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Narrator: The Coast Guard has units all over the United States
but not every unit has the opportunity to impact the global economy.
Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur is one of those units
nestled in between Texas and Louisiana it keeps a continuos stream of goods flowing through the Sabine Pass
That not only helps drive the U.S. economy but helps move the global markets
My name is Lieutenant Baxter Smoak a marine inspector Port State Control examiner.
Typically we are conducting COC exams, a certificate of compliance exam.
We go aboard and we first start out by checking the vessels documentation.
Making sure that they have all of the international documents that are required for the carriage of dangerous chemicals and bulk.
We had six folks with us so we split up the exam. We'll split up the exam.
Somebody will go to the engine room and somebody will go to the bridge.
The person that normally goes to the bridge will be checking to ensure that they are in compliance with the SOLAS
The safety of life at sea requirements for the navigation equipment.
Another aspect to the engineering space is how they deal with waste oil
and ensuring they are in compliance with MARPOL(International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships)
which is an international convention to prevent pollution.
So they'll have an incinerator to burn waste oil
They will have an oily water separator to filter oil out of their bilge water to keep that from going overboard.
There is also a requirements for the emissions on their prime movers.
The main engine and any auxiliary engines they have for creating ships powers.
Just to recap you have the bridge and lifesaving and you have the machinery exam
and the cargo exam and the documents as well
and the last portion being the drills.
That day we ran a fire drill at the manifold to simulate a fire while they were loading or discharging
and then also that was followed by an abandon ship drill.
And that's to ensure that the crew can safely work
and run the equipment that we were on their to inspect and they can efficiently
respond to a casualty aboard and the abandon ship drill is to ensure that they know how to muster
and put on their life vests and lower the life boat to the water and they can do that in a timely manner.