The need of GMDSS...

Since the time of the Titanic, Marine Radio has helped to save tens of thousands of lives, and become the key element in Marine Search and Rescue (SAR). Pre-GMDSS Marine Radio equipment was required to provide operation over a minimum specified range of 150 nautical miles. This was based on the (not unreasonable) assumptions that ships usually travelled well-used routes and that there were sufficient ships at sea and shore stations dispersed about the world to receive distress calls. Without radio, there can be no SAR... However, if a ship was outside of the normal shipping lanes or was rapidly overwhelmed by the forces of nature, her distress alert may go unheard.... many ships have gone to the bottom without any distress signal being sent - they have, to use the common parlance, "sunk without trace".....

The pre-GMDSS systems were, in reality, based on 1920's technology.... The International Maritime Organization (IMO) pondered the shortcomings of the existing marine distress systems in the mid to late 1970's. The 1979 IMO Assembly decided that a new global distress and safety system should be established in conjunction with a coordinated SAR infrastructure to improve safety of life at sea. The system would take advantage of the latest technological developments. And so was born the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).

The GMDSS is specifically designed to automate a ship's radio distress alerting function, and, as a consequence, removes the requirement for manual (i.e.: human) watchkeeping on distress channels. The new system is quicker and, most importantly, more efficient and reliable than the old manual Morse Code and radiotelephone alerting systems. The basic concept of the new system is that Search and Rescue (SAR) authorities ashore, as well as shipping in the immediate vicinity of the ship or persons in distress will be rapidly alerted so that they can assist in a coordinated SAR operation with the minimum of delay.

The new system moves the emphasis from ship-ship alerting to ship-shore alerting. The system also provides for urgency and safety alerting and also for the broadcast of Maritime Safety Information (MSI - weather reports and navigation warnings). One of the principal advantages of the GMDSS is that the system is actually an amalgam of various individual radio systems, both terrestrial and satellite. Distress alerts may be sent and received over short and/or long distances. The end of MV "Achille Lauro" In other words, every ship is able to perform those communication functions which are essential for the safety of the ship itself and of other ships operating in the same area - irrespective of the area through which it sails...