In a maritime emergency, when you're standing on the deck of your sinking boat, it could be assumed that the search and rescue authorities will swing quickly into action to come to your aid. You may also understand that issues such as bad weather, your distance from the rescue bases, and availability of rescue craft could impact on the response time to come and fish you out of the water.
But I reckon you'd be pretty pissed off if the rescue effort was hampered by a Coast Guard staff member not having the correct access codes to operate computerized equipment.
That seems to be the case in the loss of a fishing vessel and death of two crew members off Gloucester, Boston.
Coast Guard personnel made "several" unsuccessful attempts to use a computerized vessel monitoring system to pinpoint the last radio-beamed location of the 54-foot boat, but failed at first because they did not have proper access codes.
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