---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 C.F.R. § 131.340"
title: "46"
number: "131.340"
heading: "Recommended placard for emergency instructions."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/46/131.340"
---

# §131.340. Recommended placard for emergency instructions.


The following are the recommended format and content of the placard for emergency instructions:

- (a) **Rough weather at sea, crossing of hazardous bars, or flooding.**
  - (1) Close each watertight and weathertight door, hatch, and air-port to prevent taking water aboard or further flooding in the vessel.
  - (2) **Keep bilges dry to prevent loss of stability from water in bilges.** Use power-driven bilge pump, hand pump, and buckets to dewater.
  - (3) **Align fire pumps to serve as bilge pumps if possible.**
  - (4) **Check, for leakage, each intake and discharge line that penetrates the hull.**
  - (5) **Offshore workers remain seated and evenly distributed.**
  - (6) Offshore workers don immersion suits (if required aboard) or lifejackets if the going becomes very rough, if the vessel is about to cross a hazardous bar, if flooding begins, or when ordered to by the master.
  - (7) **Never abandon the vessel unless actually forced to, or ordered to by the master.**
  - (8) **Prepare survival craft—** life floats, (inflatable) rafts, (inflatable) buoyant apparatus, and boats—for launching.
- (b) **“Man overboard”.**
  - (1) **Throw a ring buoy into the water as close to the person overboard as possible.**
  - (2) **Post a lookout to keep the person overboard in sight.**
  - (3) Launch the rescue boat and maneuver it to pick up the person overboard, or maneuver the vessel to pick up the person.
  - (4) Have a crew member put on an immersion suit or lifejacket, have a safety line made fast to the crew member, and have the crew member stand by to jump into the water to assist the person overboard if necessary.
  - (5) If the person overboard is not immediately located—
    - (i) Notify other vessels in the vicinity, and the Coast Guard; and
    - (ii) **Continue searching until released by the Coast Guard.**
- (c) **Fire.**
  - (1) **Cut off air to the fire—** close hatches, ports, doors, manual ventilators, and the like and shut off the ventilation system.
  - (2) **De-energize electrical systems supplying the affected compartment.**
  - (3) **Immediately use a portable fire extinguisher aimed at the base of the flames.** Never use water on electrical fires.
  - (4) If the fire is in machinery spaces, shut off the fuel supply and ventilation system and activate any fixed extinguishing-system.
  - (5) **Maneuver the vessel to minimize the effect of wind on the fire.**
  - (6) If unable to control the fire, notify other vessels in the vicinity, and the Coast Guard.
  - (7) Move offshore workers away from fire; have them don lifejackets and, if necessary, prepare to abandon the vessel.

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1321(j); 46 U.S.C. 3306, 6101, 10104; E.O. 12234, 3 CFR, 1980 Comp., p. 277; E.O. 12777, 3 CFR, 1991 Comp., p. 351; DHS Delegation No. 00170.1, Revision No. 01.4. Section 131.990 also issued under sec. 617, Pub. L. 111-281, 124 Stat. 2905.

### Source

Source: CGD 82-004 and CGD 86-074, 62 FR 49340, Sept. 19, 1997, unless otherwise noted.