Carnival Splendor

[jimmys]

Try www.johnhealdsblog.com he is the cruise director, an interesting read. Not very nice. and Glan may be correct a lot of the names seem to be Italian. A mix of officers maybe.
I think they may be very lucky, the CO2 extinguished the fire, does not always work. Passengers talk about rumbles and vibration on higher decks. Bad to vibrate that size of ship.

regards
jimmy

[jimmys]

I do note on the vessel the punters were crap-ing in the saloons and rest rooms. You would have thought with vacuum toilets they would have had a dozen thunderboxes permanently rigged at the poop. Probably to low brow for our Italian friends. A thunderbox is a wonderful crap-ing machine, it never breaks down. Leaves healthy well ventilated backsides. Old chippies were masters at the manufacture. Splinter free.
I see the reason they could not get going was the switchboard was destroyed by fire, see John Healds Blog. Be most interesting to see the lead up to this.
A Panamanian ship, flagged and certified by them. I am just about to look which Classification Society. I hope not Lloyds. I have just looked- She is on Lloyds Register, this will be costly
We are seeing preliminary report crankcase split in engine no. 5

regards
jimmy

[jimmys]

It is now coming through that the CO2 system on the above vessel did not operate and the medium never got to the engine room.
An alert has gone out to all ships by USCG about the problem.
We have not yet heard the cause of the fire.

regards
jimmy

[jimmys]

Some information at :-

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=4290

I must say not very nice reports for our splendid passenger vessel. Of course we must note the Master of the vessel prior to loading any passengers would have been required to sign documents as the owners representative on board that all systems were 100% satisfactory. It is the owners responsibility for a safe ship through their representative the Master. It cannot be delegated. We have not yet been told the cause of the fire. Maybe a problem of reverse power as the no5 engine failed.


regards
jimmy

[robpage]

last time i did Fire Fighting training at Warsash , I admit , a long time ago . I recollect that if you were to use a fixed application , CO2 , or steam which was still around that long ago , the effectiveness was within a very tight window from the outbreak of the fire and not 5 hours afterwards . memory tells me that it should be applied quite quickly , as soon after a muster as possible .

I know you are more up to date on these things than I am JimmyS , and I have spent 25 years trusting the Local fire and Rescue service ,m so my memory is very rusty

regards

Rob

[jimmys]

I do not know what has happened here. I think when No5 engine failed the reverse power has not tripped and the other five engines tried to drive it. The two engine rooms were interconnected through their respective switchboards and it has damaged both boards through this overload as all power would divert from the screws to drive the failed engine.
The fire is caused internally in the main cabling through overcurrent. It all happens quickly in less than a second.
If they do not realise this and force main alternators on the boards the heat source will recommence and reignite.
The forcing of main alternators could have been the reason for CO2 to be used five hours after the original fire.
I would have thought reignition was the only reason for the Master to use CO2. In this type of fire it is useless anyway. It does not depend on oxygen as the heat source is in the cable through voltage and current.
It is ridiculous they could not inject the CO2 and heads will need to roll for this.
The US Coastgaurd are on the ball and we will get more. These are main propulsion breakers and overload and reverse power are difficult.

regards
jimmy

[robpage]

I know that I am always very cynical of multi national crewing , and cruise ships in general , but the whole episode just starts to sound like one disaster after another .

I wonder how well the on board communications between the fire fighting team and the bridge worked , I have been in three ship board fires in my 20 + years at sea , and they are frightening .

I just cannot understand that the CO2 was used 5 hours after the first fire was found , It sounds like an admission of not knowing what to do , so chuck what you have at it .

If it was reignition , and that is the only conceivable reason that I can think of to use CO2 , it seems strange that the if power was off and a five hour delay , that the cable would reignite . Cables I have used ashore for 25 years are almost , self extinguishing , with Low smoke and fume characteristics .

Lets hope that the truth gets out , I thought the Canberra taught the lesson of electric propulsion , with the tragic accident that she had in the early days

Regards

Rob

[jimmys]

I note on the ship position tracking sites the above vessel has some movement.
I would think as trials finish we may see some explanation for the fiasco from the USCoastguard. Some explanation will need to come out before they load passengers again even as a confidence builder.
I would not think the Yanks will be very keen on that vessel.
I dont know if we have any members out on the US West coast who maybe hear some more news.Xmas time the last substantial news.

regards
jimmy