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Radiance 3/12 sailing: Man overboard


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I just returned from a 10-night cruise of the Radiance of the Seas today. A sad note ... on the second to last night of our voyage, one of the crew members (art auction staff is the rumor) leapt from the 12th deck into the water. This was observed and passengers/crew threw life rings into the water. The ship slowed quickly and, within 18 minutes, had a life raft in the water and had the person aboard. Sadly this person died of his injuries. However, I believe the quick response and ability of the rescue crew is a testament to the training regimen Royal maintains. For those of you who worry about safety, this was a faster rescue than I ever would have believed.

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Hitting the water from 12 or more stories up is like hitting concrete....

Don't tell that to the divers at La Quebrada. They dive from 135' several times a day. It just depends on how you enter the water.

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Sorry to hear that....very sad. I was on the Serenade several years ago when a guy went overboard from the tenth deck at about 1:00 a.m.. Luckily someone saw it and they had the ship stopped and the rescue boat out in a very quick time. But the ending to his story was happier...he survived and was taken off the ship in St Thomas the next day. I guess it's all in how one hits the water.

 

My sympathies to his family.

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I was very impressed with how quickly the crew handled the rescue. I also appreciated with how open Captain Eric Tengelsen was with the passengers regarding the incident.

 

Condolences to the family and friends of the crew member.

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On a port day on one cruise I stayed on the ship. I heard an alert over the paging system "OSCAR OSCAR OSCAR and a location". I suspected this was a drill for a man Overboard. Did you happen to hear an alert announced? I tried dropping a hint to confirm it but the crews are well trained to not talk about safety procedures to pax.

 

On another cruise, I slept through a unplanned medical stop at my home port in Miami. Someone got sick and the Captain decided to stop at Miami in the middle of the night on the way to Key West. If I had been up, and could have had access, there's a good chance I could have met with some of my co-workers on the Fire Boat. In the morning the Captain apologized about the delay getting into Key West and explained what happened. I would HOPE no pax would complain, but I guess it happens.

 

The crews are really well drilled in emergency response and it seems that they always err on the side of safety.

 

If you ever do see someone go overboard, do everything you can to get the crew alerted and take note of the time. They can use that to estimate the ship position. Tell a few people to keep eye contact as long as they can. And if you see someone clearly drunk, or some sort of horseplay near the rails, report it.

 

Ray

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On a port day on one cruise I stayed on the ship. I heard an alert over the paging system "OSCAR OSCAR OSCAR and a location". I suspected this was a drill for a man Overboard. Did you happen to hear an alert announced? I tried dropping a hint to confirm it but the crews are well trained to not talk about safety procedures to pax.

 

On another cruise, I slept through a unplanned medical stop at my home port in Miami. Someone got sick and the Captain decided to stop at Miami in the middle of the night on the way to Key West. If I had been up, and could have had access, there's a good chance I could have met with some of my co-workers on the Fire Boat. In the morning the Captain apologized about the delay getting into Key West and explained what happened. I would HOPE no pax would complain, but I guess it happens.

 

The crews are really well drilled in emergency response and it seems that they always err on the side of safety.

 

If you ever do see someone go overboard, do everything you can to get the crew alerted and take note of the time. They can use that to estimate the ship position. Tell a few people to keep eye contact as long as they can. And if you see someone clearly drunk, or some sort of horseplay near the rails, report it.

 

Ray

 

Good suggestions - in addition throw out life preservers. Even if the person can't reach them, it helps define the location until they can throw out the flares and stop the ship.

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On one of our past cruises, we got to know one of the crew members quite well. He said that depression is a huge issue with crew.

 

We witnessed this ourselves on that very same cruise. It was late at night, well after midnight when my DH and I took a stroll around the walking track up top. There was a crew member sitting on a lounger looking quite devasted. We didn't want to intrude but we didn't want to leave the area either so we altered our path to keep him within sight. This went on for a half hour or so when another staff member finally came along to console him. This particular incident turned out all right but it makes you wonder how many others do not. It's a tough life and not one that I would relish. :(

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On a port day on one cruise I stayed on the ship. I heard an alert over the paging system "OSCAR OSCAR OSCAR and a location". I suspected this was a drill for a man Overboard. Did you happen to hear an alert announced? I tried dropping a hint to confirm it but the crews are well trained to not talk about safety procedures to pax.

 

The crews are really well drilled in emergency response and it seems that they always err on the side of safety.

 

If you ever do see someone go overboard, do everything you can to get the crew alerted and take note of the time. They can use that to estimate the ship position. Tell a few people to keep eye contact as long as they can. And if you see someone clearly drunk, or some sort of horseplay near the rails, report it.

 

Oscar is the nautical term for Man Overboard. The day symbol is a flag; half red/half yellow (diagonally). That particular term should not be used for any other purpose, so yes, it was either a man overboard or a mob drill.

 

One of the first things the crew should do in a mob is toss a lifering with a strobe light (datum marker). The main purpose of tossing the lifering is not for what people would assume. It's used as a marker to calculate set and drift. The purpose of being a life preserver is secondary (still important). The bridge marks the time and gps coordinates at the time of tossing it. If the person is not immediately found, they then mark the gps position of the lifering 30 minutes later. That's how they figure out the currents and the speed of the current.

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Somewhere on the CC website is a quite wonderful article on cruising, depression and suicide. The points are made that one can almost feel a sense of aquatic "vertigo" from viewing the vastness of the ocean and that people with suicidal feelings should not cruise due to this temptation.

 

My prayers and condolences to the family and the ship's crew.

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I am added my condolences to the list.

 

I was also on the cruise and agree that the Captain and crew did and outstanding job taking care of the situation. The Captain kept us well informed that night and the next day explained what happened and answered questions.

 

I noticed that problems with depression among the crew has been brought up. We were informed that this person had been on the ship a "very short period of time".

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