Cruise Ship Incident

[tracilicious]

This sorry excuse for a news article says that there was no head count after the incident.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

This sorry excuse for a news article says that there was no head count after the incident.

Which supports what that message board post said, that they didn't call muster (the only way to get a head count). That does seem a tad irresponsible. What with crew giving out hugs, and no call for emergency procedures, it seems that someone thought "avoiding panic" was more important than taking safety precautions. When, in fact, taking safety precautions and relying on the kinds of emergency procedures that we're all programmed to follow from school age is exactly what prevents panic.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Which supports what that message board post said, that they didn't call muster (the only way to get a head count). That does seem a tad irresponsible. What with crew giving out hugs, and no call for emergency procedures, it seems that someone thought "avoiding panic" was more important than taking safety precautions. When, in fact, taking safety precautions and relying on the kinds of emergency procedures that we're all programmed to follow from school age is exactly what prevents panic.

It seems to me that the officers on the bridge where probably preoccupied with figuring out what happened, and making sure the ship was still seaworthy - their primary responsibilities.

As far as emergency procedures… they were followed, and avoiding a panic is one of the things the crew is trained to do. No one wants a ship full of panicked passengers. Things would have gotten real ugly. From all accounts, the crew performed admirably.

I also want to throw a little reality check in to all of this. The ship only listed 15 degrees. I’m sorry, but that’s not really very much. In the days before stabilizers, passenger liners would routinely roll that much or more. In heavy weather, the Queen Mary could roll as much as 30 degrees to either side – back and forth – for hours! Very few people were injured because the interiors were designed for this. Things were bolted down. There were handrails. Shop displays were glued down. Etc.

I blame the injuries on the failure of modern cruise ship interior to realize that these are ships, first and foremost, not hotels. Nothing that floats remains rock steady – ever.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by JWBear

As far as emergency procedures… they were followed, and avoiding a panic is one of the things the crew is trained to do. No one wants a ship full of panicked passengers. Things would have gotten real ugly. From all accounts, the crew performed admirably.

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.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

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.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by JWBear

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?

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

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?

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.