The Tribune

Sacrifice and camaraderie are just two contrasting elements of life at sea with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. Rashad Rolle immerses himself with the crew of the HMBS Arthur D Hanna.

FOR the 24 member-crew of the HMBS Arthur Dion Hanna, life as a defence force marine or officer involves a plethora of sacrifices: newborn babies can grow inches absent from the watchful gaze of their father, birthdays and anniversaries can be celebrated in a ship miles of the coast of Inagua rather than a swanky restaurant in Nassau, and every time they set sail, they know the risks to their safety are greater than those faced by the average person.

These men and women spend more than six months at sea each year, searching for anything suspicious, from illegal migrants to poachers to drug and firearm traffickers.

Last month, The Tribune was among the media groups invited to experience a slice of what life is like in their world as the Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) continues to celebrate its 37th anniversary this year.

The anniversary comes at a time of expansion for the RBDF, with the government’s Sandy Bottom Project facilitating its acquisition of nine world-class vessels - the first of which was the AD Hanna - that aim to increase its capacity to cover the country’s 100,000-plus square mile maritime domain.

The HMBS Arthur Hanna is commanded by Acting Lieutenant Commander Berne Wright. Only he knows what the crew’s schedule will look like from month-to-month, although crew are usually given ample time to prepare for the ship’s evolution. Vicissitudes of the job mean emergency trips are sometimes required, however.

“Once, I was home sleeping, very tired, and a call came in and told me to get dressed and to turn into Coral Harbour at 10pm because they required my speciality as a driver,” Chief Petty Officer David Fernander, the chief engineer on the vessel, told us.

Indeed, as a standing operating procedure, seamen must always have a three-day supply packed and ready to go. They are expected to prepare for a ship’s evolution at a moment’s notice. After all, poachers, drug traffickers and potentially tragic accidents don’t happen at a crew’s convenience.

The Commanding Officer is aided by a crew that includes the executive officer, the operations officer, the navigation officer, the deck officer, the supply officer, the coxswain, the chief engineer, general mechanics and engineers and the seamen. Junior seamen and seawomen typically get their feet wet by doing activities like cleaning and cooking. On average, they are at sea for two weeks. Sufficient food is taken to provide each of them with at least three meals per day. Everything one would find in a kitchen is found on board ship: bread and basket items like egg and milk, ice cream and different kinds of meat.

Safety, however, is paramount. Life vests are worn at all times when on deck. Fire drills and man-overboard drills are also common.

“I don’t care if you’re Michael Phelps,” Tamiko Johnson, a senior lieutenant who is the ship’s executive officer, told us. “Just because you can swim doesn’t mean you’ll be able to swim based on how you enter the water. You might slip and fall and injure yourself. That renders your skill-set moot so before we do anything we want to make sure the risk to persons and equipment is minimised. The same condition I took you out to sea in is the same condition I expect to bring you back in.”

The importance of safety and obeying instructions became clear to the media ‘recruits’ when we were confronted with the speed in which circumstances can change for the worse at sea. I suffered the embarrassment of falling in the water while attempting to transition from a dory to a cay during a cay search, for instance. Not long after, on return to the main vessel, the dory’s radiator overheated, releasing smoke that thrust us into a real life emergency. Emergency situations happen frequently, Commander Wright said.

Thankfully, with the expansion of the defence force’s fleet, some harrowing experiences - like being left on an uninhabited cay for days - are increasingly a thing of the past.

CPO Fernander recounted: “About 20 years ago I was with a team that had to do a cay search of Anguilla Cay. We had to do a four-hour cay search before another team would take over. But the craft that dropped us had an emergency and didn’t come back for us until like like days later. We had to kick into survival mode. The man who was in charge was an able hand. Being more experienced, he controlled our rations so we wouldn’t eat it all up. There was an incident where a younger marine started to hallucinate and go in and out. We had to find ways to calm him down and tell him things would be okay.”

The Arthur D Hanna is a sleek, 138ft long and 23ft wide vessel. It’s as attractive on the inside as it is on the outside. With a maximum speed of up to 20 knots, the ship features the latest in navigation and radar technology. Registered ships often show up as a triangle on its radar. But because of their size, Haitian sloops often don’t show up at all, making them difficult to intercept.

Officers typically engage in a process of elimination before deciding to interact or make contact with a ship that appears to be off the grid. Ships that fail to respond to attempts at communication would raise the crew’s suspicions, as would ships that move particularly fast.

Nonetheless, spending so much time at sea fosters camaraderie between crew members. Despite the seriousness of the potential challenges they face, the crew finds time for fun and entertainment.

“This is a dry ship, meaning there’s no alcohol on board,” Commander Wright said. “We do, however, have a patented AD Hanna game show involving academic questions about defence force history - Acts and regulations, social studies, world history, sports and even cinema. We do karaoke. We watch music videos. And we have a ship’s dictionary where we make fun of people who speak out of context.”

Preparation for life at sea never truly ends for the crew members, even when on land. Commander Wright, for instance, said he works out twice a day for a least a week before a scheduled evolution. “There’s also a pampering process where members would have manicures, pedicures, facials to pamper themselves prior to sailing,” he told us.

Crew members conduct extensive inspections prior to departure to determine if equipment is up to standard and to make sure the crew is in position. “There are times when people may either be on vacation or sick so you may need replacements,” Commander Wright said. “You have to ensure that stores and supplies are in position or transition for the day of sailing.”

Life at sea is not for anyone who isn’t prepared to make sacrifices. “For those interested in joining the defence force, now is the perfect opportunity,” said Pedro Rolle, a Petty Officer who is the coxswain of the ship. “The sky is the limit. It calls for a lot of sacrifices. From time to time you’d be called upon to leave home and for most people that’s the hardest thing to do. But the people on a boat or a ship become your family too.”

• Comments and respones to rrolle@tribunemedia.net. Visit www.tribune242.com for Ava Turnquest’s account for her day on patrol with the RBDF