Capt. William Picken sent out a distress call at 5:46 p.m. His 45-foot clam boat Sea Princess, en route from Marshfield to Hyannis on the Massachusetts coastline June 9th, was taking water into its engine room as it powered along about five miles off Race Point.

The Coast Guard dispatched a 25-foot rescue boat from the station in Provincetown within 9 minutes and arrived at the coordinates by 6:15 p.m.–too late to save Sea Princess, which sank rapidly in about 200 feet of water. All that remained of the vessel was a field of debris. But they did find Picken and his crew mate dressed in survival suits, adrift in their life raft and waiting for help.

The story of the Sea Princess is not unique–the Coast Guard took more than 28,000 distress calls last year–but it offers a window on the emergency process as it moves from Mayday call to rescue. How that process works, and how you can assist it, is something every mariner should know.

Coast GuardA family of six, including a 9 month old, was rescued from the 65-foot vessel Imagination near Miami Beach in May. The Coast Guard Cutter Dolphin responded to the Mayday and rescued the family six minutes before the boat sank in 1,800 feet of water. The Coast Guard's response to distress calls, which range from life-threatening emergencies to mundane requests for fuel and towing, is dictated by thousands of pages of rules, a constantly-shifting pool of resources and the discretion of the officers in charge.

It also depends on how boaters react to the emergency situations. By following proper Coast Guard procedures and keeping his boat well equipped, Picken was able to assist his own rescue. If the raft hadn't been ready, if the survival suits weren't accessible, if the radio wasn't working or if the men had been unable to give their location accurately, the outcome may have been much different.

Picken could not be reached for comment, but Coast Guard officials called his response a textbook example of how to react.

"If you're looking for a classic example of what to do in an at-sea emergency, this is it," said Luke Pinneo, a Coast Guard spokesman in Boston. "These guys knew what they were doing and, without hesitation, they enacted their emergency plan and it saved their lives."

IT STARTS WITH A CALL

Most distress calls come in on VHF Channel 16, which has been in operation for decades. More recently, stations equipped with a technology called Rescue 21 have been able to receive mayday signals via Digital Selective Calling, or DSC, which uses the vessel's GPS to transmit its coordinates along with the call.

Calls are taken by "watch standers" in Coast Guard stations around the country, whose job it is to monitor Channel 16. If the vessel is using DSC, they are notified with an audible alarm and a red flashing computer pop-up. If the call is made without DSC, coordinates must be transmitted by the people on the vessel. The watch stander then alerts a Search and Rescue Controller and attempts to hail the vessel on Channel 16.

Glen JusticeCoast Guard rescue decisions are made quickly, tens of thousands of times each year. But they do not always conform to the captain's wishes. In early April, the Coast Guard declined to tow a large wooden ketch off the sea wall in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain. The crew was rescued, but the boat was dashed to pieces.

Calls on a cell phone, while better than no call, short-circuit this process, which is why safety experts everywhere–including the Coast Guard–universally recommend VHF. "Your first option should be a marine radio distress call," said Angela Hirsch, a Coast Guard spokesperson based in Washington DC.

If the vessel cannot be contacted, an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (they call it a UMIB) is sent out through high-tech channels such as SafetyNet, which uses satellite broadcasting, and NAVTEX, which relays information via long-distance radio. It also goes out on Channel 16 at 15-minute intervals for at least one hour. Mariners who receive the broadcast and are nearby are required to reply via radio, even if other boats respond first.

The Coast Guard's objective is to collect as much information as possible directly from people on the boat, or from mariners nearby if the boat cannot be reached. Where is the vessel? How many people are on board? Is there a medical emergency? What is the specific problem? What has been done to control it? What does the vessel look like? What is happening with wind and waves in the area? The vital information is logged for quick retrieval.

Coast GuardRadio "Watch Standers" are the first line of defense on a Mayday call. They take critical information, such as the location of the vessel in distress.THE CONTROLLER'S JOB

This is the information the Search and Rescue Controller will use to determine how to respond. Without it, the Coast Guard is flying blind and it is difficult to respond properly.

"The three key components are the caller giving us a location, the name of the vessel and the nature of the distress," said Geoffrey Pagels, a veteran search and rescue controller. "A lot of times, on a Mayday call, we don't get that. If we don't get that, then we have to fall back. We're able to call up on our computer a map that has our antennas and their ranges."

As a Controller for 15 years in the Atlantic Area Command Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, Pagels has determined the Coast Guard's response to hundreds of emergencies. He said that a poorly formed distress call can be just as disastrous as none at all. Pagels once received four clear calls from the same vessel, but couldn't do anything because the messages consisted only of the word "Mayday" and no other information.

Receiving the vessel's location would have given rescuers something to work with. Without it, the Coast Guard must coordinate a search. They can estimate the location of a vessel via range-finding antennas, but that means they are scrambling to define a space to search rather than sending help directly.

Coast GuardCoast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Brook Bossen pulls "injured" Petty Officer 1st Class James Baxter back to the Coast Guard Cutter Petrel as part of a shipboard man overboard drill.

FIVE MINUTE DECISION

The Mission Coordinator's goal is to process the information transmitted on the distress call, determine a response and launch that response within five minutes of the call, according to the Coast Guard's Addendum to the United States National SAR Supplement, which is the agency's 582-page internal guide to policies and procedures for search and rescue.

Many of the core decisions about how the Coast Guard responds–by boat, helicopter or with a larger presence–rests in the hands of the Mission Coordinator.

In each of these cases, the Coast Guard attempts to have a "suitable SAR resource" available to respond within 30 minutes, according to documents, though this is not a hard deadline and can be extended by a number of factors.

"When the call comes in, the goal is to respond within 30 minutes," said Tim Carton, a Coast Guard search and rescue specialist in Boston. "Our response can include fixed-wing aircraft, cutters, small boats from all our stations. All our boat stations have a requirement to have a ready boat that can be on the way in less than half an hour."

Still, controllers are often required to juggle multiple operations at the same time. Last May, Pagels had to coordinate four separate rescues, and address a false alarm at the same time. Managing resources is a key part of the job, so much so that the Coast Guard's plan allows controllers to launch first and do paperwork later "if the situation dictates."

RESCUE ACTION

When a decision is made, the radio watch stander alerts the boaters via VHF of the impending action–or lack thereof. Emergency calls are categorized as distress calls, non-distress calls or those that are in doubt, and the response to each is different.

When the Coast Guard determines a boat is in distress, resources are sent immediately if possible, even if commercial towing boats or other vessels are assisting. The standard response is an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast, a boat and sometimes an aircraft, Pagels said.

Coast GuardRescue operations sometimes involve swimmers dropped from aircraft, who approach the vessel from the water.

"Those are the three basic components of how to respond to search and rescue and they kind of all happen at once," Pagels said.

When the degree of danger to people or property is in doubt, the agency generally responds as it would to a distress call. Non-distress calls, however, do not necessarily merit an immediate mobilization. In fact, they may not garner a response at all.

Instead, the agency may help boaters contact some other organization or private company for help. The Coast Guard can also put out a Marine Assistance Request Broadcast–a MARB, in Guard parlance–in an attempt to garner assistance from other vessels.

Glen JusticeBelow, pieces of wood and rigging were all that was left of a ketch after 18-knot winds and waves up to 6 feet pounded the boat into a sea wall on Lake Pontchartrain (above). Glen Justice

NO ACTION

Even if the Coast Guard does mobilize, they may not always comply with requests made by the distressed vessel. One case on Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana illustrates the point well.

On April 6, a 45-foot wooden ketch sailed too close to the sea wall that bounds the lake and could not tack out. The boat ran aground, with waves as high as six feet and 18-knot winds carrying it toward the wall. The boat's owner could not be reached for comment, but witnesses and others involved in the case described a frantic scene.

"When I got out there, the vessel was already on the seawall and the Coast Guard had not showed up yet," said Philip Hubbell, a 56-year-old New Orleans resident who witnessed the rescue. "The waves were extremely steep and large and the boat was pounding on the serrated concrete."

A Coast Guard boat responded soon thereafter, but would not tow the boat off the wall. Agency officials say responses involving the sea wall are a judgment call. Lieutenant Tom Sanborn, a Coast Guard spokesman, said they generally do not tow if the vessel is hard aground or on top of the wall.

"That's not our job," he said, adding that the Guard does not do salvage, but would pull a vessel away from the seawall if doing so would not endanger men or equipment.

Lieutenant Commander Cheri Ben-Iesau, who works for the Coast Guard in New Orleans, gave a similar explanation. "We do not tow," she said. "You can call a commercial salver but the Coast Guard does not tow unless you're going to die if we don't."

Ben-Iesau said that the crew of the ketch did not want to leave their boat, and instead asked to be pulled out. But their boat was stuck on the bottom and they were eventually persuaded to abandon ship.

"They assessed the situation, got the people out of the water and out of the boat," Hubbell said. "About that time, I got over there with some large inflatable fenders, which didn't do any good."

The crew survived intact, as did a cat, which Hubbell said was rescued at the last minute. But the boat was dashed to pieces on the seawall.

Coast GuardCoast Guard response options include both water and air.HOW THEY RESPOND

Roughly 95 percent of all search and rescue cases take place within 20 nautical miles of shore, according to statistics supplied by the National Search and Rescue School, a training facility run by the Coast Guard. Only about 10 percent of the agency's calls result in any type of search.

The responses vary widely. Some involve a simple marine rescue: a boat is dispatched to lend assistance. In the case of the Sea Princess off Massachusetts, for example, rescuers found Picken and his crew mate, Robert F. Wilson, in their raft and brought them safely to shore in less than two hours. Others are more involved. In a case in Hawaii earlier this year, for example, two helicopters and a 110-foot patrol boat were sent to rescue a man after his 12-foot boat began to sink four miles from the coast of Molokai.

Of course, a collision, night rescue or situation involving high winds or rough seas can call for more complicated maneuvers.

Earlier this year, for example, a 47-foot motorized lifeboat was dispatched by the Coast Guard off the coast of New Jersey to help the three-man crew of a 34-foot sailboat that was adrift, its sails torn and its fuel exhausted, according to Coast Guard documents. But the rescue boat–designed specifically to handle rough water–was unable to reach them in 8- to 10-foot seas. Instead, the agency sent a helicopter to lower a rescue swimmer.

Coast GuardLong-range search aircraft include C-130Js."When you pull alongside a boat with one of our boats, there's a potential for damage," said Nyx Cangemi, a Coast Guard spokesman in Atlantic City. "It was the best decision to have the people go into water and hoist them out one by one."

The swimmer boarded the vessel and helped two of the men into the water, where they were then hoisted into the helicopter. The third man and the swimmer were picked up by the rescue boat.

THE COMPLEXITIES OF SEARCH

When search is involved, the decisions become much more complicated, according to Lt. Commander Kendall Garran, who worked as a rescuer in Alaska earlier in her career.

For starters, search involves many more variables, such as where to look based on the last radio transmission, the situation surrounding the distress call, the prevailing weather and other factors.

The target can be very small–a solo sailor in the water or a raft–and so it requires a larger deployment of men and machines.

"The more eyes in the area, the more chances we have to find a person or object," Garran said.

How long a search lasts depends on many factors. "We look at survivability in regards to the temperature of the air, water and a person's will to survive in those kinds of conditions," she said.

One example is the case of Jim Gray, the Microsoft engineer, whose sailboat Tenacious disappeared en route to the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco Jan. 29. The Coast Guard searched for four days, covering almost 132,000 square miles–an area larger than New Mexico. But neither Gray nor his boat ever turned up.

Searches like these are far more expensive than a standard rescue. Search operations cost $50 million annually, according to Coast Guard records. Though the agency rarely releases cost estimates on individual search efforts (and did not do so on the search for Gray), it did so for one Florida case in which a boater issued a fake Mayday call resulting in a two-day search that got the man prosecuted and convicted.

The cost of the operation was $325,000.

Theodore J. Sawchuck is a Staff Writer for Mad Mariner.