Ship Simulator
English forum => Small talk => The Chat Lounge => Topic started by: clanky on February 11, 2013, 06:19:36
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Sad news from Thomson Majesty, a lifeboat has fallen to the sea killing 5 crew members and injuring 3 more. The ship, owned and operated by Louis Cruise Lines on behalf of British firm Thomson Cruises is Maltese registered. Photos sent to BBC news by the cargo seem to indicate that a fall wire (the wires which hang the boat from the davits) parted allowing the boat to drop to the sea.
BBC news story here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21403419)
My girlfriend worked on Majesty last season and I went onboard as cargo to visit her, my impression was of a well found and well managed ship.
I can't back the statistics up, but I have heard it quoted many times that since the end of the second world war, lifeboats have killed more people than they have saved.
My thoughts are with all onboard and with the families of those onboard.
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Hi Clanky,
Many years ago I was in Lake Charles, Louisiana. We had four wooden lifeboats stowed with gravity davits. Great for lowering the boats but hellish to bring back up again by means of crank handles. We had lowered the two boats on the outside of the ship (Wooden boats had to have a regular soaking to keep the clinker seams tight.) and were in the process of bringing the first one back up using a portable electric motor provided by the owners specifically for the job. All went well until the boat reached the davit heads and started to come back to the housing of the davits when it was found that the motor could not be stopped!!! Somewhat of a minor panic as the two crew in the boat made a leap for safety and then the inevitable, both wire falls carried away when the davits hit their housing. Boat and davits went down, the boat into the water and the davits into a twisted bunch of steel. The boat surprisingly was undamaged but the davits were a complete wreck. The US Coastguard gave special dispensation for us to sail to New Orleans with the boat slung off a derrick at no 4 hatch in case of emergency and the twisted davits lashed up as best we could. Guess who was handling the drill? Yes, guilty as charged. The ship was M.V. "Wanderer". Picture attached. Fortunately there were no injuries, unlike the sad situation you mention. The time:- January 1957, 56 years ago, a very long time ago indeed. These things happen sadly. :-[
Regards,
Angus.
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The sad thing is that they keep happening over and over again. I have no idea what Transport Malta will determine the root cause of this to be, but when you look at the number of incidents year in, year out, the true root cause has to be "lifeboats".
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Maybe it's time to develop a safer lifeboat launching system, that limits the use of davits, but still able to load and launch safely and quickly in emergency situations.
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Sadly sometime safty equitment will kill as too many people rely on the and nothing else is planned
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Maybe it's time to develop a safer lifeboat launching system, that limits the use of davits, but still able to load and launch safely and quickly in emergency situations.
Well, you can't get enough freefall lifeboats on a passenger ship to rescue all people from board. But here is a very impressive system, unfortunately too large for a cruise liner as well:
(Courtesy by Norsafe/Norway)
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Although I prefer a free fall boat above an davit launched one, I am not sure if it's suitable to be fitted on a passenger vessel. It might be possible to lower it by crane, but what's the benefit then?
When I am on board and in charge, there won't be any person in the lifeboat when it's being lowered or heaved back to it's cradle.
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Sadly sometime safty equitment will kill as too many people rely on the and nothing else is planned
3 deaths are caused a year in the UK due to safty equitment
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3 deaths are caused a year in the UK due to safty equitment
Then what do you rather want? 3 deaths or 100 deaths? Or maybe 1000 deaths??
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Are marine evacuation chutes a suitable way for evacuating passengers on a ship in distress, even when the ship is making a severe list? And can such a chute be used on the high site of a listing ship? More info about marine evacuation chutes, see http://www.surviteczodiac.com/products/mes/chutes.aspx (http://www.surviteczodiac.com/products/mes/chutes.aspx).
This vessel below (HNLMS Rotterdam L800 Landing Platform Dock) has a marine evacuation chute system. Notice the rectangular boxes adjacent to the stowed liferafts on the gangway below the helicopter deck and superstructure:
(http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11758.0;attach=37487;image)
(http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11758.0;attach=37489;image)
Marine evacuation chute being used in an emergency drill on board of the DFDS King Seaways:
(http://cdn2.shipspotting.com/photos/middle/0/0/3/1470300.jpg)
(Taken from http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1470300 (http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1470300))
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There is a huge drop there. I think that will be unsafe for older people on king seaways. I assume they go into the sea only to be recovered wet and cold. I think that they should be dropped from a lower hight as that too easy to break bones
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Strange how we can put men on the moon, but yet are unable to construct a satisfactory life-boat system..
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No, it is really the same! Take one or two people on the moon or rescue one or two from a sinking ship. But there more then just two on a ship, unfortunately. :doh:
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Marine evacuation chutes are perfectly safe if you know what you are doing, they are fitted on some passenger ships, shipping companies love them because they can have an evacuation excercise where they can evacuate everyone in 30 minutes which is still a SOLAS requirement for passenger vessels even though everyone knows that it simply would not be possible in reality.
I have used a couple of different MES systems and they are actually quite good, but even as a realatively young and fit (by cruise ship passenger standards anyway) seafarer, who had been trained and briefed on what to expect, it still took a lot for me to get over my fear of the unkown the first time and jump into the chute. When shipping companies stage these excercises they use people who have been trained, they rehearse in advance and they get the required number of people into the rafts in the required time frame, in reality you would have people so scared that they would either refuse to go down, or worse, would panic inside the chute and get stuck, blocking it for everyone else.
Freefall boats are fine for cargo ships and many have gone that way as they are safer to launch and recover, but wouldn't work on passenger ships due to the numbers required and the fear factor again.
The other issue is tht cruise ships use tenders to ferry passengers ashore in ports where the ship has to anchor. The boat which fell from Thomson Majesty was a tender boat (which also doubles as a life boat), so no matter what kind of evacuation system you have, there will always be boats on falls.