Happy Birthday Amver!

Today Amver turns 56 years old! From its humble beginnings as the Merchant Vessel Reporting Program. In fact the first Amver message received in 1958 was from the Dutch liner S.S. Groote Beer (right).

The original mission of Amver, as outlined in the implementation plan, was to establish and maintain a comprehensive and effective merchant ship position reporting system in the North Atlantic Maritime region (as defined in the National Search and Rescue Plan) in order to improve Search and Rescue procedures by:

• Reducing the time element in search procedures through having available a maximum number of vessel positions for immediate use.
• Improving the probability of successful rescue through prior position knowledge.
• Reducing the cost of searches through having previous knowledge of distress vessel and rescue vessel positions which enables better control of M/V and government vessel diversions.

According to the 1964 edition of the Amver brochure, "It is an established fact that several hundred merchant vessels are sailing in the offshore areas of the Atlantic Ocean at any given time". Commercial shipping traffic has increased as well as the number of Amver participants. In fact, more than 30,000 Amver messages are received each day. 

Amver is successful because of the ageless tradition of the sea, that no call for help shall go unanswered. Amver is successful because of you. Thank you for helping save countless lives over the past 56 years. We look forward to many more years of saving lives at sea.

Photo credits: Wikipedia