Oh dear! Who left that bloody crane there

[John Arton]

A Costa cruise liner lost one of its lifeboats when it got trapped between the ship and a shore crane in Savona.
Rgds
J.A.
https://gcaptain.com/costa-smeralda-...eid=3b737aa316

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
Would a Captain's wages today cover the cost of a new lifeboat?
Des

[j.sabourn]

Depends what type of boat Des. The semi rigid FRC with inflatable self righting air bag was about 40,000 pounds when I worked in the North Sea in the 1980s, my salary on supply vessels NOT STANDBY vessels was about 18000 per annum. So would say no. The big fibre glass boats launched from shore by the RNLI would run in to the many 100s of thousands, so offhand I would say definetley no also. As have often said on the stand by boats the frc was probably as worth as much as the ship.JS...

[j.sabourn]

The best boat that the company I was with at the piper was probably the best they had and were very concerned about its state in the aftermath. It was a jet boat diesel driven , which meant it didn’t have exposed propellors to get entangled in the debris . The various theory’s about the Sandhavens boat being the target of a fire ball , I have my own theory on that , as there. Was talk about why she was stopped dead in the water and sheltering somewhere round my stern. Someone said much later she had 2 foul propellors, also she was petrol driven. I know it is hard to contemplate but anything giving of the likes of petrol fumes seemed to attract these many fireballs . We had an old half deflated rubber work boat lying on the poop deck just abaft the bridge , and old Wally had just been up to see if I was still ok on the bridge by myself , Apart from not having any choice in the matter , he was also complaining about a certain character who had too much to say for himself and was hounding him to launch this rubber boat whose life span would have been seconds in that heat. To settle this blokes pestering he threw all the jerry cans petrol over the side. When the fireball was coming directly to the centre wheelhouse window , I honestly think it would have maintained that course if those petrol cans had still been there . Such is the difference between life and death in such situations. I don’t know what type of boats helmets suits and radios they use today , it if they learned nothing from others experiences they must be very thick. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

Plus to previous I was on the Sandhaven some time later as that was the company I had arranged to join before being hi jacked for the Silver Pit. They were good ships with a good attitude in the office in Glasgow Alas they weren’t aware of the cutthroat business of the stand by boat industry and sold out to North Star. I was offered a job there with the ship but the old mentality was there , sleeping bags and all the conditions to go with it. However the launching facilities on all their ships was first class and to me were ideal jobs for that type of work, others may not agree , but that’s the way it goes. The mate who was on the Sandhaven at the time of the disaster was still there when I was , so knew the full story from his end. JS