General Chat

I just read this:

"The captain of the luxury liner shipwrecked off Italy has explained his early escape from the vessel by claiming he stumbled into a life raft and was unable to get out."

In our paper http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10779773

Persie :-0

A Master Mariner takes full responsibility for his ship, the cargo and all those person aboard it.

The disgrace of losing a ship is I expect still here today but in days gone by the Captain would go down with his ship rather than face the disgrace which would have awaited him ashore. (Captain Smith of Titanic is an example)

We no longer expect this but do expect the Master to be responsible for that which is put in his charge.

It is the shock factor Eldrick, the totally unexpected event and the fact that we can see it with our own eyes on the TV etc and hear the reports by survivors, feel their fear if you like.

Stray, Yes he is only human and I can understand him panicking, if he did.

Its all pure speculation, once again media fueled rumour mongering desperate to get a new angle on a not very serious disaster on the scale of things.

If we are measuring it by loss of life, that is really sad. More people die in one afternoon on the roads in this country alone. 13 people died in a building collapse in beirut yesterday. 50 were killed in iraq on saturday by a suicide bomber. It always makes me wonder why things like this are blown up out of all proportion.

they probably will get punished, by the sounds of it the captain and some crew were at fault, but like you say could be hersay,

im not saying it wasmt proffetionally wrong, but, i do understand, if he left, why he did, i would have done the same,

No Stray the captain should not have stayed on until now but he and his officers were in charge of the ship and, like it or not they should have at least supervised the evacuation. I have no way of knowing if they did or didn't except for hearsay but, if they were found to have abandoned the passengers to look after themselves then it will be revealed in the investigation. And that may then be punishable.

sadened to hear another body has been found
my sympathies to their family and friends

Whilst no-one is denying that this is a tragedy it is no more dangerous than driving round our roads.The sat navs don't indicate deep potholes
Last year according to statistics 1850 were killed on the road far more than any Titanic disaster.All loss of life is sad but situations like this only make for improvements in safety standards so that other people won't suffer the same loss. This is likely to be the best time to go on a cruise as many captains will be thinking " but for the grace of God ....."-jl

Some reports have likened it to the Titanic. Apart from the lack of icebergs, 1500 fewer fatalities, Twice as many lifeboats, a ship that hasn't sunk in 2.5 miles of water, the warm water and a captain who wasn't called Smith, the similarities are striking.

As far as good old seamanship skills and old fashioned navigation, a quick check of the Times online for, say, 130 years ago shows hundreds of shipwrecks a month. As long as humans control things, errors will happen. They shouldn't but they will and yes, any loss of life is tragic but given the sheer number of people on board, it's remarkable that the death toll wasn't a lot higher. I'd much rather depend on sophisticated technology that some old man with a wooden leg and a parrot on his shoulder saying 'arr, that be a bad moon tonight we'll splice the mizzen and batten down the mainbrace me hearties'.

i dont blame the captain getting of, what should he have done, held on till now? they were still finding people yesterday, should the captain have stayed till yesterday?

he had no choice but to leave to save himself, and regarless of wether he should of or not, i know if i was captain, id have got of as soon as i could too,

its a total tragedy, i feel for the faimlys with relatives who were onboard, i think we can speculate all we like were not going to know anything till there has been a full enquiry

and it does make me worry about close friends i have going on cruises, next week and the week after :(

Probably using a maritime version of a Satnav....& we all know how reliable those are.
I used to really fancy the idea of a cruise, but seeing the floating cities berthed in Mahon harbour put me right off & generally speaking, they are among the smaller ones.

It's wrong that the Captain deserted his ship altho he denied it, it's obvious by the fact that the injured seaman had only just been taken off and a couple found alive and safely removed after he had been arrested.

However, he insists there shouldn't have been rocks where he was, and said the charts showed it was ok, and a geologist? gave an interview on tv and said seismic activity is strong in that area so new rocks could be around in areas previously shown as clear, maps and charts wouldn't be updated that often so wouldn't show this.

You would expect sailors to have practical knowledge as well as knowing how to read all the equipment but I suppose it's like everything else these days, too much left reliant on technology and the old skills gone.I just hope they find all the bodies of those lost if they can't find anyone else alive, so that they can have a decent burial and their families can mourn them properly.

One woman said her Dad stood aside to let women go first and he is lost.

So sad.


Lizx

It was reported on news that Captain stated that the rocks should not have been there but reports state that they were off course. Also he left the ship prior to the clearance of all passengers.

There were reports that the ship was a few miles off course.where was the navigating Officer?.I think they rely too much on Computorised systems and not real seamanship.

They have just lifted off an injured crew man and flown him to hospital.

I would never of jumped even in panic, even I know that if you jump of a sinking ship you are going to do down with it.

Yes, thinking of those still missing, poor people. I think it will be a while before the full story comes out. Heard a couple of marine experts on TV last night who were really puzzled as to why she listed so badly. They said that these cruise ships were supposed to be built to remain upright even in something like this.

So far 3 people have died, 3 people have been rescued and l think 40 people still missing. Positive thoughts for the missing!!

jude

Interesting to hear reports this morning that many men refused to keep to the old rule "Women and children first" and insisted on staying with their wives/families.

Others who jumped in said it was "every man for himself" and pushed away people trying to hang onto them as they swam to shore.

It sounds horrendous.

Gwynne

So many questions to be answered about why this happened, could have been an electrical fault but the Captain has been arrested........ it will all come out eventually but hope it will mean that other big vessels can be made safer if it was a mechanical/electrical fault. It was a good thing there was so much help nearby so that many people were saved. I hope the death toll won't be much higher and those people listed as missing have in fact been saved and are just not listed correctly for the mo.

Lizx