SOLAS in plain words: drills, life-saving appliances and interview questions

SOLAS is the convention behind the muster list on the bulkhead, the lifejacket in your cabin and the alarm that calls you to a drill on a Sunday afternoon. It is the oldest and broadest of the maritime conventions, and the part every seafarer meets daily — life-saving appliances and drills — is also the part every crewing interview asks about. This page gives the structure of the convention, the numbers asked most often, what to do when the alarm sounds, the mistakes that hurt people during drills, and questions to test yourself.

What SOLAS is

The first SOLAS was adopted in 1914, two years after the Titanic. New versions followed in 1929, 1948 and 1960; the one in force today is the 1974 convention, in force since 25 May 1980 and amended almost every year since. Amendments enter into force by "tacit acceptance": they apply on a set date unless enough states object, which is why SOLAS keeps up with technology faster than most treaties.

It applies to ships on international voyages: passenger ships of any size and cargo ships of 500 GT and above. Some chapters reach further — the radio chapter starts at 300 GT, and the navigation chapter applies to almost every ship on every voyage. Port state control checks it in every port.

The chapters

• I — General provisions: surveys and certificates.
• II-1 — Construction: subdivision and stability, machinery, electrical installations.
• II-2 — Fire protection, detection and extinction, with the FSS Code.
• III — Life-saving appliances and arrangements, with the LSA Code.
• IV — Radiocommunications: the GMDSS.
• V — Safety of navigation: bridge equipment, AIS, VDR, ECDIS, pilot ladders, manning.
• VI and VII — Cargoes and dangerous goods, through the IMSBC, IMDG, IBC and IGC Codes.
• VIII — Nuclear ships.
• IX — Management for the safe operation of ships: the ISM Code.
• X — High-speed craft.
• XI-1 and XI-2 — Special measures for safety and for security: the IMO number, the Continuous Synopsis Record, the ISPS Code.
• XII — Additional measures for bulk carriers.
• XIII and XIV — Verification of compliance, and ships in polar waters (the Polar Code).
• XV — Ships carrying industrial personnel (the IP Code, since 2024).

Key numbers

Drills: what Chapter III requires

• Every crew member with emergency duties must know them before the voyage begins.
• Every crew member takes part in at least one abandon ship drill and one fire drill every month.
• If more than 25% of the crew have not taken part in drills on that ship in the previous month, the drills are held within 24 hours of leaving port.
• New crew receive on-board training in the ship's life-saving and fire-fighting appliances as soon as possible and no later than two weeks after joining.
• Each lifeboat is launched with its assigned crew and manoeuvred in the water at least once every three months; free-fall lifeboats follow their own scheme.
• Rescue boats are launched with their crew and manoeuvred in the water every month as far as is reasonable and practicable, and at least every three months.
• An enclosed space entry and rescue drill is held at least every two months.
• The emergency lighting for mustering and abandonment is tested at every abandon ship drill.

On passenger ships an abandon ship drill and a fire drill take place every week. Every drill goes into the log book.

The alarm and the muster list

The general emergency alarm is seven or more short blasts followed by one long blast on the ship's whistle, repeated on the alarm bells. When you hear it, you go to your muster station — not straight to the lifeboat — dressed warmly, with a hat, your lifejacket and, if one is assigned to you, your immersion suit. The order to abandon ship itself is given by the master, by voice.

The muster list is posted on the bridge, in the engine room and in the crew accommodation before the ship sails. For every person it gives the station and the duty in each emergency, and who replaces whom if someone is missing. Most companies also put a card with your duties in your cabin. The first thing to do after joining a ship is to find your name on it.

Life-saving appliances you should know by heart

• Lifejackets: one for every person on board, with extras at the watch stations, each with a light and a whistle. A lifejacket must be put on correctly within one minute without help and allow a jump into the water from at least 4.5 metres.
• Immersion suits: on cargo ships, one for every person on board. It must be possible to put one on without help within two minutes.
• Lifebuoys: from 8 to 14 on a cargo ship, depending on length. At least one on each side carries a buoyant line of at least 30 metres; at least half have self-igniting lights; at least two of those also have self-activating smoke signals and can be released quickly from the bridge — for a man overboard.
• Survival craft: on a cargo ship they are counted twice over — lifeboats (or one free-fall boat at the stern) for everyone on board, and liferafts for everyone again. All of them must be launchable with their full complement within 10 minutes of the abandon ship signal; on a passenger ship, within 30 minutes.
• Lifeboat stores, among other things: 3 litres of water per person (part may be replaced by a desalting apparatus), food rations, 4 rocket parachute flares, 6 hand flares and 2 buoyant smoke signals. A liferaft carries 1.5 litres of water per person and the same pyrotechnics.
• On or near the bridge: at least 12 rocket parachute flares.
• Radio life-saving appliances: a float-free EPIRB on 406 MHz; a radar transponder (SART) or AIS-SART on each side (one on cargo ships from 300 to 499 GT); at least three portable two-way VHF sets on ships of 500 GT and above.
• Liferaft release: the hydrostatic release unit frees the raft at a depth of no more than 4 metres; the raft floats up, the painter pulls it open, and the weak link breaks so the sinking ship cannot drag it down.

Maintenance. Weekly: a visual inspection of survival craft, rescue boats and launching gear, the lifeboat and rescue boat engines run ahead and astern for at least 3 minutes, and a test of the general alarm. Monthly: an inspection against a checklist, recorded in the log. Every year: a thorough examination of lifeboats, rescue boats, davits and release gear by an authorised service provider. Liferafts go ashore for service every 12 months; lifeboat falls are turned end for end at least every 30 months and renewed at least every 5 years.

Fire, emergency power and training in brief

Fire drills are monthly, together with the abandon ship drills. The fire control plan hangs in the accommodation; a cargo ship carries at least two firefighter's outfits and at least two emergency escape breathing devices (EEBD) in the accommodation, with more in the engine room. The emergency generator must start by itself and take the load within 45 seconds of a blackout.

Every seafarer holds STCW basic training — personal survival techniques, fire prevention and fire fighting, elementary first aid, personal safety and social responsibility — and refreshes the first two every five years. The crew of the lifeboats hold a certificate of proficiency in survival craft and rescue boats.

Certificates and documents port state control asks for

• the Cargo Ship Safety Construction, Safety Equipment (with its record of equipment, Form E) and Safety Radio Certificates — or one combined Cargo Ship Safety Certificate; issued for up to five years and endorsed at annual and periodical surveys;
• on passenger ships, the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate, valid for 12 months;
• the Safety Management Certificate and the company's Document of Compliance (ISM), the International Ship Security Certificate (ISPS), the Minimum Safe Manning Document;
• the muster list, the training manual (in the mess rooms and recreation rooms or in each cabin), the fire control plan, the LSA and fire-fighting maintenance records, drill entries in the log.

Fire safety and life-saving appliances are consistently among the commonest deficiencies port state control finds. An inspector will often ask a crew member to start the lifeboat engine, put on an immersion suit or explain their duty from the muster list.

What they ask at the interview

• Ratings (AB, OS, motorman, cook): the general alarm signal; your muster station and duty; putting on a lifejacket and an immersion suit; what is in a lifeboat; launching a liferaft; how the hydrostatic release works.
• Deck officers: drill frequencies and the 25% / 24-hour rule; the LSA maintenance schedule; launch times; what Form E is; who looks after life-saving and fire-fighting equipment on board.
• Engineers: the lifeboat engine and its weekly run, the emergency fire pump, the emergency generator and its 45 seconds.
• Cooks and stewards: a galley fire (never water on burning fat); on passenger ships, guiding passengers to the muster stations.
• Everyone: "What do you do when you hear seven short and one long?"

Common mistakes

1. Not reading the muster list after joining. "What is your duty?" is the first thing an inspector asks.
2. Treating drills as a box to tick. A real share of lifeboat accidents happen during drills, often with on-load release hooks that were wrongly reset; since 2014 hooks that did not meet the new requirements had to be replaced, by 2019 at the latest.
3. The wrong immersion suit: wrong size, zip not closed, hood not on, or stored where you cannot reach it.
4. A lifejacket with the ties left loose. In a jump from height it rides up into your face.
5. A liferaft that cannot float free: an HRU painted over, extra lashings, the painter tied straight to the ship instead of through the weak link.
6. Fire doors wedged open and escape routes blocked with stores.

Test yourself

Who on board needs this

Everyone — from the ordinary seaman and the cook to the master. The life-saving and fire-fighting equipment is usually looked after by the third officer with the bosun; the lifeboat engine and the emergency generator by the engine room, often the third engineer. On cruise ships and ferries drills are weekly and mustering passengers is a job in itself.

Your basic training certificates and their expiry dates belong in your maritime CV: crewing checks them first.

Source: SOLAS 1974, consolidated edition, with the LSA and FSS Codes and the amendments in force at the time of writing. Flag states and companies may require more; on board, the ship's muster list and training manual prevail. This page is a study aid, not a legal text.