Can a cruise ship sink?

[Oregonians]

The Oceanos. It sank off the coast of Durban, South Africa. The "Captain" and "crew" abandoned the ship, and the Entertainment crew helped the passengers until they were rescued by helicopter.

 

There have been two excellent TV shows about this on cable over the past year. The captain is filmed saying something like "evacuation orders apply to everyone, so I and the crew left too". The TV shows do not discuss what legal action was ultimately taken against the crew etc.

 

As for rogue waves, just this past winter, there was that "university at sea" ship that got clobbered south of Alaska, and had to limp in to Honolulu.

 

Interestingly, I did not see any stories about the tsunami impacting cruise ships.

[Magnifique1908]

There have been two excellent TV shows about this on cable over the past year. The captain is filmed saying something like "evacuation orders apply to everyone, so I and the crew left too". The TV shows do not discuss what legal action was ultimately taken against the crew etc.

 

As for rogue waves, just this past winter, there was that "university at sea" ship that got clobbered south of Alaska, and had to limp in to Honolulu.

 

Interestingly, I did not see any stories about the tsunami impacting cruise ships.

 

Do you remember what the names of those TV programs where? They sound pretty interesting.

[Oregonians]

Sorry I don't remember the exact name. Maybe something like "Disaster at Sea", probably on the Travel channel or Discovery. There was great footage of the rescue and the ship ultimately going down. Apparently the captain didn't even send an SOS before leaving. Some of the entertainment staff ultimately made it to the bridge and got help.

 

I found them by searching for " ship " in ~Tivo. (putting in a space before and after the word avoids a lot of false hits)

[geoherb]

... Interestingly, I did not see any stories about the tsunami impacting cruise ships.

Here's an outdated article about tsunamis. The waves of a tsunami aren't great in the deep open water. It's only when the water reaches land and has nowhere else to go does it crest. According to this article:

At first, out at sea in deep water, the waves are very far apart--sometimes hundreds of miles--and their crests are not very high, perhaps only a few feet above the rest of the surface (although these crests are only the tips of vast masses of water in motion). Seen from a passing ship or low-flying plane, they would probably not even be noticeable. When a tsunami leaves deep water and approaches the shore, however, it slows down and its height grows. The wave crests also squeeze closer together. Depending on the shapes of the sea floor off the coast and of the coastline, a tsunami hitting the coast may appear as a series of towering walls of water that can level buildings.

[Pam713]

Last year on the Majesty, there was a table of young, beautiful 20-something girls close to our table in the main dining room. Each night they drew waitstaff like flies; the eyes of most of the older gents; and generally seemed to be having a great time over there. On the last night of the cruise, the roving musicians were playing by request.... classical stuff, happy birthday, a nice little spanish number.... and then the table of young ladies requested Celine Dion's theme from Titanic! Responses from the rest of the dining room were everything from gasps to applause and everything in between.

 

Talk about a case of the willies!

[Bequia]

Some great photo's of high seas http://www.tv-antenna.com/heavy-seas/

Can't imagine what it would like to be on a cruise ship and encounter these waves. :o

[traveller99]

Hi, Bequia. Thanks for the link - awesome photos. I had seen a few of them, but not the series.

[Gingee]

I looked at the high seas pictures and was wondering if any of those ships sank. The one looked like the Titanic ready to go under.

[dsclark]

Look at the bright side- whenever a CCL ship has had serious trouble, that is the only time, outside of formal night or repeaters party, that they open up the bars for free drinks (A CCL tradition since the first sailing of the Tropical).

Seriously, if you look carefully on some of the inside areas (like the Promendes) you'll see some giant partitions that are set in the wall. In the event of sinking, these doors extend out to seal the ship into several compartments. The Titanic had these, but too many of them were comprimised.

[dhcoaster]

Anything can sink! Will it, most likely No Way.

[cruzincurt]

Oh boy,... if we have to rely on the sliding door partitions on the Promenade and upper decks providing compartmental seals against sea water, we are in deep trouble. These are typically fire doors first?

[jaw62901]

I found this really interesting. I think overall, you have a better chance of getting hit by a car walking into a shopping center (especially in the Chicago area) than you do sinking in a cruise ship.

[Oregonians]

Do you remember what the names of those TV programs where? They sound pretty interesting.

 

I think I found it: "Cruise Ship Rescue", on the National Geograohic Channel. It was on last night, but I could not get into Cruise Critic with a dial up. I'd bet it will be on again within the next month.

[Bequia]

I think I found it: "Cruise Ship Rescue", on the National Geograohic Channel. It was on last night, but I could not get into Cruise Critic with a dial up. I'd bet it will be on again within the next month.

 

I watched it last night as well, truly fascinating. Found it deplorable that the captain and crew abandoned ship first leaving all of the passengers to fend for themselves. It was also interesting how the lifeboats could not be lowered when the ship was listing. Greek government won't release the results of its investigation, whats up with that????

Never say never.......

[captainron]

Hi Folks,

While on the original P&O Lines ORIANA going from SanFrancisco to Auckland, on the first night out into the blue Pacific Ocean the movie that played in the ship's cinema was...you guessed it, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE.

 

Needless to say that was one heck of a confidence builder two and a half hours after lifeboat drill.

 

Ciao for now!!!

[Bequia]

Can a cruise ship sink?

The sea can be very unforgiving....just ask those on the Norwegian Dawn this weekend..

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=165304

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=165466

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/300826p-257523c.html

[tigerlilycruiser12]

Thank God most all the passengers were alright but I bet many were tramuatized. It was very scary to lay the least.

 

marie

[Krazy Kruizers]

Many people on this past week's cruise on the Norwegian Dawn were wondering if they were going to sink when a 70(?) foot wave broardsided them.

[luvtravelin]

Hi. Well we just got back on 4/4 from an Western Caribbean cruise on the Horizon (Traveller99 - hope you have a great time on your Horizon cruise to Bermuda!). We were delayed leaving Tampa due to heavy fog and had to miss Cayman - also 4 hours late into Costa Rica and we were at sea for 3 days straight before we even got there. The crew on the Horizon had just finished telling us about the Zenith being hit by a wave as high as the top deck (I think they said in '96) and how it had damaged the hull, etc. when - what do you know - we hit rough weather! The ship was not rocking side to side but was rocking from front to back. I was wondering if they could deploy lifeboats under those conditions. My 11 year old son took a bonine and was lying in the bed swearing he'd never get on another ship again......yeah but he will!

 

We were on the Inspiration coming from Bermuda during Hurricane Dennis and the ship left Bermuda to return to Norfolk anyway. Water was coming down the elevator shafts (I mean gushing too), coming in the Verandah suites, dishes flying everywhere. You literally had to hold your plate or cup on the table (for those of us who werent too sick to eat/drink but were just really nervous). The pianist in the lounge was playing the Edmund Fitzgerald...not funny. I think someone had mentioned earlier about Carnival having an open bar policy during extremely bad weather. Well, I was never offered free drinks and boy I could have used one! In fact when I told my fellow cruisers about the water coming in the elevator shaft as we would go up and down in the wave swells - they thought I had already been drinking until the ship crew came rushing to the elevators to shut them down and tell everyone that they were not allowed to go outside on the decks. We now refer to this as the "Hurricane Cruise". The Captain said we were going up and around Dennis and would be delayed several hours returning home. Well guess what? We made it back to home port right on time! Wonder how we did that since home port was Norfolk VA and Dennis was coming up the East Coast towards NC? Once we started into the hurricane The Weather Channel mysteriously disappeared from our selection of TV channels.

 

In 2000 on the Jubliee coming out of Cozumel to Tampa we had a cabin port side towards the bow (we were low on the ship. I think last passenger deck). We hit bad weather and next thing we know the crew is in our cabin riveting a steel plate over our window.

 

In 2000 there was a cruise ship (only crew aboard) that sink off the coast of VA when it lost engine power http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/18/ship.rescue/

 

and also another ship sank off Malaysia after a fire in 1999 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,298973,00.html

 

Ironically enough (I think someone in an earlier post had said that a table full of young women had requested the Titanic theme one night at dinner), the passengers said of the burning ship sang the theme song to Titanic as they were awaiting rescue.

 

Now of course a "freak" 70 ft wave hits a cruise ship - reports this morning that the ship was being pounded by additional large waves reaching up to 47 ft. so it was more than 1 wave. Lost the hot tubs? Do you know how much those things weigh?? Yeah I'd be freaking. I am wondering if the 1/2 fare refund and 1/2 off the next cruise that the passengers received would be worth it?

 

 

Horizon, 3/25/2004 Cayman (missed it), Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras,

Cozumel

[HotSauceHarriet]

I wonder: Where are photos of wave? Did the weather service spot it on satellite views? Where did the wave make landfall? I think something is not what they say it is--submarine? terrorist strike? A wave is not just as long as a ship so it had to go somewhere else..where? What's up?

[dkort]

oh geez. i had to pull this one up, didn't i? this is like asking if a plane can crash or a nuclear bomb can hit. bottom line: ANYTHING can happen. my question is, who thinks of these things?

 

go take a ***** and book a cruise. yeah, mon. don't worry. be happy. :)

[traveller99]

Thanks Luvtravelin. We're all looking forward to the cruise. I'm not sure but even water in the elevator shaft is better than a day at the office.

[catmand]

Hi. Well we just got back on 4/4 from an Western Caribbean cruise on the Horizon (Traveller99 - hope you have a great time on your Horizon cruise to Bermuda!). We were delayed leaving Tampa due to heavy fog and had to miss Cayman - also 4 hours late into Costa Rica and we were at sea for 3 days straight before we even got there. The crew on the Horizon had just finished telling us about the Zenith being hit by a wave as high as the top deck (I think they said in '96) and how it had damaged the hull, etc. when - what do you know - we hit rough weather! The ship was not rocking side to side but was rocking from front to back. I was wondering if they could deploy lifeboats under those conditions. My 11 year old son took a bonine and was lying in the bed swearing he'd never get on another ship again......yeah but he will!

 

We were on the Inspiration coming from Bermuda during Hurricane Dennis and the ship left Bermuda to return to Norfolk anyway. Water was coming down the elevator shafts (I mean gushing too), coming in the Verandah suites, dishes flying everywhere. You literally had to hold your plate or cup on the table (for those of us who werent too sick to eat/drink but were just really nervous). The pianist in the lounge was playing the Edmund Fitzgerald...not funny. I think someone had mentioned earlier about Carnival having an open bar policy during extremely bad weather. Well, I was never offered free drinks and boy I could have used one! In fact when I told my fellow cruisers about the water coming in the elevator shaft as we would go up and down in the wave swells - they thought I had already been drinking until the ship crew came rushing to the elevators to shut them down and tell everyone that they were not allowed to go outside on the decks. We now refer to this as the "Hurricane Cruise". The Captain said we were going up and around Dennis and would be delayed several hours returning home. Well guess what? We made it back to home port right on time! Wonder how we did that since home port was Norfolk VA and Dennis was coming up the East Coast towards NC? Once we started into the hurricane The Weather Channel mysteriously disappeared from our selection of TV channels.

 

 

As I have seen others say to passengers, I say this to you luvtravelin: warn me of your future cruise plans so I can make sure to avoid them, you read like a typhoid Mary of cruiseships.....:D

[kes]

Here's a few more links to disasters at sea http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo/story.html

another link http://www.disaster-management.net/ship_fire.htm

one more http://www.sunvista.ukf.net/sunvista.htm

 

 

We booked a cruise on the sun vista, it sank two days later :(

 

We went on the Star Gemini instead. On the way to the pier they played the theme song to Titanic on the radio. And the feature movie on the Gemini was Titanic :eek:

[seastar2]

Rogue wave..Norwegian Dawn last week in the Atlantic........hummmmm