IMO honour exceptional bravery

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Winners of the 2007 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea: Second Officer Mustafa Topiwala (right) and Captain Zvonimir Ostric.

The inaugural International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea has been presented to two seafarers who risked their lives to save others in a dramatic rescue operation in gale-force winds.

Second Officer Mustafa Topiwala of the 83,155 tonne oil and bulk ore carrier Searose G and Captain Zvonimir Ostric were selected to receive the inaugural award, in recognition of their part in the rescue of survivors from the sunken vessel Teklivka, in the eastern Mediterranean, in March last year.

IMO secretary-general Mitropoulos said the award was "a tribute to extraordinary courage, to adversity faced and adversity overcome, to determination in the face of grave danger, and to lives risked and lives saved."

The Searose G was on passage through the Mediterranean, bound for the Suez Canal, when it responded to a distress call from the Maltese-flagged Teklivka, which was sinking 50 miles south in gale force winds. By the time the Searose G reached the scene, the Teklivka had sunk. Nevertheless, a dramatic rescue operation was launched and the Searose G managed to rescue nine crew members with a further three survivors picked up by another vessel.

Tragically, three crew members of the Teklivka were lost.

The assessment panels considered that Second Officer Topiwala and Captain Ostric had placed their own lives in jeopardy, even though they were not trained professional rescuers, by undertaking acts that went well beyond the scope of their normal duties.

In a remarkable display of bravery they left the comparative safety of their ship, descending to a liferaft filled with oil and water. Second Officer Topiwala then jumped into the sea, in extremely hazardous weather conditions and reduced visibility, during the rescue, assisted by Captain Ostric.

The crew on the deck were at risk of being swept overboard or injured by seas breaking over the decks, while Second Officer Topiwala and Captain Ostric were also at great risk, as they could have been swept away by the particularly rough waters.

After eight oil-covered survivors had been picked up from a liferaft, the ninth was too weak to climb on the ladder and fell out of the liferaft into the sea. He was sighted floating face down, having previously removed his lifejacket. Second Officer Topiwala descended a ladder wearing a safety harness to assist the survivor in the water, assisted by Captain Ostric. The survivor was drifting unconscious by this time but was finally secured and brought on board the Searose G.

The IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea was established by the organization to provide international recognition for those who, at the risk of losing their own life, displaying outstanding courage in attempting to save life at sea or in attempting to prevent or mitigate damage to the marine environment - and, by so doing, help to raise the profile of shipping and enhance its image.

"The obligation to assist those in distress at sea is now enshrined in international law, in particular within a variety of instruments such as the Safety of Life at Sea Convention, the Salvage Convention, the International Convention on Search and Rescue and the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea," explained Mitropoulous.

"However, I doubt whether any of that was in the minds of these gallant men and women when they performed the acts of bravery for which we are paying tribute this evening. They were, I am sure, motivated solely by the purest of humanitarian motives and, in so doing, were continuing a practice that has its roots in traditions lost in the annals of maritime history," he added.

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