Prior to departing for her bi-annual overhaul P&O's Larne - Cairnryan ferry European Causeway carried out a test deployment of her Marine Evacuation System (MES) alongside her MacKean Quay berth at Larne on the 8/7/07.  The European Causeway carries a state of the art Marin-Ark type MES manufactured by local company RfD, based just outside Belfast at Dunmurray.  RfD's technical staff were on site during the day to oversee the deployment and to re-install a new system aboard the ship prior to her departing to dry dock at Falmouth.

A number of Larne Ferry Web readers managed to get some photos of the deployment of this vital piece of lifesaving equipment which has now become common place among many of the world's ferries.

A few rare views of European Causeway stern in at Larne preparing her port side MES for its test deployment.  As this was a drill many of the parts had to be recovered for re-use so preparations were lengthy to get everything that was needed again safely ashore; the top right picture shows the MES housing door being craned off the ship so it could be reattached later.  When the system is used in a real emergency recovery of parts is of no value compared to human life and deployment of the MES occurs in minutes.
With her MES ready for action European Causeway swings around to her normal starboard side too berthing configuration to expose the port side MES to the waters of the harbour.  The next sequence of 8 pictures shows the MES being deployed, from when the rafts first hit the water to full inflation ready for use took under 2 minutes.  The blue escape chutes protect all evacuees from the weather so that they are never exposed to foul weather conditions once they leave the ship.
Local workboat Noleen McLoughlin with skipper Ashley Sloan driving towed the MES rafts to the Islandmagee ferry slip to allow the volunteers who went down the escape chutes back ashore. European Causeway's relief master Captain Pat Hughes was among those who played a damsel in distress for the day and ended up going down the escape chute.
The rafts were craned out of the water at the Islandmagee ferry slip and deflated using industrial hoovers.  The final act of the deployment involved European Causeway swinging back stern in to allow the crane to remove the escape chutes and to fit a fresh MES to her port side.  During this she was joined by sister ship European Highlander which used Curran Quay to load for her 1630 service to Cairnryan

Many thanks to Allan Doyle, Ian Henderson and 'The Boatman' for passing on their pictures.

Updated: 02/08/07

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