Each year, the IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at sea highlights acts of outstanding courage. This year, the Award will be presented to chinese chief officer.
An exceptional act of bravery
On 12 December 2021, the stormy cargo ship Tian Feng 369 was swamped and began to sink 30 nautical miles off the Chinese coast.
The tanker Jian Qiao 502, which was en route to the port of Dongguan, changed course to assist the vessel in distress.
After more than one hour of intensive searching, Mr. Bo Xu, the first mate, spotted a drifting life raft filled with seawater with two survivors on board. The Jian Qiao 502 headed for the raft and the crew soon realized that the both survivors were too weak to securely tie themselves to a rope.
Mr. Xu, without hesitation with bravery, jumped into the icy water and swam out, fighting high waves and strong currents to reach the life raft.
After several attempts, he managed to pull himself up to the liferaft and attach the ropes to the survivors, who were transferred to the deck with the help of other crew members.
On his return to the ship, the chief officer immediately performed emergency resuscitation on the two survivors, despite the fact that he was still tired.
In the end, one of the survivors survived and the other, unfortunately, died due to hypothermia.