Icon of the seas

Life boats on the 'Paproa', as I recall being on her in 1964 they were not in great condition but would have no doubt been some use.

Skipper on a cruise ship told me the life boats must have enough fuel for four hours, he never indicated which four.
Supposed to be able to two four life rafts each, but the latest ones do look very efficient on the surface.

Have been on a couple used as tenders to take passengers ashore and the seats ae hard and they do pack the passengers in.

Food and water signs show where it SHOULD be, never looked yet, may try next time.

Lifeboats originally were made to get somewhere . Today one should in most cases stay in the area of the ship going down . Today is the day of the Epirb and GPS and push button science. The days of small boat seamanship is confined to FRC s and liferafts , all supposedly unsinkable unless of course by fire , explosion, and don’t even have to worry about the deck boy putting the plugs in. If too lazy to launch the rafts yourself they will do it themselves if you’re willing to hang around as fitted with self release hydrostatic releases . However like most seafarers I always plump for the ship being the biggest and best lifeboat of them all , and should attempt to keep it afloat and have more chance of survival. JS

John.
My last ship was the Union Co Karu on the Auckland to Bluff run, and we hit a massive storm, I thought typical, last ship last voyage and we sink.
Sea water running under the bulkhead and the deck every time she took one over, she was a proper old wreck, thankfully reached Auckland where we paid off over a dispute about a washing machine, . She was towed to Korea for breaking up didn't make it sunk on the way. I was one voyage ahead LoL.
Des

On the "Paproa' crossing the Australian bight we though we were in a sub, the weather was so heavy.
No one allowed on deck for three days, not sure how the life boats would have gone had we needed to use them

I was amazed with the stability of the Arcadia on a cruise once. We were stuck in a hurricane for four days, but it was nothing like the old cargo boats. I had a chat with the skipper about it, and he said it was stabilizers doing their job. Mind you, many people thought it was terrible. I thought it was great getting rocked to sleep at night. Mrs didn't even mind it, with the eateries being mostly empty.

On my last cruise, September this year, we had to attend a lifeboat muster station on the deck. This was held before sailing.
Most cruise companies have gone back to this now as the virtual muster was only introduced as a covid exception. I have experienced both and prefer the physical muster, this was on the Disney Dream this year.
Regards Michael

#35 Johnny , Can’t remember the exact figures to give you a good idea of the stiffness or tenderness of the ship , perhaps one of the others may remember to give you the metercentric height ( your GM ) The first part is you count the seconds the ship rolls from the upright to port or starboard then back again to the upright and rolls the other way and then back to the upright . The total time in seconds is then divided by a certain number to give your GM in feet and inches. A big GM is usually considered as the ship is not going to capsize but on the other hand can be too big and the return to the upright can be too violent. A tender ship small GM
Is the opposite slow and lazy roll but any changes in the size of your GM such as shifting cargo can be hazarduous to your health. If you can find that magic number , on your next cruise dazzle these ships officers with your knowledge , good sailings and hope the weather stays good on your next voyage. That magic figure thinking back may be the ships beam . Cheers JS.

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

#35 Johnny , Can’t remember the exact figures to give you a good idea of the stiffness or tenderness of the ship , perhaps one of the others may remember to give you the metercentric height ( your GM ) The first part is you count the seconds the ship rolls from the upright to port or starboard then back again to the upright and rolls the other way and then back to the upright . The total time in seconds is then divided by a certain number to give your GM in feet and inches. A big GM is usually considered as the ship is not going to capsize but on the other hand can be too big and the return to the upright can be too violent. A tender ship small GM
Is the opposite slow and lazy roll but any changes in the size of your GM such as shifting cargo can be hazarduous to your health. If you can find that magic number , on your next cruise dazzle these ships officers with your knowledge , good sailings and hope the weather stays good on your next voyage. That magic figure thinking back may be the ships beam . Cheers JS.

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I wonder how many of them would know what you are talking about?

Good point Tony, but you know what they say about the British ? How they Rule the waves .
JS
Were you ever on any offshore vessels which had a stability tank on the monkey Island just to raise your centre of gravity if too stiff. No doubt should have similar on passenger vessels to also adjust any violent rolling caused by big righting levers .
JS

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

Good point Tony, but you know what they say about the British ? How they Rule the waves .
JS

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So many dodgy tickets available these days, and even legit ones can be bought. I recall going on board a vessel when I was working in the Gulf in 85, I was asked to go aboard to instruct the C/E on procedure for filling in new fuel log sheets as my vessel was first to be fitted out with fuel meters on feed and spill back lines to every diesel engine on board (due to fuel theft being common).
When I walked in the messroom there was a youthful looking guy sitting there and I asked him where the Chief was, he said he was the Chief so I asked him how old he he was, 23 he said. I said its virtually impossible for you to have a UK Chiefs ticket, oh no he said I have a Panamanian ticket, I voiced my doubt about even that and asked him how. Its easy he said, I came out here as a deckhand as my old man is a captain (ex fisherman) but I preferred the engine room so worked as greaser for while; then I went to the office while in Jebel Ali and one of the girls in there typed me a phoney letter of service which I took to the Honduran embassy and paid $200 for a Chiefs ticket then took that o Panamanian embassy, showed my Honduran ticket, paid $300 and was given a Panamanian ticket.
After about two hours instruction I was relieved to be called back as he could not take in what he was being shown which was basically taking meter readings of both meters for each piece of kit, subtracting one from the other to give a total accurate figure of fuel used and amount remaining on board.
As I left he asked me again "and you have to do this at midnight every night", I said "well actually, my Thai greaser does it now, I just check his figures and he's never made a mistake so far". His face was picture as I walked off.