Maritime students enjoy life in the deep end

LEARN how to escape from a capsized helicopter several metres under the sea. Battle a roaring blaze and thick smoke in the lower decks of an oil tanker. Feel the adrenaline as you and your crew struggle to stop your vessel flooding after a shell tears a hole in the side.

At the National Maritime College of Ireland, there’s a lot more to classroom activities than note-taking.

The equipment and resources available to the 300 students at NMCI, which opened in 2004 at a cost of €53 million, is eye-opening. Along with the 20 lecture theatres, 12 laboratories, six workshops, ship’s engine room and high-tech learning resource centre, there’s a €6m survival centre with its own helicopter facsimile, a €9m 360-degree simulator that can simulate the bridge of any vessel and fire-fighting and damage control units which teach students how to manage potentially lethal outbreaks of fire and flooding.