Damage to the bow of the Pacific Star after a storm in 2007 resulting in a cancelled cruise
The video of unsecured furniture flying about on the P&O cruise ship, Pacific Sun, is all over the internet. A Carnival spokesperson (Carnival owns P&O) is quoted as saying, “The incident was fully investigated and lessons learnt have been heeded, including the securing of tables and other furnishings aboard.” As Captain D. Peter Boucher commented on our previous post, “the lessons were learned hundreds of years ago by seafarers,” as indeed they were. There is, however, more to this story than initially meets the eye.
It appears that this was not just a case of cruise line learning a very basic lesson in seamanship, but rather a repeat performance of a lesson wholly unlearned. The Pacific Sun was caught in a storm off Vanuatu at the end of July in 2008. Carnival spokesman David Johns said, “A series of waves buffeted the ship, having an impact for people onboard… This was an exceptionally rare occurrence.”
Apparently not so rare. Almost exactly a year before, the Pacific Star, a sister-ship to the Pacific Sun, was caught in a storm also just off Vanuatu and was sufficiently damaged that the cruise had to be cancelled. Fortunately, no passengers were seriously injured on the Star. Unfortunately for passengers of the Pacific Sun, apparently nothing was learned from the damage to the Star.
Storm ends Pacific Star cruise
One might understand, if not necessarily excuse, how objects which are required to move about, chairs, for example, might not be properly secured. It was reported on the Pacific Sun, however, that some of “the worst injuries were caused when gambling machines crashed over on top of people.” It is difficult to imagine any justification why large gaming machines in a casino would not be properly secured for sea, particularly on a winter cruise in waters where a sister-ship suffered cruise ending damage in a storm only the year before.
Passengers hurt as storm rocks New Zealand cruise ship
But why is this story and video coming to the surface now? One of the women in the video being battered by flying furniture is now suing the cruise line. The company claims that the “drama happened during very unusual weather.” That would be the same sort of unusual weather as damaged the Pacific Star in the same waters only a year before?
Why am I not surprised by any of this? Well I sailed in cruise ships for many years. Those hotel and amusment park persons rarely if ever paid any attention to the opinions of we seafarers. The MS “Caribe 1” was a former TransAtlantic liner comfortable and secure in all weather conditions. Quite unlike those new design cruise ships we now see.
Good Watch.
Quite! The design of today’s cruise ships (even aside from what was and wasn’t done to secure loose furniture) is calculated to squeeze the most volume into each hull (with help from the biggest possible superstructure.) Today’s designers see volume as revenue and don’t recognize the effect that volume can have on seakeeping.
What they don’t see is that extreme flare is likely to trigger violent motions when these topside volumes become immersed. Furthermore, letting the superstructure extend too near the bow is a mistake — two ships of the same class suffered smashed fore bulkheads of their superstructures, in two different oceans, a couple of years apart. There were several injuries. (I can’t recall the names of those ships but I remember looking at photos of them and thinking their designers ought to have taken remedial liner design from William Francis Gibbs while he was still alive).
My grandfather, who was afraid of flying, took me on a number of cruises when I was in my teens. We sailed on many converted Atlantic liners; my favorite was the Michelangelo. Even in fairly rugged conditions she just sped on (at some 28 knots, too). When I took a cruise to Bermuda in 2002 on a modern ship I was shocked at the motions and wave slap noises, even though conditions were mild the whole time and we never went faster than 23.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the modern cruise ship and the classic passenger liner have relatively little in common. The latter was designed to cross oceans while the former is a floating resort. As long as cruise ships stay in calm and protected waters they generally stay out of trouble. And then there are the times when the sea doesn’t cooperate with the cruise director.
i was on the pacific sun cruise in 2008 and if you thought the pictures were bad it was a lot worse
Wow. Glad that you are OK.