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I’m probably repeating myself somewhere, but I have grave misgivings about the largest cruise ship in the world which will go into service next month.
It can carry over 6,000 passengers and 2,100 crew. That’s an awful lot of people.
I just can’t imagine, despite anything the owners might say, that in an emergency situation any ship’s system can disgorge over 8,000 people ashore or into lifeboats safely and quickly.
I don’t wish to be a doom-sayer, but these huge ships are, in my view at any rate, just accidents waiting to happen. No matter how efficient and safety-conscious the crew of such ships are, there are always idiots around who take risks and in doing so become dangers to others. And when you are talking about ships that can take many miles to come to a stop or may not have much room to manoeuvre in inland waters and harbour entrances, then the dangers in terms of passenger numbers are magnified.
When there is the inevitable accident, government agencies and classification societies world-wide will take another look at these behemoths and write a whole new set of regulations for them. As always concerning maritime and similar matters, lessons are always to be learned. One just hopes that the lessons in respect of this size of ship have already been learned.
I wish the new ship well, for one benefit of its introduction will be to add many thousands more berths into the cruise market and help to keep prices competitive.
But for me, the smaller ships are more intimate and, in my opinion, safer.
.
I’m probably repeating myself somewhere, but I have grave misgivings about the largest cruise ship in the world which will go into service next month.
It can carry over 6,000 passengers and 2,100 crew. That’s an awful lot of people.
I just can’t imagine, despite anything the owners might say, that in an emergency situation any ship’s system can disgorge over 8,000 people ashore or into lifeboats safely and quickly.
I don’t wish to be a doom-sayer, but these huge ships are, in my view at any rate, just accidents waiting to happen. No matter how efficient and safety-conscious the crew of such ships are, there are always idiots around who take risks and in doing so become dangers to others. And when you are talking about ships that can take many miles to come to a stop or may not have much room to manoeuvre in inland waters and harbour entrances, then the dangers in terms of passenger numbers are magnified.
When there is the inevitable accident, government agencies and classification societies world-wide will take another look at these behemoths and write a whole new set of regulations for them. As always concerning maritime and similar matters, lessons are always to be learned. One just hopes that the lessons in respect of this size of ship have already been learned.
I wish the new ship well, for one benefit of its introduction will be to add many thousands more berths into the cruise market and help to keep prices competitive.
But for me, the smaller ships are more intimate and, in my opinion, safer.
.
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