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| looking out for pirates |
Technology is a wonderful thing.
A ship sank half way around the world and through the wonders of technology, we were not only able to watch the sad hulk lying forlornly on her side 11,500 miles away; but the live progress of her salvagers working diligently to right and refloat her, some 30 months later.
A three Act drama played out against a sea of publicity in front of the world’s media. The sort of publicity any Broadway producer would dream of, but the head gaffer of a shipping line would find a nightmare.
Act one: Her birth at a cost of $USD570 million in 2005 when at the time she was one of the largest ships ever built in Italy. Act Two: Her short life of only 7 years traversing the Mediterranean. Finally, Three: Her abandonment and death inconveniently wedged on the rocks in a place few of us had heard of - before her Captain decided to show off to his paramour and like Icarus, fly too close to danger.
In July, Costa Concordia began her last journey through the remaining Greek Islands (that she managed to physically avoid colliding with) and on to Genoa for the curtain call in a Greek Tragedy mercifully few of us will ever endure.
Over the last two years I have watched her lying on her side through a web cam positioned on Giglio and seeing the Captain’s face spread across the media, a man with all the apparent morals of a polecat, has made me reflect on the quality of the officers and people who come to sea and take our safety into their hands.
In 1991, a Greek ship, the Oceanos, sank off the coast of South Africa. The Greek crew and officers abandoned their posts and filled the lifeboats, apparently with their luggage, before making for the shore and leaving the remaining 571 passengers to be assisted by the British Entertainment Crew. Left alone and now without life-rafts, they awaited the helicopters from the South African Airforce sent to assist them. The last to leave the ship was the Chief Entertainment Officer, being winched off the ship moments before the stern sank below the surface into shark infested waters.
The Captain’s reasons for leaving so prematurely?
To assist the evacuation from land. Funnily enough the same reason Italian Captain Schettino from the Concordia used after he apparently “fell” into a lifeboat. Titanic’s Captain Smith who reportedly remained at his post until the last would shudder in disbelief.
I often think of these incidents as we stand about at ships muster. A procedure that is standard practice on any cruise ship, but where the timing is more lax on some than on others. Here, dressed in bright orange life jackets, we are directed on the safety procedures in the case of emergency much in the same way as we are directed to the exit rows on an aircraft…
“Don your life-belt, walk quickly to your muster station, do not use the lift, do not pass go, do not collect $200.”
A few years ago in 2008, on the good ship Queen Victoria whilst sailing though the Gulf of Aden, a small French cruise ship “Le Ponant" was travelling some 2000 meters behind us, supposedly piggybacking the force of the Frigate and security employed by Cunard; but was attacked nonetheless, hijacked and subsequently held for ransom by pirates. Their gamble of not providing their own security in these waters, sadly failed them. Fortunately there were no passengers on board and the only casualties were the pirates who subsequently failed in a bid to successfully transact their ransom demands.
Those left alive after the following shootout with the French Foreign Legion on the shores of Somalia, were captured and jailed in France.
Our security force got us out of immediate danger, the Captain “flooring it” and the frigate jumping into protective action around us. Unlike those of us watching from the pool, most passengers below decks were not even aware of the situation until we arrived in Egypt some hours earlier than originally scheduled.
The Cruise Lines International Associate (CLIA) reports that from 2005 to 2011, the odds of death on a cruise ship in that period were 1 in 6.25million, making cruising one of the safest ways of mass transportation that we have.
I would take my chances on a cruise ship as opposed to a bus any day, though maybe I’ll check out the quality, morals and nationality of the Captain first.
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