London, Thursday, December 18. The Corporation of Trinity House is supporting a Mass Rescue Operations (MRO) project with a grant to help completion of a comprehensive online reference library to be used as a source of best practice by maritime professionals across the world.
The material in the library has been compiled by experts from all over the globe and is the culmination of 5 years extensive work including international conferences and workshops.
The library—aided by a £5, 000 grant from the Trinity House Maritime Charity, the Corporation’s charitable arm—is to be launched at the World Maritime Rescue Congress (WMRC) to be held in Bremerhaven, Germany, in June.
Hosted by the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS), the event will run from June 1 to June 4, 2015, and is a must for organisations involved, or likely to become involved, in search and rescue (SAR) on the world’s waters.
Bruce Reid, Chief Executive of the IMRF, says: “The aim is to be able to provide the library as an open source and contributions like the one from Trinity House are helping us achieve that goal. We are still looking for further sponsorship or grants to enable us to provide as full a package of guidance on mass rescue operations as possible and to hit the WMRC launch date.”
The International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) brings the world’s maritime search and rescue organisations together in one global – and growing – family, accredited at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).IMRF’s member organisations share their lifesaving ideas, technologies and experiences and freely cooperate with one another to achieve their common humanitarian aim: “Preventing loss of life in the world’s waters”. See: www.international-maritime-rescue.org
The Corporation of Trinity House
The safety of shipping and the wellbeing of seafarers have been the prime concerns of the Corporation ever since Trinity House was granted a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1514.
As the UK’s largest self-funded maritime charity, The Corporation of Trinity House donated approximately £6.5m to charitable causes in the financial year ending in March 2013 — of which over £2m went to supporting the Trinity House Hub at Mariners’ Park Estate.
Today Trinity House has three distinct functions:
It is the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. The remit is to provide aids to navigation to assist the safe passage of a huge variety of vessels through some of the busiest sea-lanes in the world.
It is a charitable organisation dedicated to the safety, welfare and training of mariners.
It is a Deep Sea Pilotage Authority providing expert navigators for ships trading in Northern European waters.
“Jo”
