Holland America Line pop quiz

[Boytjie]

2 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

Those are personal mailboxes like you will find in a post office and/or UPS store, Peter. They do not come with a P.O. Box number 😉 I have not seen the ones on the newer ships like you depicted. On the "R"-class and Vista-class ships they are located in a separate small room to the right of the Front Office ("R"-class), and in the back area adjacent the GRM's desk (Vista). I am not sure how many folks know about them and how often they are used for a particular voyage.

 

That makes sense; it looked like mailboxes but there were not enough for everyone on the ship!

[Copper10-8]

5 minutes ago, Boytjie said:

 

That makes sense; it looked like mailboxes but there were not enough for everyone on the ship!

 

Sorry Peter; they are safety deposit boxes/couldn't think of the right terminology!

[Copper10-8]

1 hour ago, Alphen said:

The newest mega ships have liferafts for the crew that have chutes that connect them to the ship for them to decent to. I don’t think HAL has those, so liferafts will be deployed and entered by ladders?

 

 

Check it out! Me thinks for crew only; I don't see the avg. HAL pax going down that slide

 

 

 

[rafinmd]

44 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

 

Check it out! Me thinks for crew only; I don't see the avg. HAL pax going down that slide

 

 

 

I would think keeping sailors from landing on top of each other would be a real problem.

 

Roy

[Copper10-8]

10 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

I would think keeping sailors from landing on top of each other would be a real problem.

 

Roy

 

It would have be trained and tightly controlled, Roy. Pretty sure, NCL and Celebrity's new big ones have this system for crew

[chengkp75]

12 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

I would think keeping sailors from landing on top of each other would be a real problem.

 

Roy

MES (marine evacuation systems) are used on some Princess ships for overcapacity passengers (over double occupancy).  The first two crew down the tube are directed to assist and move the subsequent crew away from the tube to the other rafts in the cluster.  There is also two crew assigned to the top of hte tube to time delay crew from entering the tube.  The tube has internal baffles to slow down the descent.

[oakridger]

Ah ha! The internal baffles make the big difference!  I was trying to picture people going straight down that tube and landing without breaking their legs!!  

 

So interesting.

 

~Nancy

 

[Copper10-8]

Besides the lifeboats, which includes those used as tenders, the Vista-class and up have two additional specialized boats, one housed on port, and the other on starboard side of the boat deck. What are they, and what is their intended use?

[St Pete Cruiser]

1 minute ago, Copper10-8 said:

Besides the lifeboats, which includes those used as tenders, the Vista-class and up have two additional specialized boats, one housed on port, and the other on starboard side of the boat deck. What are they, and what is their intended use?

Super priority shoreside tenders.  Not really!  Fast rescue boats?

[1ANGELCAT]

3 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

Besides the lifeboats, which includes those used as tenders, the Vista-class and up have two additional specialized boats, one housed on port, and the other on starboard side of the boat deck. What are they, and what is their intended use?

Rapid response boats for MOB

[rkacruiser]

33 minutes ago, St Pete Cruiser said:

What are they, and what is their intended use?

 

They are a rapid response boat and are used in emergency situations such as a man overboard when someone is spotted in the water.  I have them also used to carry supplies from the ship to very isolated settlements in areas such as in Greenland.  

[Sir PMP]

1 hour ago, Copper10-8 said:

Besides the lifeboats, which includes those used as tenders, the Vista-class and up have two additional specialized boats, one housed on port, and the other on starboard side of the boat deck. What are they, and what is their intended use?

They are fishing boats..

[rafinmd]

Perhaps a followup question.  Which HAL ships do not have those boats?

 

Roy

[1ANGELCAT]

8 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Perhaps a followup question.  Which HAL ships do not have those boats?

 

Roy

Volendam and Zaandam

[Copper10-8]

1 hour ago, St Pete Cruiser said:

Super priority shoreside tenders.  Not really!  Fast rescue boats?

 

1 hour ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Rapid response boats for MOB

 

Both winners! Nice job! Each vessel of the Vista-class and up, so including the two Signatures, and the three Pinnacles, each carry two Fast Rescue Boats (FRBs). You will find them housed in front of the very first lifeboat on both sides, although on the newer ships this location is reversed. The 1st generation (#1 pics) did not have a heck of a lot of room besides the normal crew of three, all wearing survival suits and helmets in the pic with is standard PPE. The more updated versions have a lot more room for survivors. The "S" and "R" class were not designed to house/did not have the hookup for FRBs, so their MOB boats were/are (on Zaandam and Volendam) a smaller version of a standard lifeboat (see pic #2) 

 

Their primary purpose is to rescue MOBs (Man Over Board) although, they are also known to provide transport in the month of December for the Jolly Old Man from the North Pole  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

40 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

They are fishing boats..

 

Yes, out of Scheveningen / Den Haag

[chengkp75]

9 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

Yes, out of Scheveningen / Den Haag

And here I thought they were for the Staff Captain's beer run.

[Copper10-8]

As stated, at times during the month of December, the FRB, in this case Zuiderdam's, is used to bring certain VIPs onboard via the Jacob's / pilot ladder, no less 😉 As a side note, one of Santa's helpers, also on board the FRB, was not a fan of Zuidy's 1st officer Martijn, a Dutchie, handling skills of that same FRB and turned as green as the top of her hat 🤢  

[CruiseMGM]

Just caught up after a friend @SusieKIslandGirl told me about this thread. FASCINATING and thank you, Copper, for a much needed break from the daily gloom and doom. I've learned a lot, sometimes about things I never knew I needed to know. Know what I mean? 😆

[ski ww]

15 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

Besides the lifeboats, which includes those used as tenders, the Vista-class and up have two additional specialized boats, one housed on port, and the other on starboard side of the boat deck. What are they, and what is their intended use?

On a Baltic cruise a passenger saw what he thought was a person in the water & called man over board, the ship stopped and we got to watch as they recused him. Turns out it was a dummy, dropped, fell, forgot from a passing ship,

  

[chengkp75]

35 minutes ago, ski ww said:

Turns out it was a dummy, dropped, fell, forgot from a passing ship,

  

More likely it was deployed for a drill, and was unable to be found.  I've known USCG cutters that have used orange dummies like this for drills, and that could not find the dummy due to sea conditions.  There is a bit of ragging when the cutter gets back to base.

[ski ww]

If they have a hard time finding a dummy dressed in orange I can see where it would be difficult finding some one who fell off a ship & the only thing showing is a head bobbing in the swells.

[chengkp75]

1 minute ago, ski ww said:

If they have a hard time finding a dummy dressed in orange I can see where it would be difficult finding some one who fell off a ship & the only thing showing is a head bobbing in the swells.

Particularly if the person is not wearing a life jacket, the only visible part is the head, so you are looking in miles of heaving ocean for an object the size of a volleyball, most commonly with dark hair blending into the water color.  Finding a man overboard that survives is rare, and a result that relies on a tremendous amount of luck.

 

And, those Coasties have everyone onboard looking, and are trained in spotting things in the water.

[Copper10-8]

5 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

....................................  There is a bit of ragging when the cutter gets back to base.

 

Ya think? 😉 I'm thinking at least a case of beer by the individual in charge of that drill 😉 When I first got hired by HAL, I remember a MOB drill where the MOB was a cadet, of course, dressed in a survival suit. It took place in southern Mexico, in Puerto Chiapas, so the weather/water in the bay was warm. This was on Statendam, so no fast rescue boat, but a smaller life boat was lowered to go pick him up, and a "cradle" was used to get it done. Medical, the stretcher team, and security were involved also. Great training for everyone involved however, "live" MOBs have since been replaced by "dummies" / mannequins and/or life buoys  

[Copper10-8]

6 hours ago, ski ww said:

On a Baltic cruise a passenger saw what he thought was a person in the water & called man over board, the ship stopped and we got to watch as they recused him. Turns out it was a dummy, dropped, fell, forgot from a passing ship,

  

 

Prinsendam FRB, Nice pics, thanx!