If you looked out at Lake Ontario Saturday morning and saw rescue boats carrying dozens of injured passengers back from the Toronto Islands, don’t be alarmed. There was no massive shipwreck.

It wasn’t an April Fool’s prank either.

The “rescue” mission was the annual training simulation of HMCS York, a Toronto-based reserve unit of the Royal Canadian Navy.

It was a chance for the crew of about 140 members to test how they’d react in a real emergency.

The scenario: a cruise ship had capsized off the Toronto shore. Passengers had managed to swim to the nearby island beach, some with severe injuries.

“In an emergency, it’s all hands on deck,” said Commander Robert Johnston, captain of HMCS York. “That’s the way the navy works. You can be asked to anything or ordered to do whatever it takes to prosecute a mission.”

The exercise also involved about 40 members of the Toronto Police Marine Unit, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Toronto Fire Services, St-John Ambulance and other city emergency staff.

Small rescue mission vessels, each up to seven metres in length and fitting about eight people or less, rush out to the island. On the beach, crews find dozens of people lying in need of urgent medical assistance.

The “civilian casualties” are actually volunteers, acting out various scenarios they’ve been assigned — complete with wounds painted on their bodies with makeup – that are previously unknown to the responders.

One man has a large gash on his neck. Another victim has a stick lodged in a lung. Some are suffering from hypothermia or head injuries, while one man, pretending to be a woman, is feeling especially unwell because he’s pregnant.

Back at headquarters, a command centre is coordinating every step of the operation with those on the water and the beach.

“There’s a huge amount of background planning that goes into something like this,” said Johnston. “There’s a whole command and control layer which is very important because you can’t just go off in your boats and we’ll see you when you get back.”

Responders’ first job is identifying those most immediately in need of medical assistance. Injuries are colour-coded with the use of red, yellow and green duct tape around patients’ arms.

Red indicates the patient has less than an hour to live. Green means the injury is minor, which can likely wait. Yellow means the victim’s life could be in danger, but they should live for at least an hour.

“When we first get here, we analyze the situation,” said Aaron Vijayan, a 23-year-old maritime surface and sub-surface officer with HMCS York. “Everyone here has a different role and responsibility.”

“When we come here, we look at who can we help first and who would be the most important to take back,” he said. “We’re landing on the beach, tagging our high-priority casualties and then taking them as we go and helping them once we get to get to HMCS York on the other side. We do first aid on them and then St-John Ambulance will take them to hospital as needed.”

On this day, the exercise is going in “slow time.” The emphasis is on doing it properly, not fast.

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While the unit is practicing all morning and into the afternoon, responding to a real-life emergency of the same magnitude would likely need to be done in about half an hour, according to Johnston.

“We’re walking through the process. It wouldn’t take this long in a real life scenario but you have to start by taking it a step at a time,” he said. “That’s what builds people’s knowledge and skill and confidence so that they’re ready to go like that.”

Along the way, unexpected issues are thrown at the team: broken boats, a call about more casualties elsewhere and even an injured person who can’t stop screaming for help because his iPhone broke in the water during the swim to shore.

“Every time you do one of these exercises, you plan, you plan and you plan but there’s always stuff that gets you that you don’t know about,” said Vijayan.

In past training exercises, the unit has had to respond to similar Toronto-specific scenarios, such as a plane headed to Billy Bishop Airport going down in the water.

“We train with the surroundings we’re in,” said Vijayan. “So being here in Toronto, the likeliness of a cruise ship going down is possible. You like to be ready.”