Scare on the QM2 this evening

[bluemarble]

Hi Renne. Thanks for that link. But unless I'm looking at the wrong page on that website, it is showing QM2's scheduled location (not the actual location). The webcam is showing the same frozen image that is on the Cunard website, so I guess the satellite is still malfunctioning:confused:. Regards, S.

 

You have that right, Salacia. At this point, I'm afraid the earliest we can reasonably expect to see the QM2's actual position on any web site is if she is picked up by an AIS receiver on Nantucket.

 

Regards,

John.

[Terrence Richards]

My wife and I are due to board tomorrow for a roundtrip crossing from Brooklyn.

 

I have a copy of the "Queen Mary 2 Technical Specification" information sheet available on the ship. There are "4x Wartsila Diesel Generators and 2x General Electric Gas Turbines" in the engine room.

 

If I remember correctly, the gas turbines are used when less power is needed to generate while in port or when moving slowly.

 

So, if one gas turbine was damaged, it does not appear it will affect the speed or operation of the ship until it is repaired.

 

Hopefully, the Queen Mary 2 will continue with her schedule tomorrow and repairs are made while it sails.

 

Terrence

[Cruise Liner Fan]

My wife and I are due to board tomorrow for a roundtrip crossing from Brooklyn.

 

I have a copy of the "Queen Mary 2 Technical Specification" information sheet available on the ship. There are "4x Wartsila Diesel Generators and 2x General Electric Gas Turbines" in the engine room.

 

If I remember correctly, the gas turbines are used when less power is needed to generate while in port or when moving slowly.

 

So, if one gas turbine was damaged, it does not appear it will affect the speed or operation of the ship until it is repaired.

 

Hopefully, the Queen Mary 2 will continue with her schedule tomorrow and repairs are made while it sails.

 

Terrence

Terrence, Actually the QM2 has 2 engine rooms.At the very bottom of the ship is the engine room that has the 4 Wartsila Diesel Engines.And at the top of the ship on Deck 12 located near the funnel is the other Engine Room where the 2 GE Gas Turbines are located.All 6 engines turn a generator linked to the engine to generate electricity for the 4 pods that move the QM2 and for other electrical services aboard QM2.Terrence you and your wife have fun on your back2back2back QM2 voyage. Regards,Jerry Edited October 6, 2011 by Cruise Liner Fan

[Husband & wife who cru]

Are you saying that Cunard/Carnival Corp. is doing a who cares attitude when it comes to doing the proper maintenance of the QM2 and the other ships? It would make them look very bad if it is true? Regards,Jerry

 

Not at all.

 

But two major engineering incidents in the space of a year is not something that will escape Carnival's insurers. When QM2 had her explosion last year many in the engineering community were very surprised that P&O did not put QM2 in for an inspection and overhaul. The primary reason seems to be the fact that P&O puts all their platform builds in for maintenance every three years. These overhauls are not cheap but having QM2 adhere to that schedule might prove to be a mistake. Given her previous misfortune and knowing first hand how extremely serious a gas turbine fire is P&O/Carnival should look indepth at QM2's operations before their good luck runs out.

[guernseyguy]

knowing first hand how extremely serious a gas turbine fire is

 

Do tell us more.....

[lemon tree]

I'm on the QM2 at the moment so will let you know what's being going on.

Yesterday we sailed through a force 11 storm. The captain said that two other ships from Silversea and Celebrity had to turn back to safe harbour but we battled through it.

It got really bad in the afternoon, plates were flying off tables and we could hear crashing crockery all over the place. I heard all the crystal in the shop smashed and a couple of windows too.

I saw a couple of piles of vomit in the public areas. (lovely!).

Then as we were getting ready for dinner there was the crew alarm for the crew to muster. The guests on first sitting all had to leave the dining room and guests were told to stay in their rooms. We were told later by the captain that there had been a small fire in the gas turbine rendering it useless.

Everything returned to normal apart from our second sitting dinner being delayed by 15 minutes.

We have been told that we will be delayed by 2 hours getting into NY tomorrow morning.

A very exciting day but I heard some passengers were very upset and distraught.

All ok now.

Edited October 6, 2011 by lemon tree

[miz66]

Hi we did the first leg of the world cruise in January this year, sailing from New York to Fort Laurderdale we were told there was a problem with a gas turbine and if one could not be brought to the ship's docking area we would be missing some ports of call out. A huge machine which I guessed was the turbine was brought to the ship and fitted so we were told, and the cruise went on without a hitch.

Hope everyone is safe on the ship at the moment, thoughts are with them.

[Leucothea]

I fully expect P&O/Cunard to play this down. But a gas turbine fire with a standing evacuation order onboard QM2 is not "minor". This is extremely serious.

 

I do wish corporations would stop B.S.ing people with spin and PR and cover-ups. :rolleyes: So tired of that; let's have some honesty and integrity, and ..... this litigation society and the ..... bottom line.

 

I hope everyone onboard QM2 is fine. If they were about to man the lifeboats then there was something to be concerned about.

[Ray66]

I've just read elsewhere on the internet that apparently the captain said in his announcement that the fire had been in the exhaust lagging of the gas turbine.

[hcrane]

... I have been told Cunard is on P&O's every 3 year overhaul system that they do within their own fleet (Cunard is managed/directed by P&O)...get with it Carnival!

 

Isn't it Princess, not P&O? (although all are under Mickey's umbrella)

[Highlander0108]

Not at all.

 

But two major engineering incidents in the space of a year is not something that will escape Carnival's insurers. When QM2 had her explosion last year many in the engineering community were very surprised that P&O did not put QM2 in for an inspection and overhaul. The primary reason seems to be the fact that P&O puts all their platform builds in for maintenance every three years. These overhauls are not cheap but having QM2 adhere to that schedule might prove to be a mistake. Given her previous misfortune and knowing first hand how extremely serious a gas turbine fire is P&O/Carnival should look indepth at QM2's operations before their good luck runs out.

 

I think all the experts here need to stand down until they have all the facts. For those that have not seen this, here is the MAIB report on the capacitor explosion, which was NOT attributed to a lack of maintenance on the part of Cunard, or P&O if you want to go there. http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/SB4-10.pdf Condensed version is that the equipment designed to monitor the capacitors did not detect any abnormalities up to the time of the failure. What is TRULY disturbing is that this equipment is used throughout the cruise industry and I would guess that after that incident, every line checked out their equipment thoroughly.

 

As anyone who pays attention to the very thorough Cunard safety/lifeboat drill at the beginning of every cruise can attest, Cunard takes safety very seriously. I have never experienced a more thorough safety briefing onboard. I would suspect ANY fire onboard would automatically trigger a series of protocols requiring the possibility of manning the lifeboats. It would be an act of negligence if this was not considered.

 

Let's wait and see just what caught on fire. With the rough weather, one has to wonder if this contributed to the accident, perhaps dislodging equipment or lagging. It seems very odd that the gas turbines themselves were in use since the line has readily admitted they only use them when additional speed (using costly marine gas is used) is needed or one of the other diesels is down for maintenance.

 

Ken

[BlueRiband]

... I would suspect ANY fire onboard would automatically trigger a series of protocols requiring the possibility of manning the lifeboats. It would be an act of negligence if this was not considered...

 

You've got that precisely right. On my recent voyage a fire exercise was underway and it was announced that their procedure is to respond "aggressively" immediately rather than "escalate" the response later. In this case it sounds like the response worked the way it was supposed and thankfully everyone could exhale.

 

A couple of earlier posts speculated that the ship's internet was deliberately turned off. There's a problem with the satellite signal as the entire maritinetracker.com site for vessel positioning is down at the moment. (And lemon tree did make a post here from the ship.)

[Salacia]

I'm on the QM2 at the moment so will let you know what's being going on.

Yesterday we sailed through a force 11 storm. The captain said that two other ships from Silversea and Celebrity had to turn back to safe harbour but we battled through it.

It got really bad in the afternoon, plates were flying off tables and we could hear crashing crockery all over the place. I heard all the crystal in the shop smashed and a couple of windows too.

I saw a couple of piles of vomit in the public areas. (lovely!).

Then as we were getting ready for dinner there was the crew alarm for the crew to muster. The guests on first sitting all had to leave the dining room and guests were told to stay in their rooms. We were told later by the captain that there had been a small fire in the gas turbine rendering it useless.

Everything returned to normal apart from our second sitting dinner being delayed by 15 minutes.

We have been told that we will be delayed by 2 hours getting into NY tomorrow morning.

A very exciting day but I heard some passengers were very upset and distraught.

All ok now.

 

Hi Lemon tree. Thanks very much for taking the time to post from the ship. As you can see, we were all concerned; so glad to hear everything is ok now.

 

The weather forecast for your arrival in the morning is for a beautiful sunny day. Best wishes for a safe journey home. -S.

[Husband & wife who cru]

Condensed version is that the equipment designed to monitor the capacitors did not detect any abnormalities up to the time of the failure.

 

Absolutely true and had the components in question been PHYSICALLY checked the "gradual detoriation" outlined in the report may have been found before hand. But, that requires time and expense and many land and sea based entities simply do these things only when absolutely necessary. But, two major engineering incidents in the space of a year already has Carnival's insurers planning to look into this.

[Underwatr]

QM2's visible on AIS outside of New York now...

 

Edited October 7, 2011 by Underwatr

[T5LHR]

Hi lemon tree,

 

Thank you for coming on here and updating us all that you are all ok.

 

Having been involved in emergencies in the air, I know how upsetting these sorts of things can be for passengers, and glad that everything is going well for you all now.

 

T5

 

I'm on the QM2 at the moment so will let you know what's being going on.

Yesterday we sailed through a force 11 storm. The captain said that two other ships from Silversea and Celebrity had to turn back to safe harbour but we battled through it.

It got really bad in the afternoon, plates were flying off tables and we could hear crashing crockery all over the place. I heard all the crystal in the shop smashed and a couple of windows too.

I saw a couple of piles of vomit in the public areas. (lovely!).

Then as we were getting ready for dinner there was the crew alarm for the crew to muster. The guests on first sitting all had to leave the dining room and guests were told to stay in their rooms. We were told later by the captain that there had been a small fire in the gas turbine rendering it useless.

Everything returned to normal apart from our second sitting dinner being delayed by 15 minutes.

We have been told that we will be delayed by 2 hours getting into NY tomorrow morning.

A very exciting day but I heard some passengers were very upset and distraught.

All ok now.

[Cruachan]

Absolutely true and had the components in question been PHYSICALLY checked the "gradual detoriation" outlined in the report may have been found before hand. But, that requires time and expense and many land and sea based entities simply do these things only when absolutely necessary. But, two major engineering incidents in the space of a year already has Carnival's insurers planning to look into this.

 

I do not believe that it will ever be possible to anticipate and prevent every possible malfunction in a system as complex as that of a large passenger ship. For decades the aviation industry has striven to ensure that all major systems on airliners are designed and built with double and sometimes triple redundancy, simply because malfunctions do happen, no matter how strict the inspection and maintenance regime. If every single critical component of a 150,000gt ship were to be "physically checked" against the unlikely possibility of a malfunction, then I very much doubt if there would ever be time for that ship actually to leave port.

 

Perhaps we should all pause for a quick reality check here. Instead of promulgating unsubstantiated rumour and gossip, it would really be nice, just for once, if someone actually thought to congratulate the crew of RMS Queen Mary 2 for their professionalism in dealing with the situation, and to thank the Commodore for ensuring that the crew were trained and exercised to a level appropriate to maintaining that professionalism. This is particularly the case in the present situation as it appears that, not only did the crew have to cope with the fire itself, but they had to do so in sea conditions that were clearly less than conducive to such emergency action.

 

Thank you Cunard - looks like a fantastic job, very well executed.

 

J

Edited October 7, 2011 by Cruachan

[pepperrn]

I do not believe that it will ever be possible to anticipate and prevent every possible malfunction in a system as complex as that of a large passenger ship. For decades the aviation industry has striven to ensure that all major systems on airliners are designed and built with double and sometimes triple redundancy, simply because malfunctions do happen, no matter how strict the inspection and maintenance regime. If every single critical component of a 150,000gt ship were to be "physically checked" against the unlikely possibility of a malfunction, then I very much doubt if there would ever be time for that ship actually to leave port.

 

Perhaps we should all pause for a quick reality check here. Instead of promulgating unsubstantiated rumour and gossip, it would really be nice, just for once, if someone actually thought to congratulate the crew of RMS Queen Mary 2 for their professionalism in dealing with the situation, and to thank the Commodore for ensuring that the crew were trained and exercised to a level appropriate to maintaining that professionalism. This is particularly the case in the present situation as it appears that, not only did the crew have to cope with the fire itself, but they had to do so in sea conditions that were clearly less than conducive to such emergency action.

 

Thank you Cunard - looks like a fantastic job, very well executed.

 

J

 

Well said, thank you.

[southwestie]

I do not believe that it will ever be possible to anticipate and prevent every possible malfunction in a system as complex as that of a large passenger ship. For decades the aviation industry has striven to ensure that all major systems on airliners are designed and built with double and sometimes triple redundancy, simply because malfunctions do happen, no matter how strict the inspection and maintenance regime. If every single critical component of a 150,000gt ship were to be "physically checked" against the unlikely possibility of a malfunction, then I very much doubt if there would ever be time for that ship actually to leave port.

 

Perhaps we should all pause for a quick reality check here. Instead of promulgating unsubstantiated rumour and gossip, it would really be nice, just for once, if someone actually thought to congratulate the crew of RMS Queen Mary 2 for their professionalism in dealing with the situation, and to thank the Commodore for ensuring that the crew were trained and exercised to a level appropriate to maintaining that professionalism. This is particularly the case in the present situation as it appears that, not only did the crew have to cope with the fire itself, but they had to do so in sea conditions that were clearly less than conducive to such emergency action.

 

Thank you Cunard - looks like a fantastic job, very well executed.

 

J

 

You right 100%, I did just that as soon as I had a few emails from some of the crew early this morning once the net was back to normal. what with this and the bad weather they had, they all did well

 

they did do well, it must have scary for some and most all no one was hurt, I watched her arrive under the V bridge this morn, beautiful weather and she was along side around 12.05 our time.

 

Cruachan

hope to see you again soon on a voyage

[david,Mississauga]

...

Let's wait and see just what caught on fire. With the rough weather, one has to wonder if this contributed to the accident, perhaps dislodging equipment or lagging. It seems very odd that the gas turbines themselves were in use since the line has readily admitted they only use them when additional speed (using costly marine gas is used) is needed or one of the other diesels is down for maintenance.

 

Ken

 

Until "lemon tree" posted from the ship I thought there was a lot of unnecessary speculation on this thread and I was reminded of the 1939 saying, attributed to our King: "Keep calm and carry on."

[Underwatr]

Even with Lemon Tree's post this thread has a lot of unnecessary speculation.

[Salacia]

Hi Underwatr. Are you on board yet? Or are you going to relax on shore before heading to the terminal? Beautiful morning to take a walk on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade:)

[BigMac1953]

Even with Lemon Tree's post this thread has a lot of unnecessary speculation.

 

I'm surprised she's still afloat!!!

[billyelliot]

Just read the news! OMG we ate just going down to pier! Hope everything is ok.

[The Real PM]

I'm surprised she's still afloat!!!

It is surprising, isn't it?

 

 

Human nature is funny isn’t it? For some reason we have a need to exaggerate a situation to our own advantage. It happens with everything, no matter what we do-if we go fishing we catch a huge fish--if we go shopping the bought item is more expensive, and if we board a ship she gives us the roughest ride. These little exaggerations tend to make us look and feel a little more important and we all have a need for that.

 

I just got off a ship last week--a cruise to Bermuda. The first night was rough, there was an ocean storm out there, but the size of the ship combined with the naivety of a good many passengers, brought about half empty dining rooms and tales of woe from most everyone. Everyone had stories of how sick they were, and indeed I saw the aftermath of at least some of it and they definitely were not exaggerating that fact.

 

The truth of the matter is that I have seldom been on a cruise that the same thing hasn’t happened. And you always hear all the rumors about things flying around, dishes crashing off shelves and many times people being pushed and thrown about by the horrible weather. The thing of it is, during a storm on a ship, there are safe places for those things that have a tendency to fly about and crash to the floor. It is difficult to believe that the crew on the QM2 would neglect to utilize those safe places, not only for the sake of the breakables, but for the safety of the passengers as well. I really suspect that once the Commodore decided to head on through the storm, all of the precautions were taken well before leaving.

 

So although I am quite certain that there was some discomfort and even some who may have been truly and sufficiently frightened, the ship was able to come through the storm as most ships do, unharmed with the delivery of her passengers in unscathed condition. The only exception is a little collateral psychological baggage that passengers may have incurred. But I am sure with the bit of swagger they will receive from their innocent exaggerations, even the psychological scars might fade sooner rather than later.

 

All in all ships generally react the way ships should in foul weather. After all the shipbuilders were very cognizant of the fact that their ships were not built for only fair weather, but were going to be at sea in all kinds of weather and believe it or not, ships almost always are able to weather the storm.