U.S. Coast Guard´s portable salvage computer program

The U.S. Coast Guard´s interest in marine salvage arises from its responsibility under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and other laws dealing with oil spills. At stranding situations which could possibly result in significant environmental damage through the release of oil or hazardous chemicals, the Coast Guard is represented by an On-Scene Coordinator (OSC), who must evaluate whether or not appropriate salvage techniques are applied to the stranded vessel by commercial salvors. To assist the OSC, who may not be trained in marine salvage, and other Coast Guard personnel assigned to such salvage operations, a portable salvage computer has been programmed to accomplish salvage calculations in a user friendly manner. In this paper the portable salvage program is described and results from its application on actual stranding data are presented.