“Man overboard” is one of the most emotionally charged phrases in the English language.

However, for the seven-man team of Harbour Radio dealing with crisis is an almost daily occurrence with 316 life-threatening emergencies reported in 2000.

This was the situation when US parajumper Doug Eccleston ended up in the water two miles off St. David's before Christmas with fatal consequences.

Rescue co-ordination centre controller Scott Simmons was on duty that night with senior radio officer James Findlay.

Scott says: “The pressure is great, you have someone in the water without anything to keep them afloat and the clock is ticking.”

First the exact location and time of the accident has to be nailed down, wind and tide direction have to be factored in.

Scott says: “The current plays a big part and varies tremendously around the Island with ocean currents and the Gulf Stream.

“The investigation into the death is continuing but clearly he was unable to help himself. He was difficult to see in the water with the clothing he was wearing. Everyone learns something out of it, if you don't learn something then you haven't really done the job properly.”

Watch officer Danny Little says moving currents can quickly disorientate people in the water, especially at night.

“There's nothing to say he's not swimming after boats looking for him.”

Computer programmes defined the search area, about two miles square, and, as time passes, the net was cast wider.

Scott continued: “An aircraft search is going to struggle with it, it's one thing to look for a boat but looking for a head in the water? On that night the US Airforce with their thermal imaging were unable to pick him up. All the fancy kit isn't going to do the job. He was found in the right area but he we didn't see him, he was face down in the water. But we had six boats out there. If had been able to help himself we would have found him.”

He says a careful calculation has to be worked out if the search is expected to last for a long time.

“You can't throw everything at it and exhaust everything in the first eight hours if you will need to go 16 or 24 hours. This happens more offshore when wreckage has been spotted and the search area is wide.”

He says this was done in the 1993 search for Simply Red, where a boat with three locals on board disappeared and the search went on for several days covering thousands of square miles.

“But with the parajumper we knew when he hadn't turned up within the first 30 minutes something clearly wasn't right.

“Either he had swum for it, which was plausible. But they have lights and flares. It seems something happened very early and he was incapable of looking at the signals.”

When searches are more than 30 miles out to sea the US Coastguard will take over, covering areas located by powerful computers.

Sometimes Bermuda registered boats in difficulty in oceans thousands of miles away call Harbour Radio.

Scott says: “We are the first point of contact for them in a life-threatening incident. If they are in the Pacific and unable to get help from anyone else they will call us.

“We might then hand it off to someone in a better position to assist but sometimes we're the only people who can assist and you end up co-ordinating the initial rescue operation.”

There have been plenty of memorable moments over the years says Danny, who recalled the time a threat had been made that limpet mines had been placed against the hull of the Liberty Wave in 1993. Baselands communications weren't working so Harbour Radio stepped in.

Danny says: “There were bomb disposal teams and FBI crawling all over it but it was a hoax. It was a baptism by fire for us in international operations.”

When parajumpers had to reach the Johann Schulte Harbour Radio was again at the centre of things, as injured crew members were winched off.

“We did the whole thing from here because other communications didn't work out. There's a real sense of satisfaction when you step in and handle that successfully.”

Scott says: “Some of the cases we deal with go on for days, you are literally working around the clock, it's quite stressful for an extended period of time.

Danny remembers the days of the US Navy when helicopters were based here.

“That meant sending a helicopter with three people in it to a limit of their endurance to rendezvous with a ship you were promising would be there. They had 20-30 minutes of endurance time to complete the job before they absolutely had to get back in. One day there was a fellow who had fallen 30 feet into a hatch and landed on his head, and when they landed at Prospect field and I had seen to that,” he says with pride.

Keeping ships away from the reef, which in the space of a mile veer up from being 600 feet deep to just a few feet from the surface, is a constant worry for the team at Harbour Radio.

Those who come too close put their ships and their careers on the line. “People have lost their ranks and licence,” says Scott.

This latter fate befell captain who recently passed by without knowing about the reef and with out of date charts.

Identifying unauthorised boats hoping to slip by Bermuda unnoticed is another important task.

“We routinely inquire about ships we spot on the radar and ask them what they are doing. They want to know why we are asking. They are scared stiff because there are so many safety regulations and rules they might be infringing. They get worried about their careers if they are reported in the wrong place so they will be very inventive.

“We had a vessel that was going to run aground and he gave a wrong identity, it's like a guy getting stopped for speeding and he gives the cops the wrong name.”

With around 11,000 boats registered in Bermuda, about half of which are active, there is plenty to cope with inside the reef. Scott reckons there can be around 1,000 boaters out on the water during summer weekends.

Danny says: “It can get phenomenally busy to the point where we need another pair of hands. Sometimes we have to ask people to wait while we deal with the most urgent calls.

“That can back up to two or three calls. You won't stop all day. The gaps between calls can be two or three minutes. There can be boaters needing a tow because they are out of fuel, cruise ships needing an ambulance alongside to pick up a sick passenger and then you might send the Police to recover something floating in the water.

It means keeping on top of a dynamic, evolving situation, says Danny. “There's no such thing as a routine call.”

Scott adds: “It keeps you hopping, we have all had situations where we have had no lunch and no dinner.” Movements are monitored using radar beamed from Gibb's Hill lighthouse and Ferry Reach which can pinpoint a boat's speed and direction.

And there is top class French-made machine direction finder bought more than four years ago.

Global Positioning system bouncing signals off satellites are owned by most private boats and can help the search, but they are by no means infallible.

Scott says: “Electronics don't always work well around water. It can short out, most people know to take a back up or two.”

On the day The Royal Gazette paid a visit Danny was fielding a rare hoax call.

He says: “You get a feel for when it's a hoax. There's no panic in the voice and there's an echoey sound you don't get in a boat.” The fact that the direction finding system which picked up the radio signal had pinpointed the caller on land also helps give the game away. Amid the technology it's pleasing to see that large binoculars and the good old fashioned map and compass still play a part. A worried boater calls the station to report a lone jet skier near North Rock. Danny spots him on binoculars about four miles out. They keep an eye on him so they know where he will be if a squall kicks up or he gets into trouble. Today there are other hazards for boaters. “The Bermuda Regiment is firing on the South Shore. We are warning boats to keep three miles clear,” says Danny. Lloyds also call to check if there are any shipping disasters which could affect their bottom line. A report is filed to the company's Bermuda agent every night.

Despite being landlocked the Harbour Radio team feel a strong connection with boaters.

James says: “We all have a love of the sea, a tradition in the family or a desire to travel. We can relate to people out on the water - it's one of us.”

Previously, James worked for the Ministry of Defence and was aboard support ships in Bosnia and the Gulf War.

He says: “I had an interesting time when they were dropping bombs on people.”

And Danny is no stranger to action after spending 11 years sailing with the Royal Navy and serving in the Falklands war on board the anti-submarine fast frigate Alacrity.

He says: “It was fun, because I came back.” He remembers shrapnel raining down on the deck and bombs going off between the ships as they swept for mines. We blew up a supply boat between the two islands which was carrying ammunition and jet fuel. It brightened up the horizon.”

When he is not manning the station Danny still likes to sail the world, partly to get an understanding of what the lone boater experiences. “It's easy from here to guide things but I wanted to see it from their end.”

When Danny deals with a panicked caller psychology plays a big part. “You have to try and understand what they are telling you and interpret that back to them so they can take confidence and begin to take charge.

“We had two people in sail boat within easy range of completing a 700-mile journey but they just gave up. They were just worn out and didn't know what to do and you just have to take charge of them. They asking for a tow, they were fatigued, I told them the weather we had, the amount of daylight we had left and that they could make it and they did. They came up here overwhelmed with gratitude. I still keep in touch with them. They are now in New Zealand.”

But sometimes boaters get so confused it can be difficult to help them.

“We had a boater who needed help to come in and he gave us what he thought was his position. We asked him how he expected to get his boat off the airfield and into the harbour.”