You'd think the captain couldn't be more absurd and then this article comes out and the ship's chef says the captain ordered dinner for himself and his "girlfriend" one hour after the shipwreck.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/19/world/europe/italy-cruise-cook/index.html

If this and the other strange anecdotal accounts we have heard are true, it makes me wonder if the Captain was intoxicated.

When you get into a car accident with injuries in my home state, you are giving a drug and alcohol tests. I wonder if any such measures are taken in these circumstances.

While driving tonight, I heard a guest on a radio segment mention that it took 14 hours until the final passengers were evacuated. I assume he was referring to the Korean couple on their honeymoon who were rescued along with a crew member with a broken leg.

I understood that ships only need rigid hulled lifeBOATS for a proportion of those on board, but must have inflatable lifeRAFTS for the rest.
The total spaces in boats and rafts has to be at least twice the capacity of the ship, in order that all on board may be saved if fire or capsize prevents the use of the rafts or boats on one side of the ship.

I believe the reason for this is twofold.

Firstly a rigid hulled boat is preferable for the sick, injured, very old, or very young, but the able bodied should be fine in rafts.
Secondly, an inflatable life raft is effectively a single use item. But a lifeboat can be launched, recovered and replaced in its davits for re-use. This can be very useful in an emergency that does not require abondoning ship. For example a sick or injured person can be taken ashore in a ships lifeboat, or a doctor fetched in the lifeboat, if the ship is too large to dock.

Lifeboats are almost allways mechanicly propelled and may therefore move against the current to land, liferafts drift and normally rely on the occupants being rescued by other craft.

I have always been curious how inflatable life rafts are used in an emergency on a cruise ship. Assuming the ship is still upright, you have to lower it and yourself almost five stories from the deck to the water. Does anyone know how that works?

I dunno, but here are some people training for it...

What I've most recently read is that each side of the ship must have enough fully-enclosed lifeboats to accommodate 50% of the passengers or more, plus enough rigid or inflatable liferafts to accommodate 25%, for a total capacity of 125%.

I got that from a few places, including http://www.captainsvoyage-forum.com/show...ssenger-vessels .



True. Long-term survival at sea is significantly impacted by the availability of overhead cover. Also, a fully-enclosed lifeboat may be survivable (if tremendously uncomfortable) in sea states that would throw anybody out of a liferaft.

On the smaller vessels with which I am familiar, the inflatable life rafts are placed so that they will float free as the vessel sinks. Keep a knife handy because you will want to sever the line that attaches them to the vessel. I understand one is provided on the raft, but the one on your person is the one to count on....

On something the size of a cruise ship, I would think the suction generated by the sinking vessel would be a serious impediment.

So, what happened to the thousands of passengers evacuated off the ship? I've seen stories about particular individuals, but I don't know if those stories are representative. Did Carnival put them up? Did the little town have to house them? Or was everyone left to fend for themselves? Even catching a flight involves being transported elsewhere.

From the news post by Russ above - pertaining to the british dancers on the boat.

"...his daughter was told by superiors to put on her cocktail dress and tell passengers the problem was only an electrical fault."

The lawyers are going to have a field day with the handling of this evacuation. An absolute field day.
Hahahaha !!!

On the other hand .. this quote below does not make me happy.
What is the matter with people these days???

"DailyMail article -- 'Forget women and children first, it was every man for himself'"

Pete2