USCG COXSWAIN COMPREHENSIVE UPDATED QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS FIRM A+
✔✔Distress Situations (FFCAMP) - ✔✔Fire
Flooding
Collision
Adrift in a Channel
Medical
PIW
✔✔CG General Salvage Policy - ✔✔CG "should engage" (not must or shall) in salvage
other than towing when:
-No commercial salvage is on scene
-Limited salvage "can prevent a worsening situation or complete loss of the vessel"
✔✔Three Prongs to Perform Salvage Other then Towing - ✔✔- The Coast Guard units
are capable of rendering assistance
-The owner request assistance and agrees to specific effort to be made
- CG units and personnel are not unduly hazarded by the operation
✔✔Salvage operations that may be permitted include - ✔✔Plugging hole in recreational
vessel with rags and wedges
Pumping water from a vessel
Pulling a small vessel from a sand bar into deeper water
Allowing Tide to Refloat the Vessel
Helping Set Anchors
✔✔Forced Evacuation of Vessels - ✔✔The Coast Guard is authorized to rescue and aid
persons and protect and save property at any time and any place. This may include
forcing or compelling mariners to abandon their vessels when a life-threatening
emergency exists
✔✔CG Fire-Fighting - ✔✔The Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972 acknowledges
that increased supervision of port operations is necessary to prevent damage to
structures in, on, or adjacent to the navigable waters of the United States, and to reduce
the possibility of vessel or cargo loss, or damage to life, property and the marine
environment. This statute, along with the traditional functions and powers of the Coast
Guard to render aid and save property (14 U.S.C. 88(b)), is the basis for Coast Guard
firefighting activities.
✔✔Assistance as Available Posture - ✔✔Assistance as available posture without
conveying the impression that the Coast Guard is prepared to relieve local fire
departments of their responsibilities.
, In developing a Coast Guard unit's assistance posture, the following needs to be
considered:
· Threat level of fire
· The jurisdictions involved
· The capabilities of local fire departments
· The availability of Coast Guard equipment
· Level of Coast Guard training
✔✔Independent Firefighting - ✔✔Coast Guard Personnel shall not engage in
independent firefighting operations, except to save life or in the early stages of a fire to
advert a significant threat without undue risk
✔✔Policy for persons trapped in a capsized vessel - ✔✔COMDTINST M16130.2F
5.8.2.2
Rescue and surface swimmers shall not enter capsized or submerged objects - they
may reach inside while maintaining a grasp on a reference point on the exterior of the
object
✔✔Procedures for Rescuing trapped person - ✔✔1) Keep in contact with the person(s)
2) Stabilize the hull
3) Estimate the volume of air remaining
4) Surface swimmers may attempt to direct trapped persons out but shall not dive under
the vessel
5) Inject clean air if possible
6) Only if no rescue is possible, may you consider re-righting the vessel.
✔✔Search Patterns - ✔✔Precision and Drifting
Precision: Parallel, Creeping, Track-Line, Track-line Return, Barrier
Drifting: Expanding Square, Victor Sierra
✔✔Track Spacing - ✔✔PIW-200 yds good and bad weather
Less then 15ft- 1000yds good / 400 yds bad weather
Greater then 15ft- 1nm good / 1000 yds bad weather
✔✔Expanding Square - ✔✔Used when there is a high degree of confidence that search
object is close to estimated datum position.
✔✔Victor Sierra - ✔✔Used when the datum is established within close limits, a very
high coverage immediately around the datum is desired, and the area to be searched is
not extensive.
AND ANSWERS FIRM A+
✔✔Distress Situations (FFCAMP) - ✔✔Fire
Flooding
Collision
Adrift in a Channel
Medical
PIW
✔✔CG General Salvage Policy - ✔✔CG "should engage" (not must or shall) in salvage
other than towing when:
-No commercial salvage is on scene
-Limited salvage "can prevent a worsening situation or complete loss of the vessel"
✔✔Three Prongs to Perform Salvage Other then Towing - ✔✔- The Coast Guard units
are capable of rendering assistance
-The owner request assistance and agrees to specific effort to be made
- CG units and personnel are not unduly hazarded by the operation
✔✔Salvage operations that may be permitted include - ✔✔Plugging hole in recreational
vessel with rags and wedges
Pumping water from a vessel
Pulling a small vessel from a sand bar into deeper water
Allowing Tide to Refloat the Vessel
Helping Set Anchors
✔✔Forced Evacuation of Vessels - ✔✔The Coast Guard is authorized to rescue and aid
persons and protect and save property at any time and any place. This may include
forcing or compelling mariners to abandon their vessels when a life-threatening
emergency exists
✔✔CG Fire-Fighting - ✔✔The Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972 acknowledges
that increased supervision of port operations is necessary to prevent damage to
structures in, on, or adjacent to the navigable waters of the United States, and to reduce
the possibility of vessel or cargo loss, or damage to life, property and the marine
environment. This statute, along with the traditional functions and powers of the Coast
Guard to render aid and save property (14 U.S.C. 88(b)), is the basis for Coast Guard
firefighting activities.
✔✔Assistance as Available Posture - ✔✔Assistance as available posture without
conveying the impression that the Coast Guard is prepared to relieve local fire
departments of their responsibilities.
, In developing a Coast Guard unit's assistance posture, the following needs to be
considered:
· Threat level of fire
· The jurisdictions involved
· The capabilities of local fire departments
· The availability of Coast Guard equipment
· Level of Coast Guard training
✔✔Independent Firefighting - ✔✔Coast Guard Personnel shall not engage in
independent firefighting operations, except to save life or in the early stages of a fire to
advert a significant threat without undue risk
✔✔Policy for persons trapped in a capsized vessel - ✔✔COMDTINST M16130.2F
5.8.2.2
Rescue and surface swimmers shall not enter capsized or submerged objects - they
may reach inside while maintaining a grasp on a reference point on the exterior of the
object
✔✔Procedures for Rescuing trapped person - ✔✔1) Keep in contact with the person(s)
2) Stabilize the hull
3) Estimate the volume of air remaining
4) Surface swimmers may attempt to direct trapped persons out but shall not dive under
the vessel
5) Inject clean air if possible
6) Only if no rescue is possible, may you consider re-righting the vessel.
✔✔Search Patterns - ✔✔Precision and Drifting
Precision: Parallel, Creeping, Track-Line, Track-line Return, Barrier
Drifting: Expanding Square, Victor Sierra
✔✔Track Spacing - ✔✔PIW-200 yds good and bad weather
Less then 15ft- 1000yds good / 400 yds bad weather
Greater then 15ft- 1nm good / 1000 yds bad weather
✔✔Expanding Square - ✔✔Used when there is a high degree of confidence that search
object is close to estimated datum position.
✔✔Victor Sierra - ✔✔Used when the datum is established within close limits, a very
high coverage immediately around the datum is desired, and the area to be searched is
not extensive.
