Can a cruise ship sink?

[Capt_BJ]

not so long ago a ship of a major line operating out of the US made a navigational error during the night near a Caribbean Island .. they found a very well lit rock

 

Several hours later the Master of the ship decided to drive the bow of the ship into the sandy shore of the island, as his on board experts had told him the ship WOULD sink.

 

They had run the ship over rocks that had torn a huge gash in the bottom of the ship. Despite all the new laws and regulations since TITANIC there are still engineering realities and the ship was going to sink because the gash was too long.

 

He beached the ship and the pass' were evacuated by the very tenders that had carried them to town earlier....

[luddite]

You miss a lot when you take a sick day --- but not as much as some of the posters who made the bad choice and cut school on the day that they taught everything.

 

Strangely, I remember being there on the day that thaye taught everything! :D

[sarge98]

There is a phenomenon called rogue waves. Under certain conditions they can reach heights of 75 to more than 100 feet, high enough to capsize a cruise ship if the ship were to be hit broadside. They only occur, though, in areas such as the North Sea and parts of the Pacific near South Africa, not places visited by cruise ships.

 

I just read the current edition on Popular Science magazine. It had a short article about rogue waves and mentioned a confirmed 84 foot wave that hit a oil platform in the North sea.Television's Discovery channel has a series on crab fishing boats in the Bearing Sea in which they also mention Rogue waves. No cruise ships in either location.

[ehfl]

If course the ship can sink....it's made from steel and/or aluminum.

 

There are watertight compartments that can keep the ship afloat if one compartment is flooded.

 

There are lifeboats for all, plus many, many rafts. Most of the rafts are on an automated switch, which releases them when submerged. If the ship sinks without all the rafts being launched, they will launch themselves.

[Capt_BJ]

not so long ago a ship of a major line operating out of the US made a navigational error during the night near a Caribbean Island .. they found a very well lit rock

 

Several hours later the Master of the ship decided to drive the bow of the ship into the sandy shore of the island, as his on board experts had told him the ship WOULD sink.

 

They had run the ship over rocks that had torn a huge gash in the bottom of the ship. Despite all the new laws and regulations since TITANIC there are still engineering realities and the ship was going to sink because the gash was too long.

 

He beached the ship and the pass' were evacuated by the very tenders that had carried them to town earlier....

 

http://captainsvoyage.7.forumer.com/a/monarch-of-the-seas-grounding-at-saint-maarten-na_post955.html

[BlueCat1105]

I'm no engineer, but even I know never to say never. The Titanic designers' famous last words about its unsinkability WERE its most enduring last words, simply because they were so absurd. I'm not particularly superstitious, but if there ever were a bad juju cast upon an event by being overly boastful, the Titanic appears to be a perfect example.

[stowaway2k]

In 1995, Queen Elizabeth 2 was hit by a trio of waves, one of which was 90ft. high.

The captain said it looked as if they were sailing into the White Cliffs of Dover.

The waves broke over QE2's bow, carrying away the two-ton forward whistle mast and buckling the steel deck plating.

The damage was slight considering that QE2 was built to handle extreme conditions. As the time was after 2am, most everyone was in bed and didn't notice anything.

A modern cruise ship, with it's short blunt bow would have been in serious trouble.

 

As for the Titanic, historically speaking there is no record of anyone connected with the ship, her designers, builders, owners, or officers claiming her to be unsinkable.

 

 

 

.

[Taxguy77]

It seems like we are getting repeats of 5 year old posts! :eek:

For a new one, how about the ship in Antarctica that had to be evacuated?:confused:

Any others lately? Sure they can sink, and sure you are safer on a cruise ship than you were traveling to get to the ship!

You can worry for me, I'll go where I want (If it's legal). :D

[Underwatr]

As for the Titanic, historically speaking there is no record of anyone connected with the ship, her designers, builders, owners, or officers claiming her to be unsinkable.

http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/unsinkable.asp

 

"..even as reports of the Titanic disaster began to reach America early in the morning of 15 April 1912, the Vice-President of White Star Line in New York stated, without qualification, "We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe that the boat is unsinkable."

 

"The February 1993 issue of The Titanic Commutator unearthed a White Star promotional flyer for the Olympic and Titanic that claimed "as far as it is possible to do, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable.""

[Cuizer2]

http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/unsinkable.asp

 

"..even as reports of the Titanic disaster began to reach America early in the morning of 15 April 1912, the Vice-President of White Star Line in New York stated, without qualification, "We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe that the boat is unsinkable."

 

"The February 1993 issue of The Titanic Commutator unearthed a White Star promotional flyer for the Olympic and Titanic that claimed "as far as it is possible to do, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable.""

 

Oh please, don't screw up a perfectly good post with facts. :(

[BruceMuzz]

I worry far less about the ship sinking than I do about the passengers surviving the event.

 

 

Question: How many passengers have died on sinking cruise ships in the past 50 years?

Answer: None.

 

 

Don't even bother to bring up the alleged deaths of 2 pax on the Diamond sinking off Santorini a few years ago. They were later found alive and well, and are now in prison for insurance fraud.

[Cuizer2]

Don't even bother to bring up the alleged deaths of 2 pax on the Diamond sinking off Santorini a few years ago. They were later found alive and well, and are now in prison for insurance fraud.

 

Do you have a source for this?

[luddite]

Oh please, don't screw up a perfectly good post with facts. :(

 

Facts!?!

We don' need no stinkin' facts!

[KandCsailing]

Did you ever hear about the Titanic?

Titanic sank in 1912, so I think there's been quite a few improvements in ship design, radar, communications, etc...since then.

There are still accidents, running aground and sinkings, but few and far between for the number of ships sailing the world everyday.

[MiamiSpartan]

:panic:

:eek:

[stowaway2k]

"The February 1993 issue of The Titanic Commutator unearthed a White Star promotional flyer for the Olympic and Titanic that claimed "as far as it is possible to do, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable.""

A very qualified statement that falls well short of the White Star Line claiming these ships to be unsinkable.

As far as possible... designed to be unsinkable. As far as possible. And the world very quickly found out how possible. Not said is these two wonderful ships are unsinkable.

"..even as reports of the Titanic disaster began to reach America early in the morning of 15 April 1912, the Vice-President of White Star Line in New York stated, without qualification, "We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe that the boat is unsinkable."

 

This is refering to Philip A.S. Franklin, Vice President of White Star Line. What he really said, as quoted in the New York Times on April 16, when Titanic had been on the bottom of the Atlantic for some time already:

I thought her unsinkable and I based by opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it.

 

 

I still stand by my earlier post, but I'll add a qualifier... before she sank, there is no historic record of claims by her designers, builders, owners, or officers that Titanic was unsinkable. After she sank, it didn't matter any more.

[BlueCat1105]

This is refering to Philip A.S. Franklin, Vice President of White Star Line. What he really said, as quoted in the New York Times on April 16, when Titanic had been on the bottom of the Atlantic for some time already:

I thought her unsinkable and I based by opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it.

 

 

This quote itself leads me to believe that they HAD said (or at least thought) that Titanic was unsinkable prior to the sinking - that's why he's responding this way. Nevertheless, the original question was, I believe, "can cruise ships sink?" and yes, they can.

[luddite]

I don't know if they ever claimed Titanic was unsinkable.

Apparently, Debbie Reynolds claimed that Molly Brown WAS unsinkable, but that would be an entirely different thread, I'm guessing.

[Underwatr]

I still stand by my earlier post, but I'll add a qualifier... before she sank, there is no historic record of claims by her designers, builders, owners, or officers that Titanic was unsinkable. After she sank, it didn't matter any more.

Don't tell me - tell Snopes.com. Maybe they'll agree with you.

[Cuizer2]

A very qualified statement that falls well short of the White Star Line claiming these ships to be unsinkable.

As far as possible... designed to be unsinkable. As far as possible. And the world very quickly found out how possible. Not said is these two wonderful ships are unsinkable.

 

 

This is refering to Philip A.S. Franklin, Vice President of White Star Line. What he really said, as quoted in the New York Times on April 16, when Titanic had been on the bottom of the Atlantic for some time already:

I thought her unsinkable and I based by opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it.

 

 

I still stand by my earlier post, but I'll add a qualifier... before she sank, there is no historic record of claims by her designers, builders, owners, or officers that Titanic was unsinkable. After she sank, it didn't matter any more.

 

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Titanic/unsinkable.htm

 

http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/unsinkable.asp

[Cuizer2]

Out of curiousity, what kind of preventive measures have been engineered into the design of these cruise ships to prevent it from sinking?

 

Like, what's there to prevent another Titanic from happening again? Or some kind of terrorist attack? *knock on wood*

 

BTW I'm an engineer, so this is just my inquisitive mind talking.

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/titanic/unsinkable.html

 

Although it may not be very comforting, the truth is there is no such thing as an unsinkable ship.

Except of course for the Titanic. :)

[KirkNC]

Every ship can sink, some take more than others to get there but they are all sinkable.

 

Kirk

[grand isle joe]

....but I believe it will stop when it reaches the sea bottom.:confused:

[Capt_BJ]

for the engineering minds out there I offer a bit I was taught about naval engineering as I worked thru the ranks to achieve captaincy and command at sea.

 

Yes, no ship is unsinkable. TITANIC was the first ship to employ stringent water tight boundaries and their belief was that flooding would not exceed or could be contained by those boundaries. As we now know they were wrong for many reasons - some in their design: the boundaries did not have a top and they erred in considering how many sections could be breached at one time. Modern ships have MUCH more stringent rules about how these boundaries are implemented - especially passenger ships. But the truth remains that a ship can open too many of these compartments at one time and then . . . . which was also a factor in TITANIC. They considered it impossible to open "that many" compartments at one time. OOPS

 

In my experience - the ships I commanded - we described the ship as an X compartment ship, .... that was, in the worst case, what was the minimum number of compartments (X) that if flooded 100% would sink the ship. These spaces tend to be the engine rooms .... or fuel tanks but it was a quick rule of thumb. If you have X compartments impacted you need to do something FAST because the physics made sinking a possibility ... if the right compartments a REALITY.

[mavis2222]

Dont worry..Most cruises are in the Caribbean, if your ship goes down. It wont be long before your picked up anyhow. Go out on deck after dark, you will see at least 2 or 3 other ships on the horizon.