Report on Thomson Majesty fatalities

The official report on this tragic incident is in:

https://mti.gov.mt/en/Document%20Repository/MSIU%20Documents/Investigations%202013/MV%20Thomson%20Majesty_Final%20Safety%20Investigation%20Report.pdf

Wrong sort of rope. Wrong grease etc etc

does not look good :(

It seems likely that the families of the five deceased crew members are owed compensation but whether that should come from Louis or Thomson I am not sure.

Since Louis manage the ship I would think that it would be their responsibility. Certainly the crew are recruited and employed by Louis. We were once told that in effect on Spirit and therefore I assume on Majesty too, Thomson only 'hired' the cabins from Louis and just had to sell them and that's where their income came from. Louis ran the bars etc and got the profits from that. (Excursion tickets used to have 'Louis Management' printed on them but I think that wasn't the case last time we were on Spirit so who gets the profits from trip sales I wouldn't know.)

As I understood it Thomson had some directly employed staff (Reception?) and also Destination Services personnel (?) and of course commissioned the entertainment contract with Peel Entertainment but Louis really ran the ship.

This may not be the case now and I may not be correct but that was my understanding at the time in which case I feel sure Majesty crew would be responsible for the maintenance and safety issues on board. Unless someone knows differently!

This is really sad, I work for one of the UK's biggest Lubricant manufacturers and sell wire rope grease to some major wire rope makers.

To be honest I didn't give it a lot of thought until I read that report, it certainly brought home to me that there are consequences to ensuring that the right type of grease is sold for the right application.

The report talks about brushing the grease onto the rope, this will only keep the outside strands from rusting, the grease needs to be applied under pressure to protect the inside strands.