I noticed an article from Melissa Bert, a USCG captain, that asks some interesting questions about Costa Concordia, current safety regs and training procedures.
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It is not just a question of whether there are enough lifeboats or rafts on cruiseships, but whether passengers will have time to gain access to them
AS WE approach the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic this coming April, passengership safety remains an important issue.
Between 1990 and 2000, the cruise market increased by 60% and ship size grew to vessels capable of carrying well over 3,600 passengers. Naval architects have devoted attention to methods of achieving rapid and safe evacuation, particularly access to lifeboats located at various parts of the passengership’s superstructure. Chutes or slides are now available for passengers to enter lifeboats already in the water, either directly…
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Shipping industry conspicuously silent about Vinalines Queen death toll
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As everyone from the popular media to the ship’s operators queue up to condemn the master of the Costa Concordia, how many of his accusers takes a moment to consider for a moment what must have been going through the mind of that man as he felt the rocks bite into the port side of his huge ship?
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It is, of course, too early to be making pronouncements about the grounding of the Costa Concordia, while the courageous divers are still probing the underwater horrors of a huge capsized ship.
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There is a lot of luck involved in salvage. Those involved in the salvage of the containershp
Rena which went aground on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga three months ago might have comforted themselves with the prospect of better weather as the southern spring gave way to summer. Alas, as the tourists have complained, it has been a lousy summer in New Zealand, and the broken halves of the containership with wreckage and cargo swirling up the tide bear witness to this salvage rapidly giving way to a “wreck removal” contract.
But as containerships go, this is a tiddler compared to the giants now entering service on the main line routes. How do salvors, and everyone else from the emergency…
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Before we get too exercised by the commemoration of the Titanic centenary, it might be quite apposite to recall that next month it will be 25 years since the purpose-built 1150teu containership Hanjin Incheon was lost in the North Pacific with all on board.
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On Christmas day, the bulk carrier Vinalines Queen, carrying a cargo of nickel ore from Morowali, Indonesia, to China, went missing. The ship and its crew of 22 must now be considered lost.
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There is a certain category of shipper, I’m told, who is so dim (or so dishonest) that when a container is delivered to him for loading, will stuff the thing with cargo until the doors will barely shut.
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Last week, a small ship sank in a gale off the Welsh coast. Of the SWANLAND'S crew of eight, only two were saved, despite a distinguished rescue effort in terrible conditions by eleven Coast Guard teams, the RNLI and Royal Air Force.
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