SHAWN PHILLIPS Volunteer Service

Firefighting, Emergency Medical Service and National Sea Rescue Institute

One, I'm a rock and roll star, and two,

I get to drive a big red fire engine for real."   

Shawn Phillips

On 21st of July 2007 I was awarded my 

full seagoing NSRI crew members badge, 

by my ex-Coxswain Bruce Irvine, who is now the Deputy 

Station Commander. It is something I am extremely 

proud of, as it took 3 years to earn it, and very 

I'm proud to be a part of this organization. 

Since this is a volunteer organization, and receiving 

no funding whatsoever from the South African 

Government, we are dependent on the generosity of 

those who are cognizant of the importance of the work 

we do. So even if you are reading this on my site, and 

you have no idea who the hell I am, I urge you, if you 

are of comfortable means, to donate whatever you can 

to this cause. There is no price you can put on the 

saving of a single life. Visit the NSRI website to see 

how many lives are saved through the efforts of these 

dedicated people. Thank you.  I wish you Health, Love, 

"As many of you know, a great deal of my heart lies in doing emergency services work. Helping people when they cannot help themselves. Since leaving Texas, and the fire dept. there, I have been keeping my skills up by working with Johannesburg Metro Fire, and riding out with another EMS service here in SA called Netcare. When we moved to Port Elizabeth, I approached an organization called the NSRI. The National Sea Rescue Institute. These people do sea rescue on everything from ULCCs, (Ultra large crude carriers), to distraught swimmers in the immediate area. There are 34 stations on South Africa's coastline, with some 700 people in total. Port Elizabeth is Station 6. It is a very family oriented operation, much like the fire dept. in Texas. All members are volunteer. You have to meet them and from there, they decide whether they want you to work with them. There are 4 crews, that are on duty one week out of every month. Every Friday night, they have a dinner at the station with all the guys families, of the incoming, and outgoing crews. The weekend is spent on maintenance of the station and it's equipment, and the craft they go out to sea on, as well as going out to sea, and training. And waiting for that call of Code Red.

Actually, my first test came when they took me out for the first time, in 5 to 6?meter seas. Did you see "The Perfect Storm"? Well, that's what it looks like out there in 6 meter seas. If you are heading into the sea, the wall of water coming toward you is higher than the edge of the windows you can see out of in the boat. If you are going with the sea, you swear that the water behind you is gonna swamp you any minute. The fact that I didn't hurl all over everything in the first half hour says I probably passed.
 

Visit the NRSI website

Eikos Rescuer III - 7.3m RIB

"They have 2 main boats. The first is "Nomad III", (Rescue 6 Alpha), a 7 meter semi-rigid inflatable with mid-ship controls, and 2 150 HP outboards. They wear red wetsuits, and crash helmets on a call, or training. I thought Oh Boy, here we go, but they told me that because of my age, and the fact that I've had a bypass, I will not be allowed to go on it. The cutoff age is 45. At first, I was somewhat disappointed, but on second thoughts, I realized that it is really cold, wet, and miserable on that boat, if you are out there for any appreciable amount of time, it can get very uncomfortable, so what they say about being careful about asking for what you want, might apply here."

They also have an emergency response vehicle equipped with GPS, radio, and patient stabilization gear. The truck, (VI), Victor I is used to gather information from folks that have seen a swimmer in trouble, or triangulation on a distress flare, and many other tasks

So we come to the second boat. This is the "Spirit Of Toft", a 10 meter craft that was built in England specifically for sea rescue. It has self-righting capacity, and is powered by 2 400 HP Cat engines. It can do up to 18 knots in very heavy seas. It carries all the electronic equipment necessary for locating a craft, or person in distress at sea. Furuno radar, capable of seeing up to 40 miles around, radio direction finder, and a GPS driven system called Cetrek. This is an electronic map of the surrounding area of Port Elizabeth, and extends to the whole of the South African coast according to the ROM card in it. The other day during my third training session, my coxswain said to me, "You see that right hand seat beside the helmsman"? I said "yep". He said, "See all that electronic equipment around it? Well you're going to learn everything there is to know about it, because you're going to be a navigator." Oh God help us all !!!"

Spirit of Toft - 10m deep-sea rescue vessel

At the moment, I am into a heavy learning curve again in my life. Not only do I have to learn to use the Cetrek system, but I am going to be learning how to navigate by plotting courses, and bearings on a map, That means lots of mathematics, which I am not the best at by any means. But we'll get there.

Ordinarily, they don't let probationers go on any calls, but last Saturday, someone in the harbor, as well as an elderly lady who lives up on a hill in PE saw a red flare go up, and I was allowed to go on the call, as it is up to the discretion of the coxswain of the team. From the info from the lady, who gave the information to Victor I, and the guy in the harbor, they triangulated an approximate position on the flare. As we searched, I covered the port side of the boat with binoculars, and we were out there for about 3 hours, but whoever had set the flare off, had run off. Expensive prank that was.

I took my probationers written exam today, and passed. By the way, the name of the team I'm working with, is the "Seals" Shawn Phillips, June 2004

Boardwalk Rescuer - 4.2m RIB

Station 6 - Port Elizabeth

I'm proud to be a part of this organization.

Since this is a volunteer organization, and receiving
no funding whatsoever from the South African
Government, we are dependent on the generosity of
those who are cognizant of the importance of the work
we do. So even if you are reading this on my site, and
you have no idea who the hell I am, I urge you, if you
are of comfortable means, to donate whatever you can
to this cause. There is no price you can put on the
saving of a single life. Visit the NSRI website to see
how many lives are saved through the efforts of these
dedicated people.
Thank you. I wish you Health, Love, and Clarity, Shawn Phillips

t is now the 23rd of July 2007, and I was awarded my full seagoing crew members badge on the 21st of July, by my ex-Coxswain Bruce Irvine, who is now the Deputy Station Commander. It is something I am extremely proud of, as it took 3 years to earn it, and very complex training. Now, that training has paid off. I did my first night operation.

We had to take the Chief Engineer of a ULCC back to his ship after he got sick off CapeTown a few days ago. He went to hospital, got better, flew to PE, and we had to rendevous with his vessel, which was 26.3 NM south of us. The seas were 3.5 to 4.5 meters, (that's 15 Ft), and there was a 46 Knot wind we had to contend with, and absolute blackness. On the way, the port engines fuel filter got clogged, and the engine shut down. You ever have a diesel quit on you? It has to be primed to restart. Not an easy job in a vessel that's twisting and turning up to 58 degrees, in every direction you can think of. Meanwhile, this Chief Engineer is seated port side of the cockpit looking down into the engine room, and might I say, he had a look of slight concern on his face, as you can well imagine. But this is a situation that is dealt with regularly, as even the immensity of the Indian Ocean doesn't stop us sucking plastic bags, and all kinds of debris into our strainers, so we were on the way again within 17 minutes. Another half hour, and I made contact with the vessel, called the "Ti Hawtah". I asked which side they preferred to be approached from, and they had us come up on her starboard side. Now I
mentioned that the seas were 10 to 15 feet high, but
in order for you to understand the size of the ship we were next to, you have to imagine our little boat,
which was previously being tossed up and down, was now.............IN A LAKE !!! Almost completely still water for at least a half kilometer beyond. She was moving stately along at 7 knots, and our helmsman only had to nudge our bow into the side of that behemoth, and match her speed. We transferred the gentleman's baggage by basket, and then he and 2 of our crew climbed the ladder that led to the gantry, he was home, we had the legal documents required for such a situation, when our guys returned, and we turned off her, and I plotted a new course home to port. Total time for op? 4.7 hours. Easy Peezy. Now think about a rescue in even bigger seas, and a 20 meter yacht that's been disabled, or run aground, and we have to attach lines to her, and tow her back to port from up
to 40 NM distance. We're talking several days now. But that's what Sea Rescue does, and in the midst of the seriousnes of the reality, and black  humor.............bottom line........it's great fun!!!

Juliette Phillips on volunteering for NSRI:

"The NSRI is a voluntary organisation: the National Sea Rescue Institute which is mostly funded by charities. Volunteers are trained in rescuing personnel off sinking ships, finding people lost at sea, providing medical assistance to ill sailors, etc Its like the US Coastguard but it is run purely by volunteers....Shawn and I did a weekend duty with the PE Harbour NSRI station in January. We have been accepted as volunteers and will join our crew in April. There is a lot of training involved. The crews are also responsible for the maintenance of all equipment (in PE's case a ten meter self-righting boat which Shawn was allowed to 'drive' in high sea's) and a 7 meter twin hulled zodiac type craft, very fast. The NSRI also co-ordinates with air rescue and provides a flight paramedic and rescue swimmer etc. So any emergency on the sea or beach within about 200km of PE is handled by them, day and night all year round. The volunteers are also trained in radio ops, fire fighting, etc and there is a fitness and phobia test to be passed. We do one weekend and one week on call duty a month with our crew (there are four crews)."  May, 2004 

"Last Sunday morning, @ 01:00, I went downstairs to get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and when I came upstairs, I went out onto the balcony, to look at the stars, and as I was looking out to sea, I saw a red distress flare go up, about 5 to 8 miles out. I could see the lights from the boats, and saw that one of them was a fair size ship. My first thought was, this better not be a fucking joke, 'cause it's about to get real expensive. I got my radio, and went to the emergency maritime channel, (16), and said, "Unknown Vessel", (repeat 3 times),  "This is National Sea Rescue", (X3), "I saw your flare. Are you in difficulty? Do you have a problem? Do you copy my traffic?" Whoever it was, got back to me immediately, and said there's been a collision, and there are men in the water. We need help. I said I was in the NSRI, and that I would have help on the way immediately. At that point, Port Control in PE broke into our transmissions, and asked me what vessel I was, and I told them that I was not a vessel, but that I had seen the flare from my home in Seaview, and that I was with the NSRI, and was calling right away. They said we've already called, and Statcom, has already put the rescue operation in motion. 4 minutes later, my cellphone went off with the Code Red call in. I got dressed, and drove in, but since we live 32 kilometers away, I wasn't in time to get on the boat, as it had gone within 20 minutes of the call. I wrote the Operations Report, on the computer as it went down. It took "Spirit Of Toft", (the 10 meter Brede class lifeboat, the one they use in the NRLI, in England, you've seen pictures of them), 63 minutes to reach the scene. Seas were running @ 5 to 6 meters, ( 18 Ft. swells), but the night was clear, thank God.

OK, here's what went down. A 172 meter refrigerator vessel called,"Ouro Do Brasil", enroute from Singapore to Brazil, went out of the normal shipping lanes, to catch the faster running current, that would shoot him by Port Elizabeth, and get him to Capetown quicker, where he planned to unload stuff, and refurbish staples. We don't know why as yet, but for some reason, he didn't see the 30 meter fishing vessel, "Lindsay", and collided with it, and it sank in less than 30 seconds, in 150 meters of water. It had a compliment of 17 souls on board, and only 2 survived. The skipper, and a galley boy, who had the watch. The skipper said he didn't know what hit him, and he had to swim almost 15 meters before he reached the surface. He was in shock, and had to be treated for fractured ribs, and diesel fuel inhalation. A sister ship called, "Lincoln", told us she had just had 4 new liferafts installed, and as the operation progressed, we picked up 4 liferafts, and 19 lifejackets. The rest of the crew were asleep in the forward cabin. They never had a chance.

At first light, one of the Coxswains, and 2 other crew members, and myself drove to the SA Air Force Base, and got into a twin engine Piper Seneca, and flew an approximate 12 mile search grid @ about 5 to 800 Ft. for 4 1/2 hours over the debris field, where there were at least 12 other vessels taking part in the operation. There was a very long diesel fuel spill, and loads of flotsam, and jetsom, and you could see where the oil from the sunken part of the ship, was still making it to the surface. We found no survivors, and no bodies. We believe the deceased to be trapped in the cabin section, and unless one of them is near a hatch when the body inevitably bloats up from gas
induced composition, and floats up to the surface, we don't think they will ever be recovered. It is simply too deep, and would require divers with a heliox mix to get there. This was a true tragedy at sea, and many family members will be mourning. We pray for the souls of their lost ones."
Shawn Phillips, 9-May-2005
read more about the collision

Copyright Shawn Phillips, all right reserved.