Safety at Sea: The Safety Precautions of Ocean Liners

It is the time of year when college students begin to flock to southern tourist destinations in order to have a little bit of fun after grinding through their spring semester mid-terms. That’s right ladies and gentlemen. I’m talking about spring break. There have been dozens of films and television shows that have focused their plot on the so called craziness and antics that go on when college students vacation during this period of time. However, I had never partaken in any spring break trips until this year. As a college senior, I decided to finally break the trend and take a cruise with several of my friends. Now cruising was not a new concept to me. I had been on four other trips such as this one beforehand, so I figured I pretty much knew the ins and outs of life on a ship. However, there was something about this ship that made me pay more attention during the mandatory safety drills and lectures before we left port.

Carnival Triumph

The ship we were on board was the Carnival Triumph. Now usually I have full faith in the operation and maintenance of a ship when I board, but this ship had a bit of a history. In February of 2013 the Triumph set sail for a routine cruise in the Caribbean. However, tragedy struck when an engine fire crippled the ship in open sea out of quick reach of support from dry land. The passengers and crew were then stranded on powerless cruise ship without bathroom facilities, electricity, clean water, and means of preparing food. The passengers were stuck in horrid conditions on board for nearly a week in an ordeal that was nicknamed the “poop cruise” by periodicals such as business insider . The conditions became so poor on board

Carnival Triumph Lobby as I saw it.

 that the interior of the ship had to essentially be gutted and disinfected in order for it to pass regulations once again. Now after this all had happened the ship had been brought up to code to ensure that another engine fire would not cripple the ship. I knew it was safe, but there were other things weighing on my mind.

The main reason that I paid close attention to the safety drills that were being held on board was due to the Costa Concordia disaster. The Costa Concordia was an Italian luxury liner that mainly did cruises in the Mediterranean Sea. It was heralded as one of the most glamorous and luxurious ships on the sea at the time.

Lobby of the Concordia before the sinking.

It towered over the ocean with thirteen decks of suites, restaurants, casinos and swimming pools to accommodate the 3780 passengers that were able to be comfortably housed within. The ship was on a routine voyage from the port of Rome Italy. During one of the nights spent at sea, the ship ran aground during the dinner portion of the evening. Passengers reported a violent shaking of the ship as a hole over 100 feet long was torn into the engine room. The flooding of the engine room resulted in a total loss of propulsion power as well as electrical power. Passengers were quickly assembled at the muster stations that they were shown before the ship left port. However, an abandon ship was not

Costa Concordia as passengers evacuate.

issued until an hour after the ship had run aground, despite the fact that the ship was listing steeply to the side of the impact. The evacuation of the passengers also took painstakingly longer than is required by law. Maritime law states that passengers and crew are to be evacuated off of the ship within a half hour of the abandon ship command. Instead, it took six hours for the final lifeboat to leave the Costa Concordia. Although the lifeboats were deployed, many were still trapped on board the ship as is continued to lean and eventually came to rest on its side near the coast of the island that it had hit.

Lobby of the Concordia after the Sinking.

The tragedy only killed 32 people out of the nearly 5000 people that were on board thanks to the well-organized way in which emergency evacuations are outlined for such a case. So as I stood on the deck of the Triumph alongside the lifeboats, I made sure to pay a little extra attention to where my emergency station was.