Cruise ship evacuated off Greek island

[madforcruising]

Thanks for fast replies.

 

But why were the people on this ship evacuated this way? Were there not enough lifeboats? I saw on the news that the ship had the highest level safety standards, but why do I see pictures of people climbing down a rope to get off the ship?????

 

 

Haven´t been there, so I can only guess, but from the pics and videos I saw many pax have been evacuated not on the lifeboats but on what it looks like larger local boats like the ones they use at Santorini for Tendering.

 

On the pics you can also see a huge ramp on the Sea Diamond that they had lowered down and boats in fornt of that.

 

My guess is it was easier, faster, safer to evacuate the passengers this way then to use only the life boats.

[time4u2go]

I also doubt that RCCL would let a billion dollar investment sink to the bottom.

I'm curious what you mean by this? Do they have a choice?:confused:

[jad7984]

I'm curious what you mean by this? Do they have a choice?:confused:

 

I meant that they have every safety measure in line to prevent the ship from going under. I'd think (or I'd like to think) that it would be nearly impossible to sink.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Hi Katy......no I don't think you are being paranoid. :)

Your children will be given wrsit bands that are NEVER to be removed. It has their muster stations on them, so if they are in AO the AO staff will take them to their muster station where you will be reunited with them.

 

I truely believe RC has the best SOLAS---Safety of Life at Sea----procedures and regulations and they have one emergency drill eash week while in a port. There are more than enough life jackets for everyone.

 

Once you're on board you'll be fine......have a wonderful cruise. ;)

 

***

[madforcruising]

The only thing that I am worried about is the amount of people on the ship and, if the ship were listing, how would they lower the lifeboats on one side of the ship? I'd assume though that a ship the size of the Freedom would take a LOT longer to go down than this cruise ship would, and there would be many other ships there before you know it. I also doubt that RCCL would let a billion dollar investment sink to the bottom.

 

Depending on the degree the shhip lists it may not be possible to use all lifeboats, however there´s plenty of liferafts onboard too and they don´t need all lifeboats to accomodate all people because those life rafts hold a lot of people.

 

I somehow doubt that it takes any longer to sink a big ship than a small one. It all depends on the damage.

 

What do you mean by doubting RCCL would let their investment sink to bottom???:confused: What can they do if it happens??? Do you think Louis Cruise lines choose to let their ship go down???

 

 

On another note, not to scare anybody as those accidents happen rarely, but keep in mind it´s not always great weather and calm seas.

Just think about tendering problems we hear about all the time and how rough it is to ride these litle boats and get on and off. These are the boats you go into when something happens regardless of weather and waves:eek: :eek:

[madforcruising]

I meant that they have every safety measure in line to prevent the ship from going under. I'd think (or I'd like to think) that it would be nearly impossible to sink.

 

Let me think where I heard this phrase before:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

 

Oh yeah that was Titanic;) :eek: :eek:

[jad7984]

What do you mean by doubting RCCL would let their investment sik to bottom???:confused: What can they do if it happens??? Do you think Louis Cruise lines choose to let their ship go down???

 

I explained above.

 

And yes, I think Louis Cruise lines chose to let their ship go down. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

It seems like every comment I make on the board, no matter what thread, you choose to argue with me. Do you enjoy it?

[madforcruising]

I explained above.

 

And yes, I think Louis Cruise lines chose to let their ship go down. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

It seems like every comment I make on the board, no matter what thread, you choose to argue with me. Do you enjoy it?

 

 

Well I always enjoy a good argument and yes I´m enjoying my time on the boards - it´s great entertainment.

 

If you only post on these two threads, that´s not my fault, I post on many and discuss with people without paying attention whom I discuss with. If I disagree I discuss it, isn´t that what a message board is for?

If you don´t like my posts, there´s a ignore function on this board.

 

But now back to the original topic!

[jad7984]

Well I always enjoy a good argument and yes I´m enjoying my time on the boards.

 

Glad to see I was right. :)

 

But yes, back to the discussion...

[madforcruising]

Glad to see I was right. :)

 

But yes, back to the discussion...

 

See how easy we can agree:D

[leoandhugh]

So you saw on the news that the ship had the highest level of safety standards - and you believed that! Whose safety standards? The ship was registered in Greece, owned by a company from Cyprus, never comes to this country(therefore does not have to comply with any Coast Guard regulations). It had 4 lifeboats - 2 on each side - which they did manage to get in the water;the rest of the ship's equipment consisted of inflatable life rafts which are visible in many of the pictures.

Pure speculation on my part, but the water tight doors were either breached or inoperative or the gash was so huge that nothing could have prevented taking on sufficient water to eventually sink the ship. How absolutely fortunate that all but two people were safely evacuated. And I just read the captain had just recently been promoted - bet his career is going to be on the same rocks he ran his ship over!

[madforcruising]

So you saw on the news that the ship had the highest level of safety standards - and you believed that! Whose safety standards? The ship was registered in Greece, owned by a company from Cyprus, never comes to this country(therefore does not have to comply with any Coast Guard regulations). It had 4 lifeboats - 2 on each side - which they did manage to get in the water;the rest of the ship's equipment consisted of inflatable life rafts which are visible in many of the pictures.

Pure speculation on my part, but the water tight doors were either breached or inoperative or the gash was so huge that nothing could have prevented taking on sufficient water to eventually sink the ship. How absolutely fortunate that all but two people were safely evacuated. And I just read the captain had just recently been promoted - bet his career is going to be on the same rocks he ran his ship over!

 

 

Ships are classified and the Sea Diamond was classified by DNV

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is an independent foundation with the objective of safeguarding life, property, and the environment. Our history goes back to 1864, when the foundation was established in Norway to inspect and evaluate the technical condition of Norwegian merchant vessels.

Classification Service:

Classification is a system for safeguarding life, property and the environment at sea. It entails verification against a set of requirements during design, construction and operation of ships and offshore units. These requirements are based on the accumulated experience from DNVs large classed fleet, research and development and more than 140 years of experience. Our surveyors stationed around the world work with customers to ensure compliance throughout the lifetime of the classified object. DNV is one of the worlds leading classification societies. Below you may find our main services within Classification.

BTW RCCL ships are DNV classified too and they are registered in Liberia, so when do they ever come to that country? However they still have to comply with coast guard regulations.

 

 

[reallyitsmema]

So you saw on the news that the ship had the highest level of safety standards - and you believed that! Whose safety standards? The ship was registered in Greece, owned by a company from Cyprus, never comes to this country(therefore does not have to comply with any Coast Guard regulations). It had 4 lifeboats - 2 on each side - which they did manage to get in the water;the rest of the ship's equipment consisted of inflatable life rafts which are visible in many of the pictures.

Pure speculation on my part, but the water tight doors were either breached or inoperative or the gash was so huge that nothing could have prevented taking on sufficient water to eventually sink the ship. How absolutely fortunate that all but two people were safely evacuated. And I just read the captain had just recently been promoted - bet his career is going to be on the same rocks he ran his ship over!

Also visable in those same pictures are the SIX lifeboats, 3 on each side. Until a full review of this unfortunate incident can take place, everything is hearsay. The facts are a ship has sunk and two people are missing. I hope all these people make it home safely.

[cruise182]

Hi Katy......no I don't think you are being paranoid. :)

Your children will be given wrsit bands that are NEVER to be removed. It has their muster stations on them, so if they are in AO the AO staff will take them to their muster station where you will be reunited with them.

 

I truely believe RC has the best SOLAS---Safety of Life at Sea----procedures and regulations and they have one emergency drill eash week while in a port. There are more than enough life jackets for everyone.

 

Once you're on board you'll be fine......have a wonderful cruise. ;)

 

***

I agree!! We were on Princess and they do not "band" the children. I could only imagine what chaos it would be if, God forbid, something like this happens on the Grand Princess with over 500 children participating in their kids crew program. I guess they could check the roster and try to figure out which kids go where. And Don't forget that on Princess you will muster in a lounge and then, if need be, be escorted to another location to begin evacuation. For me, I would want my children brought to me ASAP if we were called to muster. The band system seems to be the most logical. Mustering on deck makes the most sense too. I suspect the AO staff would beable to get my children to me a lot quicker then Princess.

[madforcruising]

Also visable in those same pictures are the SIX lifeboats, 3 on each side. Until a full review of this unfortunate incident can take place, everything is hearsay. The facts are a ship has sunk and two people are missing. I hope all these people make it home safely.

 

 

I agree with you that we shouldn´t draw any conclusions before we have all insights of what happened.

 

But it was only four life boats, two on each side. The other two boats you can see (one on each side) are not life boats. These are little speed boats ships have to provide for speedy rescue in the event of a "man overboard".

[mic328]

I was just reading an article from CNN, they were interviewing one of the passengers and she was saying that the staff was no help at all they were all screaming and leaving the ship first.(not exact words) I really don't want to believe that!, aren't they trained for emergencies?

[dagadget]

I explained above.

 

And yes, I think Louis Cruise lines chose to let their ship go down. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

It seems like every comment I make on the board, no matter what thread, you choose to argue with me. Do you enjoy it?

 

 

Very interesting point What I found interesting was the fact that after the passengers were taken off it was stated the ship was stable with her wtd (water tight doors )closed. Now what caused this ship to sink? 15 hours later after all were safe? And why did they not run her into shallow water and let her settle if she was stable? This raises a lot of interesting questions about this incident. Any good answers will be appreciated here

[arabrab]

Very interesting point What I found interesting was the fact that after the passengers were taken off it was stated the ship was stable with her wtd (water tight doors )closed. Now what caused this ship to sink? 15 hours later after all were safe? And why did they not run her into shallow water and let her settle if she was stable? This raises a lot of interesting questions about this incident. Any good answers will be appreciated here

 

I was under the impression from our trip that there were reefs and deep sea, and not much at all in the way of sandy shallows that a ship could get to.

[TPKeller]

Very interesting point What I found interesting was the fact that after the passengers were taken off it was stated the ship was stable with her wtd (water tight doors )closed. Now what caused this ship to sink? 15 hours later after all were safe? And why did they not run her into shallow water and let her settle if she was stable? This raises a lot of interesting questions about this incident. Any good answers will be appreciated here

A ship can still be stable (relatively) while taking on water. I've seen reports about Titanic that said if they had opened the watertight doors, she would have stayed afloat longer, and perhaps more lives could have been saved. Keeping all the water up front weighed down the bow until the water spilled over the watertight bulkheads, one at a time until she finally went down by the bow. If they had distributed the weight throughout the ship, she would have stayed level, and perhaps taken longer to sink.

 

So perhaps that is what they meant by saying Sea Diamond was stable. At least she didn't capsize while people were still aboard. It's all speculation until we see some sort of an investigative report.

 

As for the grounding, remember this was around volcanic islands. Looking at the video footage, you can see how all the mountains in the background slope steeply to the sea, and there is no reason to think the geography changes under the surface. I thought I read somewhere that she sank in 600 feet of water, even though it was clearly just off shore.

 

Theron

[Rudi610]

I just went and looked at a picture of the Sea Diamond and it looks like their are 2 regular life boats on each side of the ship and 1 smaller tender type boat on each side as well (3 life boats in all). That seems kind of small for a ship that carries 1600 people (according to the Louis Cruise Lines web site, the ship can carry up to 1500 passengers, plus crew). I thought that after Titanic, international regulations stated that ships had to carry enough life boats to accomodate everyone on board? Do inflatable rafts count as part of the requirement? What happens if the ship lists enough that they cannot lower the boats on one side then?

 

From my prior cruising experience, I remember going to the muster drill out on deck and looking up at the lifeboats and thinking how big they were. I guess that they could hold over a hundred people, but I'm not sure of the exact amount. How many people can a standard life boat on an RCCL ship carry? By looking at a picture, I counted 13 lifeboats on the port side of the Voyager of the Seas. That would be 26 boats. With about 3500 pasengers and 1500 crew (total 5000), that would be about 200 people per boat. Can the life boats really hold that many each? Just curious.

[Madkitty]

ive always wondered what happens about lifejackets - I know theyr in your cabin but if youre on top deck and have to go to the muster level do they also have spares around the ship for those that cant swim....I mean you cant be expected to have to go back to your cabin first to pick up your lifejacket??

[madforcruising]

ive always wondered what happens about lifejackets - I know theyr in your cabin but if youre on top deck and have to go to the muster level do they also have spares around the ship for those that cant swim....I mean you cant be expected to have to go back to your cabin first to pick up your lifejacket??

 

 

They do have enough lifejackets at the muster stations for everybody not only for those that can´t swim. They will tell you during muster drill that if not in your cabin when the general alarm sounds to not go back to your room but go to the Muster Station directly as there are enough life vests down there.

 

If you walk around the promenade deck, you´ll recognize those big boxes (sometimes a little overhead), that´s where the life vests are stored.

 

Also when tendering in one of the ships lifeboats, have a look around and you´ll recognize there´s a life vest for everyone on the lifeboat too.

 

So don´t worry plenty spare vests.

[madforcruising]

Very interesting point What I found interesting was the fact that after the passengers were taken off it was stated the ship was stable with her wtd (water tight doors )closed. Now what caused this ship to sink? 15 hours later after all were safe? And why did they not run her into shallow water and let her settle if she was stable? This raises a lot of interesting questions about this incident. Any good answers will be appreciated here

 

 

As others have said I don´t think there are shallow waters around that area. Also if you have a look at those pics that are published the bow of the ship was deep in the water already at a time they´ve still been in the procedure of evacuating. I doubt the ship (while kind of stable) was maneuverable at that time to bring her into shallow waters if there would have been some at all.

 

In addition I guess a sailing ship is much less stable with taking more water on and it would have been very risky to sail her somewhere else if the engine room wasn´t flooded already and she was still able to sail at all.

 

I doubt water tight doors hold forever, if this were the case ships would be unsinkable but they are not. My guess is they can slow down the sinking but not totally hold it off (always depending on the size of damage of course)

[madforcruising]

 

 

 

 

 

Here´s what I´m talking about, I doubt this ship could sail anywhere anymore.

[madforcruising]

I just went and looked at a picture of the Sea Diamond and it looks like their are 2 regular life boats on each side of the ship and 1 smaller tender type boat on each side as well (3 life boats in all).

 

As I said earlier the third boat you can see on each side is not a life boat. It´s a speed boat every ship is required to have for rescue in case of a man overboard.

 

You have those on the RCCL ships too.

 

You can see it on this pic of the Jewel. The first one is the speed boat, the other two are lifeboats.

 

 

On the next pic you can see one of the regular lifeboats and two of the lifeboats that are used for tendering too.

 

 

 

That seems kind of small for a ship that carries 1600 people (according to the Louis Cruise Lines web site, the ship can carry up to 1500 passengers, plus crew). I thought that after Titanic, international regulations stated that ships had to carry enough life boats to accomodate everyone on board? Do inflatable rafts count as part of the requirement? What happens if the ship lists enough that they cannot lower the boats on one side then?

 

I´m sure the life rafts count, but it´s just a guess on my part.

 

 

From my prior cruising experience, I remember going to the muster drill out on deck and looking up at the lifeboats and thinking how big they were. I guess that they could hold over a hundred people, but I'm not sure of the exact amount. How many people can a standard life boat on an RCCL ship carry? By looking at a picture, I counted 13 lifeboats on the port side of the Voyager of the Seas. That would be 26 boats. With about 3500 pasengers and 1500 crew (total 5000), that would be about 200 people per boat. Can the life boats really hold that many each? Just curious.

 

 

I can´t recall the exact numbers but they hold an incredible amount of people. If you are tendering it´s painted on the outside of the tender boats how many people they hold and for the tender boats it´s always a number for tendering and an even higher number for life boat use:eek: .

 

Taking into account how cramped one is sometimes on those tender boats I´m always scared in thinking how they could fit even more people on there in case of an emergency.

 

I think the lifeboats (the ones not double serving as tenders) hold even more people.