Titanic 2012

[BackInTex]

Unbelievable this can happen in this day and age. 3 dead and 69 unaccounted for. At least it was close to shore and not in the North Atlantic. Probably saved some money by not hiring a local harbor master to bring the ship in to port.

[RecOfTheEdmundFitzgerald]

That looks a lot prettier than my final resting place....

[silverscreenselect]

Costa Lines is one of the cruise lines owned by Carnival, and this ship's design is very similar to the Carnival ships Mrs. SSS and I have cruised on the past few years. Some of their ships, although not this one, sail out of the Caribbean in the winter, and we get e-mails advising us about bargains. This ship is about 950 feet long and there were over 4,000 passengers and crew onboard. The rocks tore a 150-foot gash in the hull. My guess is that most of the dead and missing would have been trapped below water when the ship listed.

Unlike most US cruises which only take passengers on at the start-finish point, this ship took passengers on at various stops along the way. As a result, most of the passengers on board had not had the mandatory muster drill which we've always had at the beginning of each cruise (this is where they tell you about how to put on your life jacket and where to go if something like this happens). Although in this case, with the ship listing badly to one side, getting off the ship would have been quite tricky on either side.

It does sound like the crew did a terrific job, getting everyone off with as little loss as there was. My understanding is that major liners like this can be insured for over a billion dollars in total counting damage to the ship, liability coverage, and business interruption. It's also going to give people second thoughts about cruising.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

On the same day that Standard & Poors downgraded Italian debt, along with the bonds of eight other European nations, an Italian cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany.  German radio network, SWR, is reporting that among the 4,200 passengers are at least 500 Germans.

I don’t wish to exploit a tragedy, but I can’t help but to think of this story as a metaphor.

[etaoin22]

On the same day that Standard & Poors downgraded Italian debt, along with the bonds of eight other European nations, an Italian cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany.  German radio network, SWR, is reporting that among the 4,200 passengers are at least 500 Germans.

I don’t wish to exploit a tragedy, but I can’t help but to think of this story as a metaphor.

yeh, the 500 knew where they ought to go, and went there, and didn't budge, even as the boat sank beneath them.

[minimetoo26]

And on CNN they have a picture of the ship at the top and an article about cruise deals during "wave season" in the Travel section.

Uhhhh...thanks, but no thanks...

[littlebeast13]

Shuffleboard anyone?

lb13

[ulysses5019]

Shuffleboard anyone?

lb13

Joe Hazelwood is on my team.

[MarleysGh0st]

Shuffleboard anyone?

lb13

I was wondering what the new avatar was all about.

And since nobody else has said it yet, I will, in the original sense of the game: Found it!

[MarleysGh0st]

Since it hasn't been mentioned in this thread, yet, the ship is the Costa Concordia. Here's a link to one of the news stories about it.

http://news.yahoo.com/italian-cruise-sh ... 56831.html

On the same day that Standard & Poors downgraded Italian debt, along with the bonds of eight other European nations, an Italian cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany.  German radio network, SWR, is reporting that among the 4,200 passengers are at least 500 Germans.

I don’t wish to exploit a tragedy, but I can’t help but to think of this story as a metaphor.

yeh, the 500 knew where they ought to go, and went there, and didn't budge, even as the boat sank beneath them.

Really, etaoin? I didn't see anything in the story to warrant this ethnic joke.

[littlebeast13]

Shuffleboard anyone?

lb13

I was wondering what the new avatar was all about.

And since nobody else has said it yet, I will, in the original sense of the game: Found it!

Let me just say for the record that it is very hard to draw things at a 45 degree angle.... thus why ES and MBRS look a little seasick....

lb13

[SportsFan68]

Shuffleboard anyone?

lb13

I was wondering what the new avatar was all about.

And since nobody else has said it yet, I will, in the original sense of the game: Found it!

Let me just say for the record that it is very hard to draw things at a 45 degree angle.... thus why ES and MBRS look a little seasick....

lb13

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

[littlebeast13]

I was wondering what the new avatar was all about.

And since nobody else has said it yet, I will, in the original sense of the game: Found it!

Let me just say for the record that it is very hard to draw things at a 45 degree angle.... thus why ES and MBRS look a little seasick....

lb13

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

[MarleysGh0st]

Shuffleboard anyone?

lb13

I was wondering what the new avatar was all about.

And since nobody else has said it yet, I will, in the original sense of the game: Found it!

Let me just say for the record that it is very hard to draw things at a 45 degree angle.... thus why ES and MBRS look a little seasick....

lb13

I think it would be even more difficult for ES to play shuffleboard at that angle!

[silverscreenselect]

When we go on a cruise, I enjoy watching the ship leave and also watching it enter and leave various ports (when this happens at a time I'm awake), and frankly I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Many of the ports these cruise ships use are located in spots designed for ship sizes and shapes of hundreds or even thousands of years ago. This ship was 950 feet long and 150 feet wide and weighed over 100,000 tons. There are some RCI ships that are 400 feet longer than that. They just aren't designed for maneuvering in and out of tight spaces and in many cases neither the cruise lines nor the countries where they are docking have the funds available to make their ports safer for these types of vessels.

This same ship had a near miss a couple of years ago when it slammed into a pier where it was docking, and now this.

[ulysses5019]

Let me just say for the record that it is very hard to draw things at a 45 degree angle.... thus why ES and MBRS look a little seasick....

lb13

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

He can borrow Calvin Klein's from Back to the Future.

[Beast the Slacker]

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

He can borrow Calvin Klein's from Back to the Future.

Sorry, but he'll have to wait until October 2015....

[SportsFan68]

When we go on a cruise, I enjoy watching the ship leave and also watching it enter and leave various ports (when this happens at a time I'm awake), and frankly I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Many of the ports these cruise ships use are located in spots designed for ship sizes and shapes of hundreds or even thousands of years ago. This ship was 950 feet long and 150 feet wide and weighed over 100,000 tons. There are some RCI ships that are 400 feet longer than that. They just aren't designed for maneuvering in and out of tight spaces and in many cases neither the cruise lines nor the countries where they are docking have the funds available to make their ports safer for these types of vessels.

This same ship had a near miss a couple of years ago when it slammed into a pier where it was docking, and now this.

SteelersFanCousin retired from the Navy and says that he always watches the ship dock. I joined him when we came into Baltimore, and while there weren't any problems on our cruise, I agree with SSS. I'm surprised horrific accidents like that don't happen more often.

[SportsFan68]

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

He can borrow Calvin Klein's from Back to the Future.

Found it!

[SportsFan68]

Let me just say for the record that it is very hard to draw things at a 45 degree angle.... thus why ES and MBRS look a little seasick....

lb13

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

[ulysses5019]

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

Aren't squirrels people too?

[SportsFan68]

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

Aren't squirrels people too?

No, they're mangy rodents.

[SportsFan68]

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

Aren't squirrels people too?

No, they're mangy rodents.

LOL! I was gonna add an illustration, and look at the seventh hit for "mangy rodents."

[silverscreenselect]

I thought people might be interested in this account on the Cruisecritic bulletin board posted by a survivor of the Concordia (it's the first post in the thread):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1548951

Sadly, from what I've been able to gather, a lot of what went wrong on the Titanic went wrong here as well, the main difference being that they weren't in the middle of the North Atlantic when it happened but just offshore. The crew wasn't as well versed as they should have been; it took a long time to order evacuation; and the evacuation wasn't handled well. I can tell you based on my own experience that most people on any cruise ship would have little or no idea what to do in case of an emergency; they view the mandatory muster drill (which puts a lot of people in cramped quarters on a side deck) as a huge inconvenience.

Somehow, the side of the ship that was actually gashed is the side that is out of the water. Apparently, the captain tried to take on ballast to compensate for the flooding on one side of the ship and overcompensated. In addition, he left the ship while there were still passengers onboard. Since this was an Italian cruise line with mostly Italian officers and an Italian captain sinking in Italy, the authorities are likely to go after him hard. There's been some reports he's already been charged with manslaughter, and if not, it's a distinct possibility in the near future.

There's three confirmed dead, two passengers and one crew; those bodies were found in the water. There's about forty still missing, and divers are going through the submerged areas of the ship right now. The good news is that they have found a few survivors who were still trapped on the ship but still alive. This ship has a very similar design to the one Mrs. SSS and I went on last summer.

[littlebeast13]

Aren't squirrels people too?

No, they're mangy rodents.

LOL! I was gonna add an illustration, and look at the seventh hit for "mangy rodents."

What six rodents are mangier than you are, Sprots?

lb13