Rescue in the Caribbean: the Viking Princess

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Originally Posted by dave moore

God help if one of today's cruise ships with up to 5000 souls aboard experience a real emergency ,how do you evacuate 5000 souls among no matter what panic etc.Crikey most sincerely hope it navel comes to bear .Dave

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You have expressed a line of thought ,I have long held myself and actually debated on another forum [in truth argued] with a ships engineer who `pooh pood` [ courteously] my thoughts as nonsense. The ships I sailed in were like rowing boats in comparison to these present day monstrosities and I can honestly say that in the most violent of seas I was never scared. In great awe of the weather yes, but never actually scared. Yet having said that, I would not set foot aboard one of these modern
monstrosities simply because of the nightmarish possibilities which could occur in the event of unexpected disaster. Mass panic very few actual seamen aboard, and mixed crews half of which can`t understand what the other half are saying. `No thanks` not for me anyway ! These ships [so called] certainly do scare me. I see them as examples of profit before common sense, or have I really got it all wrong ? I`m sure someone will tell me what a `doddle` it really all is, and that there`s absolutely no basis for such an opinion. How many survivors I wonder, if the Costa Concordia event had occurred mid ocean ?

My exact thoughts also. Add also that a large amount of those same passengers are elderly and. In a lot of cases partially disabled. It doesn’t bear thinking about. JS

JWS
The foremost navel architects and shipbuilders of today, along with those who man these bemouths, will tell you they are designed and built to withstand all that man and nature can throw at them.
YEAH!!!
Over a hundred years ago the forebears of those self naval architects, shipbuilders and ship's staff were saying exactly the same about a huge passenger liner being built in a Belfast shipyard and we all know what happened to that vessel.
More recently they were probably saying the same about the Costa Concordia yet again disaster struck her.
My point is, whatever the architect's, builders and staff onboard say, none can say that any vessel of any size that puts to sea can be truly said to 100% safe and then putting up to 5000 passengers of various ages and physical abilities onto these vessels, the vast majority of whom have no knowledge of or having even seen the sea, is to me a recipe for a disaster in the waiting.
Rgds
J,A.

Some of those passengers especially the Americans are so OBESE they have to have motor wheelchairs, because their legs cannot support their weight. they are unbelievable, and all they do is eat eat eat and drink. They cannot get into the life boat in a calm lagoon even with help just to go ashore.so most stay on board at an anchor port.
So in a heavy sea and there is a big list the only thing to do is put all the obese ones on the high side to level it up while we good ones get into the life boats:p

I did read some where that one ship had a tube for passengers to get into and slide down to the boats embarkation deck. So I can again imagine the big fat ones getting stuck with a dozen or so others stuck on top of them.

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Originally Posted by dave moore

John,what about the passengers they are the ones who concern me.Back in the 50s when lifeboat drill was practised on a RMS very few of them turned up ,I don't know if it compulsory now for them to attend,maybe you could enlighten me. Dave

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As Brian tells it all passengers must under international law attend muster stations for a briefing before the ship sails.
Plenty to info regarding where your life boat station is.
On one Royal Carribean ship two passengers were put off before we sailed, they had failed to attend and had no reasonable excuse for it.

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Originally Posted by John Arton

JWS
The foremost navel architects and shipbuilders of today, along with those who man these bemouths, will tell you they are designed and built to withstand all that man and nature can throw at them.

Rgds
J,A.

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How many times have I said just what you have, regrading designers. How many times have you asked yourself who designed this? when you cant get a piece of kit out from where it was built into. Obvious the people who designed it gave no thought to how it could be accessed for repair as they didnt have to operate or maintain it.

I'm of the same opinion: It is a disaster waiting to happen. And it will.
Read the recently published account, on this site, of the Estonia sinking...and the reactions of some of the passengers sent chills down my spine when I thought about the numbers onboard these modern floating "hotels".
Also the actions of some of the crew mentioned in this particular disaster.....Sadly, we don't live in the age of chivalry, or respect for one's fellow human beings.....
Many of these modern cruise ships have shallow drafts in order for them to visit exotic places.... What price that when fighting a blaze with hoses? The stability figures surely go out of the window.
I've had this discussion with various people who blithely stated "Oh...they know what they are doing"....yeah right. That's OK then.

Steve I can only agree with you. I watched the passengers on the Costa Concordia trying to get off the ship and their panic and their self preservation behaviour. It was so fortunate that she did not sink completely otherwise I would have thought had she done, that the death toll would have been catastrophic. The sad thing is that because of the very small deaths, I believe that no lessons were learnt and in fact the evacuation was seen as a success rather than a rather chaotic but very lucky escape for hundreds of people. Titanic was hailed as unsinkable and mans invincibility of the sea, how wrong was that, she proved that complacency and a certain arrogance for the sea favours nobody. I really really hope that it never happens but I know that it probably will happen when one of these huge cruise ships goes down in deep water and I dread the consequences. Wafer thin hulls and light superstructure will never give the time for everyone to escape as older steel ships have, they wont linger as shown by Costa Concordia, they will go down very rapidly and leave little time to abandon ship resulting in very high casualty figures. I just hope that I am proved wrong but I have an awful feeling that everything in the cruise industry is going bigger and better without the sense of what could happen and because of that, something will happen which will be catastrophic and tragic.

With any means of mass persons transport there is the risk something may go wrong, aircraft have crashed before.
Cars end up in ditches will all on board dead, buses crash with terrible results.

But yes if a ship were to go down the death toll would be horrific.

But somehow I doubt it will come to that.
The runs of these ships are set for climatic conditions, they will never send cruise ships into regions where there is always bad weather.

I have been on some where a port of call has been abandoned as the sea around was too rough.
Yet to my mind I would not considerate so, but the shipping companies take a different view on that.

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Originally Posted by happy daze john in oz

With any means of mass persons transport there is the risk something may go wrong, aircraft have crashed before.
Cars end up in ditches will all on board dead, buses crash with terrible results.............................

I have been on some where a port of call has been abandoned as the sea around was too rough.
Yet to my mind I would not considerate so, but the shipping companies take a different view on that.

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What about that one up in Norway? Lost engines due to low lube oil level alarm tripping the engines. They may not have taken into consideration that the vessel would operate in northern seas early in the year when bad weather is not unusual in that neck of the woods. That must be one of the closest shaves ever.
On the other hand, could it have been someones idea to run engines on minimal oil levels? I would not think that any engineer would countenance that.