Well, this one was a bit different story, the first two though -- that's on the operator -- the same operator -- who might well be out of business at some time after the claims come home.

By the way, you go up the Costas food chain and I believe they are linked with Princess and Carnival. Carnival had a ship fire last year that caused a serious mess in a cruise from LA to Mexico and back.

I'd imagine it's likely coincidence rather than a sign that Italy has a new found problem with sailing, after all:

"BBC Science" wrote:

"Two large ships sink every week on average," said Wolfgang Rosenthal, of the GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht, Germany. "But the cause is never studied to the same detail as an air crash. It simply gets put down to 'bad weather'."

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I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

Christopher Columbus didn't know where he was going.

It has been the same ever since.

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Unvarnished
Haaretz
Jerusalem Post
The origin of the Yahweh Cult

Fair comment there, but Italy is not exactly known for it's maritime expertise. Probably a combination of things. However, in the unlikely event that I ever go on a cruise, I think I'll stick with P&O or Cunard.

You might just want to check this Carnival Corporation.

You can even go back to the 1950's and the sinking of the "Andrea Doria" after it crossed the wrong way approaching the MS "Stockholm" in the fog nearing the entrance to New York harbor and was rammed. In the aftermath the crew of the Italian liner displayed very poor seamanship as it was the crew of the Stockholm who manned their own lifeboats to rescue the bulk of the passengers from the Doria.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The Andrea Doria was a dedicated North Atlantic ocean liner and even though a good number of her crew were part of the passenger service staff it was reported in the book I read about the incident that her sailors in several cases manned the lifeboats only partially full and after getting to the Stockholm refused to go back for more survivors.

It was also mentioned in the book that had the Captain of the Doria made a decision early to counter flood the fuel tanks on the opposite side from where she was rammed the liner most likely would have survived. His reason for not doing so was (at the time) a concern that the owners would have gotten angry over the expense of cleaning the tanks after docking.

I know I have strayed a bit but this is an example of poor training in the Italian sailing schools

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I always understood that usually only the Captain and senior officers of cruise ships are of the Nationality of the ship.

I thought they could be any nationality at all, otherwise why are there flags of convenience? I suspect they only need a license from the flag government.

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I think the problem today with many cruise lines is greed. There are many of these incidents occurring too often lately, so is their health & safety being slackened &/or their staff training under par?

Fire onboard Cruise Ship

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Neither really.

Like the catering and hotel industries, the cruise ship industry is notoriously badly paid. Traditionally employers have a no questions asked ethos and are not too fussy if people do not have "paperwork", provided they are prepared to work long hours for low pay. In the "Service" industries employers rely upon tips to the workers to make up the pay.

Consequently Except for the Captain and senior officers, the rest of the staff are usually lowly educated ethnic minorities who are the only ones willing to take that sort of work. If you have an Engine Room fire, no matter how capable the Chief, 1st & 2nd Engineers are, if the rest cannot use the fire fighting equipment you're stuffed.

All ships of any kind have to have regular inspections and issued with safety certificates before they can sail. The Senior officers also have to be certificated. The same does not apply to the rest of the crew. There is your problem.

Is that a fact! I wouldn't have thought of that after 30 years in the transport industry & you're wrong. That is not the problem. The problem is the fatcat owners taking out the profits without investing properly in their own companies.

Ah whats a little fire. The odds of it happening on all the ships within one company are pretty high & then that's what insurance is for.

The days of the Captain(+owners) going down with the ship are long dead!

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No matter what a board of inquiry recommends, the accidents continue to happen, or have you forgotten what you've already posted?

Quote "Like the catering and hotel industries, the cruise ship industry is notoriously badly paid." unquoute.

Money talks, Safety walks.

As for headline writing, I did work for the Guardian in 1972 but got sacked after 4 months - not Guardianista enough for them!

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Polly Toynbee ...

gaag dribble gosk

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues