chengkp75

Yes, if I received a "complimentary" meal at Golden Corral, I would expect to have all I could eat, as that is their "meal". If, however, I was "comped" a meal at Ruth's Chris, I doubt they'd allow me to order 3 filet mignons.

Far be it from me to disagree about praise for the engine staff, but we are not miracle workers. While many "jury-rigged" things can be made in emergencies, and while a lot of structural and piping repairs can be simply done, we cannot, for instance fabricate a piston or crankshaft for an engine.

There is typically the "naughty table" with all confiscated items at the security check point as you leave the ship.

I would be very surprised if the USCG allowed this. They were adamant in their opposition to creating the "NRAC" crew (non-resident alien), but were overridden by Congress. Even then, they required that the NRAC crew be limited to the US standard of 25% of non-licensed crew, and that if there were Green Card crew (common in deck and engine), that those were counted among the 25%, as they always are.

Didn't realize the concept of "complementary" dining equaled "all you can shove down your gullet".

Storms can happen at any time.

This could be, as I see that each county (island) has its own liquor commission and issues their own licenses, not the state.

From the reports I've read, it would appear that the superstructure around the window buckled under the same force, and the entire window and frame blew out, and that plate of glass would inflict the same force upon anything or anyone it encountered in the cabin.

Did a little more research, and found that scientists say that a "normal" breaking wave (not one driven by storm force, which would add more force to the impact) of about 20' height, would exert about 6000 pounds of force for every square inch. Looking at the windows, they are likely 36" by 96", so the force of a wave hitting that window would be about 10,000 tons of force. It appears that the superstructure around the window was distorted, and the entire window flew into the cabin, and would have exerted the same amount of force on anything it struck inside the cabin.

There are. Both the ISO 9001 certification (quality management) and ISO 14001 certification (environmental management) provide standards for organizations, in all industries. In the maritime industry, there is the ISM (International Safety Management) Code, to which all ship owners must abide (since all flag states have adopted the ISM). This code, which requires the company to write down virtually every step of every business process they do (from safety to operations to personnel to corporate culture) and then abide by what is written. Each company's ISM can be different (they all handle some things differently than other companies), but the all must meet the framework outlined by the IMO, delineated by the classification societies, and audited by those same third party class societies on an annual basis. The ISM governs every employee, shoreside or shipboard, every working day of their lives, and every action they take in those days. The ISM has adopted a root cause approach to improvement, not a blame culture. In this instance, if the Captain is found to have followed all the company's ISM policies and procedures, but the accident still happened, he will not be blamed for it, and no disciplinary action will be taken. Why? Because it has been found that if someone knows they won't be blamed for an accident, then they are more likely to be open and truthful in giving accurate accounts of what happened, so the root cause of the accident can be found. When it is found, the ISM is updated to prevent it from happening again. This is positive, proactive management.

I don't feel that size has any real effect on "sea worthiness", especially when the two ships are close in size. Don't forget that GT (gross tonnage) is not a measure of the weight of the ship, but its enclosed volume. Both ships have been classified, Polaris by DNV, and Venture by Lloyds, to be considered both sea worthy and safe for passenger carriage. Both have Polar Class certificates, so both meet the Polar Code for operations in polar waters. Yes, smaller ships "move" more in a seaway, but they are no less stabile or safe. That is merely a factor of comfort, and the classification societies don't get involved with comfort.

And, as a result of the Titanic, the classification societies were created as third party underwriters to determine what is safe shipbuilding and what is not. All modern ships are classed by these societies. No, we did not learn that. We learned that certain Captains disregarded company policy to do these things. And, the two are completely unrelated. One was an operational error, one was a weather incident. Yet, you don't mention Carnival, which had almost identical fires on both the Splendor and the Triumph (within 3 years), and that kind of interrelated incidents calls into question their commitment to safety far more than Viking. How many serious incidents have there been of passenger vessels in those 100 years, out of all the passenger miles covered? And, as I've said to the other poster, how do you know that Viking, or any line is merely "providing minimal standards"? And, if you don't trust the classification societies (whose specialty is ship design and safety) to police the cruise lines, who are you going to trust?

Any ship, with "intact stability" (meaning there are no holes in the hull), can survive a wave rolling the ship over pretty much to 45* or more, the limitation being whenever the non-watertight decks (those from the promenade or boat deck upwards) start to submerge and you get resulting down flooding. Until you reach that point, the ship will roll back upright, contrary to "The Poseidon Adventure". The further a ship rolls over, the greater force it generates to roll back upright. Think of the ship as one of those inflatable "punching clowns" that always rocks back upright. Now, the window breakage did cause flooding, but once the wave was past, the flooding stopped, so down flooding causing loss of stability was minimal. Many ships have "handled" rogue waves, some have not, but for the most part they do.

Yes, as I said, if the wave can generate thousands of tons of force against the window, if it breaks free, it will slam into whatever is in its way with the same thousands of tons of force. Given a figure I found of 0.7m2 as the frontal area of a human, that is again over 3000 tons that struck that crew member.

I know of no ship's windows that are not tempered glass, and most have a film sandwiched in them to keep the pebbles together. It may be that the bulkhead was warped by the wave, and the entire window and frame flew into the cabin.

Just to give a little perspective, scientists have stated that a "normal" breaking wave of about 20' height (not one storm driven, adding additional force), can exert 6000 pounds of force, per square inch against a surface. Looking at the photo above, I'd say the window is 36" x 36". That means a wave striking the window can exert 3800 tons of force just against the window. This is very near the tensile strength of tempered glass, so any storm force the wave had, or any height above 20' would surely break the best designed glass. As Andy has said, the power of the sea is enormous, and I have been in storms, without rogue waves, where the superstructure of the ship has been folded in. And, the current wisdom is that there are 10 rogue waves somewhere on the world's oceans at any given moment. Rogue waves, by definition, are at least twice as high as other waves in the storm, and can come from totally different directions than the rest of the seas. The fact that side windows were struck supports this, as the ship would have been heading mostly directly into the prevailing seas, and the rogue wave came from the side.

Well said, Andy. Scientists have stated that a "normal" breaking wave (not one storm driven) can exert up to 6000 pounds of force per square inch against a surface. I don't know the window size, but let's say it is 24" square. That equates to 1700 tons of force, just on the window. That is very close to the breaking tensile strength of tempered glass, regardless of thickness. Absolutely. As you say, a wave like this could bend the steel bulkhead around the glass and the entire glass and frame come out. You cannot build anything that will never fail, you merely reduce the probability and the severity as much as possible. And, the Viking Polaris is built to the latest regulations, specifically for operations in polar waters.

Per maritime law, everyone physically present during the incident, as well as the supervisor will get a drug and alcohol test. If, as I've read elsewhere, that there was no one in the boat at the time, then the hooks holding the boat to the wires were never attached and locked properly, and this was merely waiting for a time to happen. Surprised they were able to lift the boat back up the last time it was used, when the hooks were improperly engaged, without dropping it. While stowed, the boat has "safety straps" that hold it to the davits. These were likely removed in preparation for lowering, and a vibration from lowering the other boats, or a jostle when starting to swing out the davit jarred the hooks loose.

Since they are operating at reduced capacity, it should be no problem. But, the ship's have 125% capacity for all passengers and crew. They flipped the boat over, and used the normal davit to raise the boat. Even with "slight damage" to the fiberglass, it won't affect the floatation of the boat, and they will do repairs to the fiberglass during the cruise. I believe they were getting ready to tender, so there was likely a tender boat either in the water already, or would be shortlly.

If you knew how alcohol has devastated native Hawaiian culture, you'd understand. I believe there are limits to the number of drinks per day, and number purchased at one time.

One of the largest delays is the face to face interviews with CBP of all crew members. This takes groups of 50 or so out of work at a time, delaying the turn around work. The USCG inspection will likely be scheduled for this day as well, and does not usually delay things, unless the crew do not perform well during the fire and boat drill, and then the inspectors can stop the drill, reset to the beginning (all crew back at work locations) and start over. Due to the CBP and USCG inspections which are pretty much required at the first US port call, USPH tends to hold off on doing one of their inspections. However, USPH inspections are done while the ship and crew are in service (witnessing one meal service is a requirement), so they generally don't delay things unless there are a lot of violations that need to be discussed at the final debrief.

Recent research has suggested that there are 10 rogue waves in the world's oceans at any given time. The windows are designed to the best possible standards, but anything can break when enough force is placed against it. Say that a window is 18" square. A three foot tall column of water on that window exerts over 400 lbs of force on the window. That is a static column of water, not one striking the window at speed. Those lower deck windows likely saw about 1000 to 2000 lbs of force against them. I've seen waves, not what I would consider "rogue" waves bend steel structures on ships, let alone break windows. The windows are tempered safety glass, so they shatter into small round pellets.

Not the tax laws, but there is a law against "excessive consumption of alcohol" that restricted the NCL packages in the past, but they came up with a work-around a couple of years ago, that has "some" limitations on it. -

You are referring to "self-righting", meaning the boat will come back up to upright when rolled over. Cruise ship lifeboats are not self-righting, since they are not totally enclosed. Cruise ship boats are "semi-enclosed", meaning they have a top, but not sealable doors (just curtains). Many cargo ships have "self-righting" boats, but that requires a boat that has doors that seal with watertight latches, and also you are seat belted into the boat. If the crew are belted in place, when the boat rolls over, the weight of the crew causes the boat to roll back upright. Cruise ship boats are not this way. Cruise ship boats are "unsinkable", in that even if fully filled with water, and full of passengers, there is sufficient floatation to keep the boat afloat.

They are "self-leveling", if they are being lowered. This boat dropped from height. From the lack of damage to the falls (wires), or attachment ring, this looks like someone was testing the "on-load release" mechanism, and it worked. Passenger ship lifeboats are designed so that the hooks that hold the boat to the falls will only release when the load comes off ("off-load release") (i.e. the boat is floating in the water), just to prevent this type of incident. (Note that cargo ships with davits have only "on-load" release) However, the passenger ship boats also have a means to bypass the "off-load" release in an emergency. (In heavy seas, one end of the boat may be supported by a wave, while the other end is over the trough, so the two hooks "don't agree" about being "off-load", and so won't release). This "on-load" release bypass has to be tested regularly, but is done with the boat only a foot off the water. This looks like testing gone wrong.