How to Abandon a Cruise Ship - or - whatever next !

[Chris Allman]

Well if you thought the gravity lifeboat was bad, then you have not seen the vertical chute. Scroll down to watch the video and picture elderly passengers having to do it. The mind boggles. that's if you have any hair ..............

[Captain Kong]

Excellent Chris. but terrifying.
Every one should boycott those `ships`. When the ships are empty then they will wonder why. People do not want BIG ships like that.
I only sail on smaller ships, HAL, last one the AMSTERDAM 970 passengers. very comfortable and plenty enough lifeboats, and a good lifeboat drill far better than Cunard. with British and Dutch[ no greek or italian ] Officers.
My mate Fred, ex MN, grand daughter is a childrens entertainer on the Oasis and the Legend of the Seas.
I will email it to him.
Thanks
Brian.

[Chris Allman]

Thanks Brian, not my idea of abandoning ship, someone is going to get killed doing that.

[Captain Kong]

That is very very dangerous, I cannot see how it was passed by the Coast Guard Agencies. maybe be a few back handers here and there perhaps???
even lifeboats with 370- people in, unbelievable.
All this in the pursuit of Proffits.
Ports should blacklist them , again a port with 8,500 touristas pouring ashore to spend money in the local economy is also big business.
Cheers ]
Brian

[John Arton]

Chris
Somewhere, either on gcaptain or linkedin, there is a video of a similar type of evacuation system made by, I think, Beaufort.
Never took a real close look at it but from what I could se the vertical tube seemed to have an inner circular slide similar to those in leisure centres where you go down on you back, exiting in the pool. The system I looked at, you landed on an inflated raft at the bottom. Biggest worry I would have thought was getting dizzy from going round and round as you descended the slide.
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

Or someone landing on top of you.
Cheers
Brian.

[Jim Brady]

To me it looks like a snake and it works on inertia in some way.One size fits all by the look of it.
Regards.
jim.B.

[Lou Barron]

Thats my idea of taking a cruise it is off i dont want another episode of swimming in the ocean to bloody old for that

[j.sabourn]

When you see all these cruise vessels these days, what a tempting target for the terrorist who wants to inflict the largest amount of casualitys possible irrespectrive of age, nationality or gender. An old world war 2 submarine in the wrong hands would accomplish more damage in seconds than the New York atrocity of a few years back. Their shock impetus of beheading civilians of different nationalitys, whilst still has the means of revulsion to most of us will soon be past its original intention to deter. The ideal answer to such would be to mete the same punishment on them ten fold. However western standards, and people themselves would not allow this, and the terrorists know this. They must never be allowed to get away with such, if they ever are, will show to other countries including the west that terrorism can accomplish the overthrow of any government including the democratically elected ones. The death penalty and public beheadings of these same people should be followed through with, so maybe if they are handed back to their own people for trial, the same as Saddam Hussein, would be the only course of action, otherwise they will only receive the mandatory 15 years or whatever it is, holiday at the taxpayers expense. JS

[Louis the fly]

If you are thinking of going to Europe on P&O North Sea Ferries of Hull be aware their two newest ferries have this chute system of evacuation.
In an emergency a fast rescue boat is launched and the liferafts dropped, the boat crew tow the inflated rafts to the evacuation door at water level.
Passengers and crew not involved in the evacuation then have to come down the chute. Inside the chute a fine mesh net surrounds the persons body to control the rate of fall. Each person must count five seconds before entering the chute to prevent landing on the previous one. The boat crew fill the raft then tow it away and replace it with the next.
This is how it is supposed to work, sounds o.k on paper.
I have tested this system on a bright sunny day in harbour. I would not like to test it in the middle of the night, blowing a gale with huge seas in the North Sea.