Jewel of the Seas

As cruise ships grow ever larger safety professionals have questioned whether passengers will be able to get to the life boats in time in case of an  emergency. (See Captain D. Peter Boucher’s BIGGER IS BETTER – NOT on his Nautical Log blog for as discussion of the problems of moving people to the boats on the new large ships.)

With that in mind, there is a very interesting research project ongoing. Researchers from the University of Greenwich’s Fire Safety Engineering Group used one hundred video cameras to document passenger movement in a live  assembly drill at sea on the  the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Jewel of the Seas.

Approximately 2,300 passengers took part and each wore specially developed, infra-red tracking tags to allow researchers to follow each person’s movements and trace the paths people took as they made their way to the various assembly points on board.  The good news is that this research will provide real-time information of the flow of the 2,300 passengers of the Jewel of the Seas. The bad news is that Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas can each carry over 6,000 passengers and another 2,00 crew.

Ship Evacuation Experiment: More Than 2,300 Passengers Take Part in ‘Live’ Assembly Drill at Sea

A research team led by the University of Greenwich has carried out a ground-breaking experiment in ship evacuation and safety procedures which could set the benchmark for future maritime law. The research team was made up of 11 members of the European Union, Framework 7 funded project SAFEGUARD.

Passengers’ response times once the evacuation alarm sounded were measured by one hundred video cameras — which included CCTV, fish-eye, digital and analog cameras — specially positioned by the research team. Passengers also wore specially developed, infra-red tracking tags throughout the half-hour exercise, which allowed researchers to locate each person’s exact movements and reconstruct the paths people took as they made their way around the cruise liner to the various assembly points on board.

Head of the research team Professor Ed Galea, who is also Director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich, said the experiment on board the Jewel of the Seas had created nothing less than a piece of maritime history. “This assembly trial was unique in several aspects, as we collected data from a large cruise ship, during a virtually unannounced assembly drill and while we were actually at sea,” he said.

“The research measured realistic response times to the alarm, at a time when 2,300 passengers were spread over 12 decks. Although passengers had been told the day before that we would be doing a drill, they were largely unprepared — in their staterooms, in the bars, in the gym, in the shops, restaurants and elsewhere — as the alarm sounded.

“All of this represents a significant difference from a typical assembly trial, which is heavily announced beforehand, which takes place before the ship sails, and where many of the passengers are already at the assembly points simply waiting for the drill to begin.”

The exercise on board the Jewel of the Seas forms part of the three-year SAFEGUARD project, funded by the EU to the tune of more than three million euros, which was set up to analyse ship evacuation procedures — in particular the length of time it takes passengers to respond to an alarm — and to improve current evacuation analysis practices.

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing the article along.