I agree with most of what you say. But an unexpected 15 degree list is certainly enough to throw someone over a railing (especially if they were already leaning over it looking at the water).

I would think that one of the first things they'd want to do is get a head count which would give them an idea of wheather anybody might be in the water (or injured to a point that they couldn't respond to the call).

I won't say proper prodedure wasn't followed (I don't know nearly enoug), but as a thought experiment it seems weird that they wouldn't try to get all the passengers organized for a count, and to aid in triage of more minor injuries.

I agree that no head count is a little odd. I was just defending the actions of the crew in general. The passengers were nearly unanimous in their praise of the crew.

It just seemed really odd to me that they didn't call muster. That's exactly what those drills are for. Why have the procedure if it's not going to be used?

Procedures are to make people feel safe, not to actually protect or save them.

You muster the passengers when you are in a situation where the ship needs evacuating. I'm going to guess that the decision was made to not muster the passengers because the ship was not in danger of sinking, and to call for a muster would create panic. To me, that sounds like a wise decision.

The following is from another board I frequent. The poster is a cruise ship captain himself:

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org...666#POST185666

I'll ask him what his take on the head count is.

Ya call that a list? Nawww mate, that's not a list. THIS is a list.

No, that's not a list, it's call the insurance company time!

They say it was carrying over 4,000 cars from Japan to Canada. That's gonna be a big insurance check. Not to mention the effect it will have on people waiting for that new car they ordered....