Security on ships-some gaps?

[sherri3802]

I was just reading a report on the home page of cruise critic.

It was about how a passenger wandered into a restricted area and released an anchor on a ship-one of the Holland America line..

The report goes on to say that releasing an anchor when the ship is moving has the potential to do a lot of damage and even cause the ship to sink.

"a man who claims he was drunk when the incident occurred -- put on work gloves and entered the area and released the ship's rear anchor. It is also said that Ehlert threw a life buoy overboard.

 

Cruise Critic member woodofpine, who was on the Ryndam at the time of the Saturday incident, corroborates the account on our boards: "At about 7:15 a.m., the Captain announced that the aft anchor had been 'engaged' (meaning exactly what?) by someone at about 5:25 AM and that a ring/buoy was tossed from an upper deck at about 5:55 a.m. I wondered when the bridge became aware of the anchor 'engagement' as the ring toss was nearly half hour later. "

 

Is it just me, or does this amaze anyone else? If I were a passenger on that ship, I would be furious.

The man just wandered into a restricted area? Why are these areas not locked off from the public?

Surely it would be worthwhile making it an area where only authorised staff with a key can enter?

I've only been on a couple of cruises over here and have to say, from what I could see, the security looked fine as far as staff keeping an eye on public areas.

But I would like to think some of the restricted areas were locked off from passengers and other staff.

 

 

 

[NSWP]

I doubt at 5am-6am in the morning any security officers would be on shift. But one would of thought there would be cctv monitoring access to restricted areas if it were not possible to otherwise deny access by unauthorised persons.

 

Just my two cents worth.

[The_Big_M]

Pretty sure I read elsewhere that he had experience with dropping anchors and worked on a similar ship. Thus, he may not have taken a direct, short route to get there.

 

Also, I don't believe he just "wandered" there. Not too many people wander around with thick work gloves at that time of the day and it's not normal for them to be lying around.

[thied]

I was just reading a report on the home page of cruise critic.

It was about how a passenger wandered into a restricted area and released an anchor on a ship-one of the Holland America line..

The report goes on to say that releasing an anchor when the ship is moving has the potential to do a lot of damage and even cause the ship to sink.

"a man who claims he was drunk when the incident occurred -- put on work gloves and entered the area and released the ship's rear anchor. It is also said that Ehlert threw a life buoy overboard.

 

Cruise Critic member woodofpine, who was on the Ryndam at the time of the Saturday incident, corroborates the account on our boards: "At about 7:15 a.m., the Captain announced that the aft anchor had been 'engaged' (meaning exactly what?) by someone at about 5:25 AM and that a ring/buoy was tossed from an upper deck at about 5:55 a.m. I wondered when the bridge became aware of the anchor 'engagement' as the ring toss was nearly half hour later. "

 

Is it just me, or does this amaze anyone else? If I were a passenger on that ship, I would be furious.

The man just wandered into a restricted area? Why are these areas not locked off from the public?

Surely it would be worthwhile making it an area where only authorised staff with a key can enter?

I've only been on a couple of cruises over here and have to say, from what I could see, the security looked fine as far as staff keeping an eye on public areas.

But I would like to think some of the restricted areas were locked off from passengers and other staff.

 

 

 

I have read your post and em tring to under stand what it was all about ( not have a dig at you at all )

 

But this statement (the Captain announced that the aft anchor had been 'engaged' (meaning exactly what?)

A. That would mean that the aft/rear anchor was out I wouldnt mind reading the hol thread if you have a link to it.

as for entering into restricted area's on the ship there are place you can just walk into but for how long you get to stay there would be a different story. as for walking into the restricted places like the anchor well/area in the bow or aft of the ship would be highly un likely as on most ships theses places are normaly locked.

[sherri3802]

Thied, all the bit in red was a cut and paste from the article, not what I actually wrote.

I agree with Big M, the man didn't just wander there by accident. I personally suspect he was bent on sabotage or mischief at the very least, given he came prepared with gloves and he made his move at an early hour of the morning.

The report said (if I recall) that the man knew about anchors as he had a large yacht or had worked on a large yacht with a similar anchor.

 

He was obviously in the area a while. he dropped the anchor at 5.25am and threw the buoy at 5.55am. They may both have occurred in different parts of the ship but what it probably means is at 5.55am, no one had noticed anything amiss, there had been no alert at that stage.

 

I understand there may not be security officers roaming the ship at that time of morning, but I still think that key areas of the ship should be restricted under lock and key or if that is already the case, then maybe their security or routines need to be beefed up, because a door had to have been open somewhere.

[sherri3802]

Here's the report, Thied.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4251

 

It sounds to me as if their security was well and truly breached and if they had to do a head count of passengers, then maybe they thought he had gone overboard or left some way.

 

The man is claiming to be merely drunk. Odd that a man in a drunken stupor was able to waltz into a restricted area, drop an anchor, and not a soul the wiser.

If a restricted area is often closed down for a while, with no staff present, I would have thought they could have motion monitors activated.