Emergency Response and Salvage
Amongst the more powerful Emergency Towing Vessels in the World, the extensive towing capabilities and speed in all weathers of JP Knight’s ETVs provide the first line of defence to Britain’s coastline and marine environment. Equally, the positioning of ETVs close by some of the World’s busiest shipping lanes, or in remote and environmentally sensitive areas where assistance is not close at hand, allows for a rapid response to a casualty. It is this scale of intervention that not only prevents or reduces an emergency, but also saves lives and ships.
JP Knight’s four ETVs are contracted to the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency, patrolling approximately 33,000 square miles of British waters and are stationed in the Dover Straits, the South Western Approaches, the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. ETVs are equipped with extensive towing equipment and are able to deliver a wide range of emergency services.
The unique effectiveness of an ETV is a combination of 24 hour strategic patrolling, drilled communication and response systems with HM Coastguard and the specialist expertise of the vessel’s officers and crews. The value of specifically-trained crew members cannot be underestimated, nor the importance of experienced and rehearsed team-work. Responding to a casualty, more often than not in deteriorating weather conditions and worsening circumstances, requires co-ordinated action that is both safe yet able to take advantage of the precise moment when a connection can be made.
In the last twelve months alone, JP Knight’s ETVs have played a major role not just in salvage but also in fire-fighting, flooding control, casualty evacuation, search and rescue, pollution counter-measures, recovery of floating debris, anchor-handling, vessel escort and hydro-graphic surveying. Much of this vital work goes unreported and unseen, but contributes enormously in reducing or removing potential risk at sea.
