officer who reported on the subject for Government.

"I'm absolutely convinced that (Bermuda) will have to settle for something less,'' Capt. Sir David Tibbits told The Royal Gazette . "The Island simply hasn't got the resources.

"We shall have to accept less unless the Bermuda Government is prepared to provide the service at the expense of other things.'' The US Navy is quitting Kindley Field as of September of 1995. To have an orderly withdrawal, the Navy has said it will stop providing search and rescue and other services by June of next year.

Sir David, a former vice-chairman of the Port Authority who chaired a 1981 Government committee on Bermuda's search and rescue situation, said Government would have to buy three helicopters to guarantee 24-hour service, 365 days a year.

"If you have less than three, you're probably going to have a moment when you badly need a helicopter and you haven't got one,'' he said.

Three helicopters -- the number the US Navy now has in Bermuda -- would cover a situation in which one helicopter broke down while another was undergoing maintenance, he said.

Sir David said the search and rescue expectations of Bermudians in the absence of the Navy might be unreasonably high.

"The fact of the matter is that Bermuda because of its...association with Britain on the one hand and with the American Bases on the other has become so used to association with great countries that I think they take them for granted,'' he said.

Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons has said Bermuda will likely hire a contractor to provide search and rescue in the short term.

Local firefighter and helicopter enthusiast Mr. Arthur Raynor has said Government should get its own helicopter and set up a Bermuda service.

In his report for Government, which then Home Affairs Minister the Hon. Sir John Sharpe released in February of 1982, Sir David said that if Bermuda ever opted for its own search and rescue helicopters, it might cost $30 million to establish the capability and $2 million to $3 million a year to maintain them.

"However, this is a preliminary report and no substitute for the full study by consultants which would be necessary if the provision of an independent Government-sponsored helicopter service was ever contemplated,'' he cautioned.

While a helicopter was "swift, efficient, (and) valuable'' for inshore searches, "its costs are so prohibitive that unless the helicopters are available for other purposes which can pay the `overheads,' they must be deemed a luxury because more often than not searches and rescue can be achieved by launches quickly and efficiently enough and at a fraction of the cost.

"It is therefore our view from long experience that a Bermuda-owned helicopter rescue service is not essential, even if the US Navy had to withdraw.'' As for rescues outside the reef, inshore craft could sometimes be used, the report said.

"The first essential is to determine what should be Bermuda's responsibilities to casualties to international shipping...and how far off it has any obligations -- moral and sentimental -- to provide aid or services for those who are neither bound for Bermuda nor have any interest or commitment to it.'' The report expressed concern about Marine Police and others going into open ocean to perform rescues without proper boats.

It noted Marine Police had ventured 60 miles offshore with the launch Blue Heron to tow in a yacht. Except under certain conditions, "such missions should be forbidden,'' the report said.

"Until a suitable ocean-going search and rescue craft has been provided for such missions, hearts must be hardened and help refused, as in fact, is done the world over.

"We add that they are tough decisions which some of us have had to make in the past, but they are justified particularly when the casualty has brought his misfortune upon himself.''