Dead man joins ship

To comply with new maritime regulations, Logos Hope has introduced a ‘dead man alarm.’ This alarm, to be used only when the ship is sailing, will go off if the deck hand keeping watch on the bridge falls down dead, is unconscious or falls asleep. A button is located at various points on the bridge. If the watchkeeper does not press this button at regular intervals, an alarm will be signalled in the deck officer’s and captain’s cabins. If the deck officer does not respond, more alarms will go off in the staff lounge, dining room and different locations around the ship. “In reality it would never get that far,” said captain Chris Hughes (UK). “We have three people on the bridge when we are sailing so it is highly unlikely that no-one would be there to press the button.”