New Invention May Lead to Greater Ship Safety

A new invention from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Maryland will be a tremendous help to ships in distress. It is called the Automated Integrated Distress Device and should a ship get into trouble, it will fire flares automatically and a strobe light will flash that will be able to alert any ships within an 8 mile radius that another ship is in trouble.

There is no other device that can do this. The only ones available have to be operated manually.

It is shaped like a cylinder, it is waterproof and about 12 inches tall. On one end there is a small beacon and the control switch is on the side. It is designed to be mounted upside down in a metal bracket that has a hydrostatic release, It would be located near the captain or pilot house so that it is easily accessible if it is to be used in manual mode.

It the ship were to sink to a depth of 20 to 30 feet, the automatic process would take over. The hydrostatic release would then cut a strap, which would flip the device right side up and it would then float to the surface, which in turn would set off the strobe light that would flash continuously and then the flares would begin firing in sequence. Before any flares go off, a warning horn sounds.

The prototype holds eight flares, but the actual product will be able to hold a different numbers of flares in order to meet the different Coast Guard rules for different sizes of both recreation and commercial boats. They can also modify the design to also hold a device called an Emergency Positioning Indicator Radio Beacon. This is required on all ships, both recreational and commercial, that go far from the shore.

The inventor of the device is George Borlase, who is a mechanical engineer with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md. In his former job as a naval architect with the Coast Guard, he had occasion to work on maritime accident investigations and he actually was inspired to come up with his invention after he investigated what turned out to be the worst domestic fishing vessel accident in 50 years.