Cruise ship accident

I've only been on cruise ships a few times. So let me ask what may be seem a dumb question. I've notived that modern cruise ships are very maneuverable (given their size) and often dock themselves, but tugs have always (in my experience) been standing by. Was this ship under it's own control or was it being put on the dock by tugs?

Yes you are right, in many ports, the general rule is that a tug must be on station with a ship above a certain size. Yes most cruise ships maneuver themselves to and away from docks under normal circumstances however, the news piece said that it was during bad weather that "Costa Europa" was docking...and I believe that a Pilot should have been onboard.

Yes, I assumed that a pilot would have been on board, which would probably put it mostly on him (as either way he'd be directing the action), but I was just curious that, since it was during bad weather, if the tugs were on it. Either way though, sad situation especially with the injuries and loss of life.

On many cruise ships the ships master often also has Pilotage in his regular ports of call and does the dockings.

Yes that is true but only certain areas. Here in Barbados, it is mandatory for a Pilot to be aboard for all maneuvering, whether docking, undocking, even winching up berths we require a pilot to oversee things. Entering, leaving or operating in the region of the harbour requires a pilot. So whether or not a master might be able to double as a pilot, one of our pilots will have to board the vessel. I don't know how that panned out in the situation in Egypt.

Hi,

I remember in 1984 the Nordic Prince coming into Charlotte Amalie in St Thomas during Hurricane Klaus, she went sideways through the anchorage damaging and sinking yachts as it went. Don't know if anyone ever got any compensation from that and was aware that ship stopped calling in STT afterwards.

I got some pics from a guy who was on site when this cruise ship hit the dock, two of them have also been published in the Sun in the UK.

You can clearly see Crew Bunks in some of the shots.

and a few more

Interesting to see it openned up like that. Quite an unsubstantial plating on that vessel.

Well, the plating on cruise ships arent thick by any means, the slightest bump will result in a dent.

Thanks for the pics K!W!

Waves smashed into Cruise ship in the Med, killing two:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wo...d_Injuring_Six_Passengers_Off_Coast_Of_France

Thanks for the link Lars, that is bad, just on the heels of the "Costa Europa" incident.

More on the "Louis Majesty" incident in the Med... Amateur video highlights one of the '26-foot' waves that breached the fore windows to a bar/lounge that provide views out onto the bow of this particular ship.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35709247#35712799

from this rogue wave accident it seems like the IMO regulations with regards to the strength of glass used in cruise liners in the forward superstructure need to be revised. that ship should have been capable of handling much bigger waves than 8 m without causing that sort of damage.

Well I can tell you, it is easy to say so but the pressure behind so much water is enormous and is capable of knocking out any forward facing windows with the right conditions. However, the design on this part of the ship called for a vertical stucture, which in the scenario would make it easier for the water that cascaded over the bow to breach the windows there.

It is probably around 25mm thick. What do you want, an armor belt?

Given the energy applied to such a small area I would say the shell plating did a pretty good job.

Hi,

Would you please provide the public with these regs ASAP?

Sure doesn't look inch thick to me, but that may be a perceived scaling issue, looks about 16mm to me. I don't have any real issue with it, I'm sure the structural engineering behind it is sound, I was just noting the difference to the old liners which were considerably thicker.

Yet I'm pretty sure the new ones are safer ... When was the last time a big ship sank on launch?