The story behind the VIKING liferaft
Liferafts have been at the heart of our work since 1960, when we began building them at Esbjerg’s fishing harbour to help protect fishermen working the North Sea.
Developing and testing them was a hands-on responsibility. Our first CEO could often be found at the harbour in boots and a rain jacket, following the work first-hand.
That close involvement with the product is part of our heritage. It is a story of people, practical knowledge and a commitment to making liferafts that others can depend on.
Tested the hard way
From the early days, VIKING liferafts were tested the hard way. Rafts were inflated and pressure-tested, thrown into the water, and boarded again and again to see whether they held and stayed afloat under real conditions. What began with very practical trials in the harbour of Esbjerg has since become a rigorous testing regime under the international SOLAS regulations, covering everything from drops, heavy weather and towing. Still, the same attention to detail sits behind every VIKING liferaft that leaves production.
When it mattered most
In March 1963, a VIKING liferaft faced one of the first real trials at sea. The cutter Dagmar Larsen was struck by floating debris in the North Sea and began to sink. On board was a brand new VIKING liferaft, installed just one day before departure. The crew of three took to the raft and spent three and a half days adrift before being rescued.
The search involved more than 100 cutters. When it was called off, our colleagues urged the organisers to continue, knowing that the crew had a liferaft aboard. During those discussions, news arrived that the men had been found paddling towards a fishing vessel. Their survival helped build local fishermen’s confidence in what a liferaft could do.
Liferafts in a large-scale rescue
On 7 September 1966, the ferry Skagerak left Kristiansand for Hirtshals in severe weather. Out at sea, a huge breaking wave knocked the rear door in, and water flooded the car deck and engine room. As the engines stalled, Captain Dvergsnes ordered a full evacuation. Passengers and crew took to lifeboats and VIKING liferafts, and those who could not fit into the boats jumped into the water in life jackets and climbed into the rafts. Ships and helicopters pulled them to safety, and all 147 people on board were rescued.
The captain had considered lifeboats the safest option for children and older passengers. Afterwards, he praised the liferafts’ ease of boarding, their protective covers, and their ability to help people reach rescue ships and helicopters in rough seas.
That very rescue operation demonstrated the role liferafts could play in a large-scale passenger evacuation. It forms part of the decades of experience behind the safety equipment we design, test and deliver today.
Every feature has a purpose
We began by building inflatable liferafts for fishermen in the North Sea. Our liferafts today reflect decades of practical improvements, each designed to help protect people in an emergency. The boarding ramp is one example. Getting into a raft from the water can demand considerable upper-body strength, particularly for someone who is already exhausted. One improvement is a strengthened foothold that allows people to use their leg muscles to help pull themselves aboard.
Other developments meet specific operational needs, such as liferafts built to perform in polar conditions. Every improvement is designed, built and physically tested before it reaches a vessel. For our engineers, it is work that is never truly finished.
A personal responsibility
Every liferaft on board a vessel must be opened, inspected and serviced at regular intervals, typically every 12 or 30 months depending on the raft and the flag state.
This work is carried out at more than 280 VIKING service stations around the world, by certified technicians working to the same audited quality standards. For them, servicing a liferaft is never just routine. The equipment they inspect, test and repack may one day be relied on by people facing an emergency at sea.
A simpler way to manage liferaft service
For a long time, shipowners bought their liferafts and treated them as assets. When a raft was due for service, it had to be unloaded, taken to a service station and returned to the ship afterwards.
Meanwhile, the way people use things has changed. Bikes, cars, music and film are today rented or streamed rather than owned, and the maritime industry has followed a similar path. Today, a large share of the liferafts VIKING supplies are subscription-based, and a raft due for service is simply exchanged for a certified one in a single step.