Question regarding abandoning ship

[katerkat]

Doing muster drill, where you know it's just a drill and you know exactly when it will be and the whole family is together, is one thing.

Now, if whole family is spread over the ship and you are scared because of whatever is going on and you don't have your kids near you and who knows what is going on and what will happen, I think (no, I'm sure) there will be panick.

 

In theory, I know that the staff is trained to bring my kid from AO to our muster station. In practice? The heck with that, I'm finding my kid/causing panic/having a mental breakdown until we're all together.

 

I will sit his skinny butt on my lap on the lifeboat, though, so there's more room for the rest of you.

[3dog]

I'd be fairly confident in the lifeboat situation, that being said- PLEASE! everybody make sure you know where your pfd's are and for fun just put them on when you get to your cabin. In the case you would have to jump overboard, you'd be glad you had it on. They have strobe lights so you can be found.

 

And they can give you a "proper" burial. ;)

[JAMESCC]

Funny thing is I read your post and actually saw it as you intended. I didn't even see the missing "NOT" until you fixed it. :)

 

 

Anyways, you are entirely correct in that the Capt mishandled the situation and ignored the severity. The ship was drifting and completely at the will of the seas and weather and he was still telling authorities on Giglio that everything was fine. :eek:

 

 

Would it have been another Titanic if it hadn't drifted towards shore? In my opinion, probably not. They had plenty of lifeboat and rafts and time to evacuate. Would it have been worse than it was? Maybe. It's hard to say. Accidents like this require a person with a level head and firm authority directing operations and it appears that there is no way this was going to happen on the Concordia. :(

 

If the ship had drifted or been pushed away from shore it could have been Titanic in terms of loss of life. He said that in his post, he is correct.

[ggo85]

By law, a ship must have sufficient lifeboats to accommodate all passengers and crew. There can be an issue if all lifeboats cannot be launched. This can happen if the ship is listing severely or (as happened on one of our cruises), lifeboats are torn away from their moorings.

 

If only a small number of lifeboats are unavailable, there is likely sufficient room on the remaining boats. This is what happened in our case -- people assigned to the 2 lifeboats that were torn away were redirected to other lifeboats.

 

If too many boats are damaged or unavailable, they would use life rafts. Those are the canisters you see along the deck. Not nearly as desirable as a lifeboat but they do float and are better than being along in the water.

 

Women and children first would likely be the policy if there was an orderly evacuation. Concordia was anything but. With the ship listing heavily, lack of notice to passengers, etc., it turned into a frenzy. Without the crew to mandate /oversee an orderly process, it does become a free-for-all.

[nolimits]

Women and children first follow me LOL