Cruise Bruise Blog
November 4, 2009
November 4, 2009
A Titanic Size Problem Facing American Cruise Ship Passengers
In my investigation of safety at sea, I took a look at how well passengers would fair when it came to a catastrophe at sea. I randomly chose 50 ships total, from five cruise lines, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, then looked at the chosen vessels over a recent period of five years.
The results were far from desirable. When it came to the crew knowing what to do in an emergency, the crew least likely to succeed were aboard the Norwegian Jewel. A report dated November 14, 2008 found that "during the abandon ship drill, the majority of crewmembers lacked knowledge regarding abandon ship procedures, equipment in lifeboat, etc."
The ship was permitted to sail inspite of this revolting development and did not show proficiency until a month and half later. For at least those six weeks, it would a be a crap shoot as to whether passengers would survive the worst day of their lives, had it taken place at sea aboard Norwegian Jewel.
HAL Veendam, HAL Ryndam, HAL Oosterdam, RCI Voyager Of The Seas and RCI Legend Of The Seas also failed their demonstration of abandon ship procedures during at least one inspection each. Lifeboat commanders and crew were required to get immediate additional training before the ships could pass muster and sail away in most cases. It leaves doubt that the crash course in passenger survival would stick long enough to do any real good, other than pacify inspectors at the moment.
Aboard Holland America Line's Veendam, there was no exit sign at all from the aft area of the teen room and signs were missing in the casino. The talent were in for final show due to exits at the rear of the theatre blocked, though they were joined by the slobs over at Carnival Legend who also blocked the only exit out of the rear of the theatre with junk.
Inspectors also noticed that the side exit from a Bingo hall on Veendam, a favorite hangout aboard for senior citizens, was blocked with debris and the crew exits from the Massage Center were difficult to maneuver in an emergency situation being both narrow and dimly lit.
Very concerning were the exit doors out of the main dining room being "frozen" and very difficult to open aboard HAL Westerdam severely slowing down the exit of hundreds of people making a mad dash, if the ship was ablaze or sinking.
More troubling were eight fire-safe doors not working at all. These doors were suppose to prevent the spread of fire long enough for people to find the exits that were not marked, moved debris from exits, hallways and stairs they did find, then get into the lifeboats, the crew had no idea at all how to launch. Westerdam was sailing on borrowed time.
There were problems with fire-safe and water-tight doors on many of the ships, including Enchantment Of The Seas. Aboard Enchantment, the motor was discovered burned out on door #TT06 earlier this year. In 2007, fire doors 1034, 4011, 10006, 06r02, 5002 and 5003 were not working properly.
It was discovered that Enchantment's rescue boat had holes in the hull and the engine was not working. When lifeboat #17 was taken out of service due to a fire, the replacement boat was found to have a "loss of propulsion due to hole in oil pan". There were also problems with lifeboat #14 and prior, lifeboat #3 after it had a fire. Had everyone abandoned ship though, they would have found expired water and food in the lifeboats in Spring 2007.
That same year, it was discovered three lifeboats #9, #11 and #12 were in poor repair aboard Enchantment Of The Seas while fire-safe doors B-15, 33 & Game Room would not close properly .
Aboard Legend Of The Seas, keeping things pretty and saving a buck was more important that saving lives. In 2006, inspectors noted "Numerous fire doors have protective canvas covers installed to protect from doors getting scratched. The way covers are installed will prevent the doors from closing properly."
Vision Of The Seas crew had no idea that fire-safe doors 1.20 and 4.02 would not close in 2006 in a continued story of crew not checking the doors designed to save lives aboard cruise ships.
Crew assistance at the lifeboats would assume that the crew could find their way out the crew areas filled with darkness and smoke. Aboard HAL Veendam and Ryndam the ships were noticed for the lack of glow in the dark tape in the crew areas, making it hard for them to find their way out of the crew area quickly.
During inspections, dozens of lifeboats were found with holes in the hulls, engines not working, top covers were torn or rotten unable to withstand severe weather, food rations were due to expire on current cruise and batteries were dead, just to name a few of the contributing factors to impending disaster related to the lifeboats.
Passengers aboard Ryndam might have been jumping from the fire to the pan when they dove into lifeboats. Four of the lifeboats were found with excessive oil/fuel in the bilges, likely to catch fire when the engines were fired up, if the engines fired up at all.
Though passengers piling into lifeboats #10 and #13 provided by Volendam, which combined would hold nearly 300 people would have to be prepared to rapidly scoop out the water flooding their safe haven on voyages in the past year.
Carnival Imagination had been sailing for an unknown period of time up until August 2007 with lifeboat #19 inoperable due to wench failure. When discovered, the passengers were simply moved to other muster stations for the next cruise, sailing one lifeboat short. Earlier that year lifeboat #20 was out of service for a week as well.
Not an isolated problem with lifeboats, Voyager Of The Seas had problems with four lifeboats #19, #21, #23, and #25 when the ship was inspected in late 2006.
In December 2005 when the rescue boat aboard Carnival Legend was launched for testing, the battery was dead. There is no telling how long that problem went on before discovery by inspectors.
The wench of lifeboat #12 failed during inspection and lifeboat #5 had a cracked window aboard Carnival Sensation in April 2006 while several fire stations valves were locked and inoperable along with five fire-safe doors and one water-tight door not working properly either.
Dozens of the ships I checked had fire extinguishers that were not working, were expired or working improperly, emergency telephones not working, fireboxes not working and in one case, the fire extinguishers were behind locked doors.
Not checking and maintaining fire fighting systems was a widespread problem. Freedom Of The Seas was noticed for not checking their Fixed CO2 Fire Extinguishing System for over a year. The last check on the system had been around the same time lifeboat #10 could not be launched due to a wench problem. When the crew did check the CO2 system, all systems were not running perfect. The follow-up report indicated "proper repairs" had been made.
An example of the problem facing evacuating passengers was aboard HAL Statendam. Fire hydrant box handles were inoperable at five hydrant stations last year. In 2007, at Dutch Harbor, Alaska the crew were noticed on the overhang of the Lido deck over the lifeboats that might hinder lifeboats floating free during launching, a design flaw passengers would not have expected. In 2005, inspectors noticed the life raft on loan to the ship had a major air leak in it, rendering it useless once full of people.
It is clear the crew on dozens of ships are not maintaining the fire-safe doors and water-tight doors, a critical mistake. They are not ensuring, exits paths nor the lifeboats are properly maintained, with Holland America Line leading the pack in failures over the past five years.
In all, from the fifty ships I looked at, only a handful had no critical errors when it came to their ability to preserve life during a catastrophe. When cruise lines say they take the safety of their passengers seriously, they have apparently failed to ensure that noble concept is practiced by those employed on their ships.
