A vessel, which at first glance appears like it’s moulded to dive into the depths of the unknown, is actually a rescue boat used in emergencies at sea.
Docked at the Ladysmith Community Marina since October, the lifeboat is a teaching tool students taking survival craft classes at the Western Maritime Institute.
“It’s basically used to escape from a sinking ship,” said Dan Robinson, associate dean of education. “It’s second job is that it can rescue people from other ships, yachts, or anything else that might be in distress.”
Older commercial ships typically have one of the boats, capable of carrying up to 26 people, on either side.
New cargo ships have a ramp at the stern where the boat “flies off at high speed.”
Students practice similar maneuvres at the WMI facility in Ladysmith before taking the boat, reaching up to six knots, for a spin around Oyster Bay.
The watercraft is about five metres in length and weighs just over four tonnes.
Inside, it would be stocked with flares, food and about 24-hours of diesel.
“What people need to survive for a limited amount of time if they’re stuck out at sea,” Robinson said.
An elevated seat allows the coxswain to peer through the small portal windows while navigating at sea.
“We recommend in our teaching that if you know you’ve got a distress message off that you stay in that part of the ocean so that people who have received it know where to look for you,” Robinson said.