why ships sink

[Red Lead Ted]

Ted he may be king of the long jump, but after this he may well be in for the high jump.

Where he is heading he will be able to spend 23 hours a day blowing kisses to himself in the mirror. Typical WOP. Regards Terry.

[Lou Barron]

One of the first things we had to do when we joined as ship during the war was lifeboat drill and in port have practise lowering the lifeboat into the water and checking the gear not forgetting the plug .But it is a lot different when it come to the real thing .Understanable the circumstances was abit different but when we came to do it time was the factor with the ship on fire and sinking fast it was to get a life boat into the sea as i could see there was no panic but we did get a lifeboat into the sea

[happy daze john in oz]

Reading all the posts on this one nad having been on a ffew cruises with different companies I have concluded this. Some companies, and P&O come to mind, are very slack when it comes to lifeboat drill and barely go through the motions. Where as Royal Caribbean go to the full limit in instucting ALL on borad about where the boats are and the muster stations.

[Les Woodard]

Charles that is my point that we where trained regulary to get lifeboats away in an orderly fashion and as you would know we also knew what part we where to play so that each and every one of us would know where to go in an emergency and hope to hell that those who where waiting to board it kept calm to allow us to dispatch them as fast as possible. I am glad that it worked for yourself in an emergency so that we can hear what you have to say now. Could you imagine in your wildest dreams of sailing with a crew that never practiced this over and over again it would be sheer madness would it not. Daresay that from what is being posted that this is happening and probably why the latest disasters are showing it up that the crews are not being trained as they used to be.

[Captain Kong]

Brian you have me intrigued mate. Have you ever done a trip on a ship where there has never been a major incident? I ask this with tongue in cheek as well. Les.
.
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Hi Les, I have had a few boring non event ships, but after spending most of my working life on ships, starting 60 years ago last month, 17 March, 1952, and since retiring, sailing round the planet again on cruise ships every year I guess i did do some very interesting voyages on very interesting ships, mostly before the 70s, after that the game became sanitised and the `adventures` were not the same anymore, the most interesting ships and voyages were in the 50s. In those days you sailed on ships that had a lot of war experience including the men who sailed them , the whole game was different then. Then they all, the men and the ships , disapeared and life was not the same.
That is why I did it, if they were all just boring non event ships I would have stayed ashore.
Cheers
Brian.

---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 AM ----------

Boat drill on Cunards Queen Elizabeth, after the Concordia event was a non event.
We assembled in the theatre, a person showed every one how to don a lifejacket and that was it.
They never showed us which lifeboat to go to or where the embarkation deck was.
Certainly nothing like the Cunard of the 50s or 60s, where we did boat drill every week before the start of each voyage either from New York or Liverpool, Where we lowered the life boats to the embarkation deck and where the passengers were assembled at their assigned boat, and they were shown how to board the lifeboat.
We had Boat Deck Men whos job was just to look after the boats and maintain them.
I guess things have changed over the years and for the worse.
Cheers
Brian.

[Tony Wilding]

I wonder how many AB, s are employed on a cruise ship,? how many of the crew have lifeboat tickets, ? who have done a course of practical instruction, most seem to be catering or waiting staff, cant be classed as seaman, not just launching the boats but u need a seaman in charge of a boat after launching. i was engine room dept, but Trinity House towards the end of my seatime sent all ranks on survival and firefighting courses, the fire course was very realistic and scary, survival we had to learn how to right a capsized liferaft and prove we could do it , there are not enough deck crew to man every lifeboat on a large cruise ship,

[Capt Bill Davies]

I wonder how many AB, s are employed on a cruise ship,? how many of the crew have lifeboat tickets, ? who have done a course of practical instruction, most seem to be catering or waiting staff, cant be classed as seaman, not just launching the boats but u need a seaman in charge of a boat after launching. i was engine room dept, but Trinity House towards the end of my seatime sent all ranks on survival and firefighting courses, the fire course was very realistic and scary, survival we had to learn how to right a capsized liferaft and prove we could do it , there are not enough deck crew to man every lifeboat on a large cruise ship,

Good question Tony and could be extended to how many on the Deck Officers can use a sextant!

Brgds

Bill

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Guys, This was also the case on Castle boats, frequent drills, and boats lowered to the boarding decks, my last trip on Union Castle, the lifeboat drill took my finger with it!!!!, i leant out to throw the griping wire clear, and the boat was let down the track before i could clear my hand, lucky really as i could have lost my hand. incidently, we also carried out a roll call at each boat, as all passengers were assigned a boat, so you soon new who was missing. Alas bygone days, regards keith

[Captain Kong]

In Cunard, there are no ABs they call them Technicians, I do not know if they have a Lifeboat Certificate, a Fire Fighting Certificate or Survival Certificate, they were very reluctant to talk about it.
Cheers
Brian.

---------- Post added at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 AM ----------

When I was on the Empress of England in 1961 we always lowed the lifeboats into the water in Montreall and using the levers took the boats around the dock, One of the boats got too near the end of the pier and was caught by the St Laurence River current and swept down river.
It ended up ashore several miles down the River and they had to come back to Montreal on the bus. There were about 15 of them. They said they felt a bit daft sitting on a bus nearly 1000 from the sea wearing lifejackest.
The boat was later recovered by a Tug.
Cheers
Brian.

[Tony Wilding]

Hi Bill, do they know what a sextant is, ? doubt if any are on board,