Bahamian law they have to autopsy the body, and we’re not going to go through that.”
Logistical issues dealing with jurisdictions, nationalities, flag state laws, and international governing bodies -- all standard yacht concerns -- are exacerbated when there is a death, and they often supersede the more immediate emotional concerns.
“You have to know about local laws,” a captain said. “You may want to pull into a different port.”
“When you pull into a country, the health form asks if anyone died on the boat,” another captain said. “You’re going to have to explain what happened and have a body.”
Another captain disagreed, citing a situation such as a slow-moving sailboat in the middle of a long crossing.
“You have to throw the body over,” this captain said. “You just can’t keep a dead body on board. Do you want to know what a dead body smells like?”
“No, no, please,” responded the captains as they were eating lunch.
One captain had a captain friend who dealt with the death of a guest while under way. The crew pulled all the food out of the freezer and packed bags of frozen meats and bags of frozen peas around the body, wrapping the deceased like a mummy. They would change it out every day, he said.
Another captain at lunch knew of a captain working for a French owner who didn’t arrive for breakfast one morning. Crew found the owner dead from a heart attack. The port they were in would not take the body and the captain was instructed to keep it until the paperwork was completed.
“They made a deal with the local fish market and put the dead guy on ice at the fish shop,” the captain said. “Eventually the captain had to fly back to France with the body, hand it over and then fly back to the boat.”
Another captain told a story he heard in which there was no body to bring back from a trip. It was a yacht where one of the guests disembarked, leaving her husband onboard. Later, the husband was drinking and fell off the back of the boat, not to be found.
“If the wife had not already met the crew and knew they were professional, that could have turned really bad for the crew, coming into port without her husband,” the captain said.
In lieu of required protocol, captains discussed creating their own. One captain said that land-based emergency systems, such as the United States’ 9-1-1 emergency service number, have tested procedures and he suggested the captains look into that protocol to adopt pertinent parts.
“We have all of us in this room and not one person can come up with what to do if someone dies,” said a captain on the severity of the topic and the lack of answers in the industry. “No one wants a dead body. Not a captain, not the boat, not the country, no one.”
“I would like to hear more from the Coast Guard or something on this topic,” another captain said.
If it does happen, several captains said medical procedures must be adhered to, authorities must be contacted and panic prevented. They said it is important to make sure all crew are prepared before an emergency situation, because as one captain pointed out, many crew are young and haven’t been exposed to death, which created a lively discussion.
“We’ve never had a death, but we easily could have,” a captain said. “I think you should talk about it with crew and divide tasks. There must be someone to deal with all of it.”
“You just need to talk about it, you really don’t need to practice something like this,” another said.
“Have you ever seen a dead body?” said a third. “I think a lot of crew would freak. It’s different in real-life to handle a body.”
“I think most people would clam up, they don’t want to go near it,” another said.
“For one thing, someone needs to deal with the family screaming and crying,” said yet another captain. “Imagine having a mom trying to get to her kid. You need someone handling that.”
Another captain suggested taking photos and documenting everything possible.
“That’s something you might not think of at the time,” he said.
“No matter how much training crew has, you don’t know what will happen at the moment,” another captain said.
One captain said he has tried to prepare for potential medical issues on board.
“Statistically, my group has much higher odds of someone dying,” he said. “He [the owner] doesn’t want any medical stuff on board. He says when it is his time, it’s his time. But what about his wife and friend of 45 years? What about me? I’ve broached the issue several times, but...”
Whatever transpires, when captains find themselves with a dead person on board, they realize they are responsible. The best they can do is use all the medical training they have and make their best decisions, several captains agreed.
“You are going to be held accountable up to your ability,” a captain said. “Let’s say you’re a dive master. Even if you are not doing it, you are responsible because you have the knowledge.”
After spending an hour talking seriously about this topic, several in the group ended the lunch on with humor. When asked what they might do now that they have begun thinking about having a death onboard, one captain said, “I’m going to buy more oxygen masks.”
Said another: “I’m going to put in a bigger fridge.”
If you make your living working as a yacht captain, e-mail dorie@the-triton.com for an invitation to our monthly Bridge luncheon.
About the Author
