What is the abandon ship procedure and when is it ordered?

Abandoning ship is the last resort, ordered only when the master judges that the ship can no longer be kept safe from fire, flooding or structural failure, and the decision rests with the master alone. The old rule that the ship is the best lifeboat holds: survival favours staying aboard a damaged but floating vessel over taking to survival craft prematurely, so crews prepare early but abandon late, and only on the master's explicit spoken order, never on the alarm signal alone.

The sequence is drilled so it can run under stress. The general emergency alarm, seven short blasts and one long, brings everyone to muster stations with lifejackets, immersion suits where provided, and warm clothing; each person's duties come from the muster list, from preparing boats to collecting extra blankets, water and rations. The crew are counted, because a missing person changes everything. Meanwhile the bridge sends the distress alert by the GMDSS equipment with the ship's identity and position, and the EPIRB and search and rescue transponders are taken to the craft; the EPIRB will also float free and activate itself if the ship sinks. Portable VHF radios go with the boat parties.

The survival craft are prepared and boarded under the officers' direction, launched on the lee side where the ship's condition allows, and held on their painters until loaded. Boarding dry, directly from the deck or embarkation ladder, matters more than most people realise: cold water incapacitates within minutes, and the first phase of cold shock defeats swimmers long before hypothermia does.

Once clear of the ship, the priorities are the ones survival training teaches: stream the sea anchor, keep the craft together for a bigger radar and visual target, take seasickness tablets early, close up the canopy for protection from exposure, keep watches, issue water sparingly, and use pyrotechnics only when they can actually be seen. Protection, location, water, food, in that order, under a clear leader; rescue may come in hours or days, and discipline in the first hour sets the odds.

None of this can be improvised. The reason SOLAS drives monthly drills, equipment checks and the periodic boat launchings is that a real abandonment happens in darkness, noise and fear, and a crew that has mustered, launched and recovered boats until it is dull will do in minutes what an undrilled crew cannot do at all.