Search and Rescue…AMVER is an official U.S. Coast Guard film (CGMP 1-61) that discusses how ships and stations send AMVER reports to the Coast Guard’s New York headquarters, how AMVER message reports are processed using an IBM 305 RAMAC computer, and how the Coast Guard responds to a distressed tanker dealing with a fire using the AMVER system (AMVER is short for Atlantic Merchant Vessel Report System). The film opens with members of the Coast Guard looking at a large map on a wall. A Coast Guard boat goes out on the water. The film shows some of the Coast Guard’s smaller search boats, as well as larger cutters and the massive ice breakers. It also shows viewers a Coast Guard helicopter (Sikorsky H-34), an amphibious plane (it appears to be a Grumman HU-16 Albatross), and a turbo prop C-130. At the New York headquarters in an old custom house, Coast Guard men study a wall-size map of the Atlantic coast (03:08). Men receive information at an AMVER center. The film shows a large freighter ship at sea (05:26). Graphics show how incoming AMVER message reports are received, recorded, and reproduced using the IBM 305 RAMAC. An AMVER message is received by the station’s teletype machine (10:30). A controller asks AMVER for images of the sea near a stranded tanker (12:10). The film then cuts to a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station (12:50), where a crew runs to an amphibious plane and take off for the distressed tanker. A C-130 flies toward the site of the tanker as well. The film presents how the location of the tanker is determined and how that information is relayed to the Coast Guard rescue plane. A sorting arm of an AMVER computer recovers data on surrounding ships’ locations and crew statuses (17:17). A rescue plane flies a search pattern in the area of the tanker. Footage shows the distressed tanker; aboard, crewmen cool down doors with water from a firehose. Aerial footage shows a nearby tanker approaching the distressed tanker. Men load an injured man from the distressed tanker onto a small boat so he can be transported to the assisting freighter. Back at the Coast Guard’s AMVER center, the controller sits at the IBM 305 RAMAC and relays messages (23:23).
AMVER, or Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System is a worldwide voluntary reporting system sponsored by the United States Coast Guard. It is a computer-based global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea. With AMVER, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and divert the best-suited ship or ships to respond. Participating in AMVER does not put ships under any additional obligation to assist in search and rescue efforts, beyond that which is required under international law.
On April 15, 1958, the United States Coast Guard and commercial shipping representatives began discussions which led to the creation of AMVER. Originally known as the Atlantic Merchant Vessel Emergency Reporting System, it became operational on July 18, 1958. AMVER began as an experiment, confined to waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, notorious for icebergs, fog and winter storms. Vice Admiral Alfred C. Richmond, Coast Guard Commandant at the time, called on all commercial vessels of U.S. and foreign registry, over 1,000 gross tons and making a voyage of more than 24 hours, to voluntarily become AMVER participants. The basic premise of AMVER, as a vehicle for mariner to help mariner without regard to nationality, continues to this day.
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