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Costa/ Carnival Luxury Cruise Disaster: Titantic Redux

Update: The captain of the cruise ship has been arrested.

I've been seeing headlines about the cruise ship disaster in Italy today, but I just around to reading one of the articles. What an unbelievable mess. 3,000 passengers and 1,000 crew and utter chaos. So far 3 are dead and many are missing. Many said it was like being on the Titanic:

The worst part came when a lifeboat crew member told everyone, "Women and children first," Smith said. "All these families who were clinging to each other had to be separated," he added.

And this poor woman: [More...]

Rosalyn Rincon, a member of the cruise ship staff who worked as a dancer, was in the middle of a magician's act when the ship ran aground. She was inside a box during a magic show when, she said, "I realized that everything stopped. The music stopped," she said. Everything on the stage fell on top of people because the ship listed dramatically, said Rincon, 30, of Blackpool, England. "There was no signal as to what was going on until about 30 minutes into it," Rincon told CNN.

3,000 stranded passengers now without ID, money, credit cards, cell phones, etc.

"I've been awake for 40 hours -- I still have never spoken to a person from Costa," [a passenger] said, adding that no food, clothes, or money were provided by the cruise line. "We are stranded. We have nothing."

One passenger from Boston on his honeymoon said the crew was so inept it was like a scene from a Marx Brothers movie.

The huge ship, which had 5 restaurants and 13 bars, was owned by Costa Cruises, which in turned is owned by Carnival Cruise Lines. Sounds like some major lawsuits will are imminent.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Some Woody Guthrie (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Peter G on Sat Jan 14, 2012 at 07:58:29 PM EST
    for the occasion.  Not that he wrote that one (words or music).  Here's two more great Titanic songs: Lead Belly and Bessie Jones.

    I'm reading that a real problem (none / 0) (#2)
    by Towanda on Sat Jan 14, 2012 at 08:28:51 PM EST
    is these monster superships, for so many thousands of passengers, that make the logistics of an evacuation nigh impossible -- even without the apparent problems of lack of training of this crew, lack of instructions for passengers (they had been on board by hours by this point but still had not had the basics), etc.

    Just looking at photos of that top-heavy monster ship on its side is enough to keep me off cruises.

    It's not too uncommon to (none / 0) (#5)
    by observed on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 02:29:49 AM EST
    be stuck on a ship of thousands of people with diarrhea from food poisoning. That thought has kept me off cruise ships.

    Parent
    and you will be expected to pay wages (none / 0) (#7)
    by cpinva on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 02:09:31 PM EST
    comparable to the skills.:

    If a maritime company contracts with the SIU / IBU, they can rest assured that they will be getting the best sailors in the world.

    this cuts into profits, which in turn cuts into dividends. the polar opposite of what sh's want. risk analysis proves it's cheaper to hire unskilled crew, and accept the risk of tragedy, in the long run. insurance pays for most of it anyway.

    as long as no criminal charges (when's the last time criminal charges were levied against a corporate officer?) come of it, corp. mgmt. would would be in violation of their responsibilities to not make the biggest profit possible, whether or not it put innocent parties at risk.

    btw, the "women and children first" has been standard on passenger ships since the dawn of time.

    Parent

    Just talked with a sib today (none / 0) (#11)
    by Towanda on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 06:30:44 PM EST
    to catch up, and up came the topic of travel.  I recalled that he had taken his family on a cruise last year, but I recalled little more than that.

    Turns out that it was this cruise, around Italy.  Not the same ship, but all else was the same -- until the running-aground part, of course.

    Sib said it was a wonderful cruise, but learning a lot more now about the staffing, the lack of training, and the like, they were lucky.  And that's especially because their ship was full, with even more thousands of passengers than in this disaster.

    Parent

    Comparing to the Titanic (none / 0) (#3)
    by CoralGables on Sat Jan 14, 2012 at 10:05:41 PM EST
    is a bit of an overreach when you're swimming distance to shore. Over 1500 died on the Titanic and as of now I believe 3 confirmed dead here.

    If I'm on a ship that rolls over and my biggest worry is I've lost my ID, I'm counting my blessings.

    If you read the stories (none / 0) (#4)
    by Jeralyn on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 12:02:30 AM EST
    these passengers' endured 40 hours of a dangerous ordeal.  Losing their wallets was the least of it.

    Parent
    if all they had to worry about was losing their (none / 0) (#8)
    by cpinva on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 02:14:18 PM EST
    ID's, it wouldn't have been much of a story. bear in mind, at this point there are still 69 people unaccounted for. the line is lucky only 5 are confirmed dead, given the total displayed ineptitude of the capt. and crew in this event.

    i'll be interested to learn how it was that the ship came to run aground to begin with, since that's the very first thing anyone is taught about handling a boat, of any size: never run your ship aground. for that alone, the capt. should be hung from the main mast.

    Parent

    Sounds like Captain Morgan... (none / 0) (#10)
    by Dadler on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 05:34:26 PM EST
    ...may have been at the helm of this vessel.

    Parent
    The Med (none / 0) (#12)
    by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Sun Jan 15, 2012 at 08:37:13 PM EST
    .

    The Med is the most charted body of water in the world. There is absolutely no excuse for running aground. Apparently some clown steered the ship within less than 200 yards of the island!

    .