Zuiderdam stopped north of Haiti

[Tyler919]

Family is reporting that Zuiderdam is stopped north of Haiti at the scene with a small fishing boat and USCG. We'll see what develops, if anything

[Tyler919]

Zuiderdam backing away now. USCG delivered fuel to small boat. It had broken fuel line, and coast guard has "released" Zuiderdam to move on

[catl331]

Our Coast Guard does a wonderful job. HAL ships do not hesitate to help ships in emergencies. Good going!

[KirkNC]

It amazing the number of times they offer assistance.

[shrimp56]

Good ol Zuidy :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sure glad that the Zuiderdam was there and could stay with the small fishing boat until the Coast Guard arrived.

Glad everyone is safe.

[Toad]

Fun to have this information in real time.

[sail7seas]

How good that once again an HAL ship was available to lend assistance to an emergency at sea. Makes me proud HAL is our 'cruise line of choice'. :)

[startwin]

Our Coast Guard does a wonderful job. HAL ships do not hesitate to help ships in emergencies. Good going!

 

Marine law does not allow them to not help in an emergency. Good thing they were close by.

[Colakid]

This begs the question has any one here ever been involved with any emergency @ sea with a HAL ship. I for one have not with HAL but was involved with a sea rescue off Ireland in April 2012. We had an apparent heart attack on the ship and had to turn around so the helicopter could make it out to us safely and return to land. It turned out to be a severe chest infection like pneumonia. The seas were rough and had to endure another extra 6 hours because of the situation. I know in talking to people afterwards I heard no regrets etc. Do it again in a heart beat. Just wondering.

[PathfinderEss]

Good for the Zuiderdam, glad they were around to help.:)

[erewhon]

Thanks for the information.

[RuthC]

This begs the question has any one here ever been involved with any emergency @ sea with a HAL ship.

Not this kind of emergency at sea. I've seen a few garden variety medical evacuations where a patient was transferred from the ship to a fishing boat to be taken to shore. Another one was a patient taken off my tender to be taken to shore. I think I may have been aboard when I patient was taken off by helicopter, but since the entire front area would have been closed off to passenger viewing, I have no pictures in my mind to remember by.

[peaches from georgia]

We picked up some Cuban refugees on a sinking fishing boat off the coast of Cuba years ago on a Royal Carib ship. Coast Guard not involved. The Ship saw them and rescued them.

 

As someone else said its a duty for any ship to help those in trouble at sea, Zuiderdam or Royal ship or any ship.

Edited December 29, 2013 by peaches from georgia

[Not-My-Real-Name]

We picked up some Cuban refugees on a sinking fishing boat off the coast of Cuba years ago on a Royal Carib ship. Coast Guard not involved. The Ship saw them and rescued them.

 

As someone else said its a duty for any ship to help those in trouble at sea, Zuiderdam or Royal ship or any ship.

 

 

Very true. We were recently on the Royal Caribbean - Freedom of the Seas and the crew rescued 2 people at approximately 5:30 am in the morning on Dec. 19, on our way to St. Marteen. A Carnival ship also rescued 5 people in the same area on Dec. 21. So I'm sure it happens more often than any of us realize.

[arewethereyet]

How good that once again an HAL ship was available to lend assistance to an emergency at sea. Makes me proud HAL is our 'cruise line of choice'. :)

All cruise lines do it routinely. There are more of these assistances/rescues than you can shake a stick at. If you sailed another line, you'd have plenty of opportunity to be proud of them too.

[Typhoon1]

Marine law does not allow them to not help in an emergency. Good thing they were close by.

 

ALL ships are required to help. HAL didn't just help because they felt like doing a good deed.

[startwin]

ALL ships are required to help. HAL didn't just help because they felt like doing a good deed.

 

I believe that's what I said.:confused:

[Typhoon1]

I believe that's what I said.:confused:

 

You did. It seems others in this thread think they were just doing a good deed.

[oo7 Bond!]

never mind

Edited December 30, 2013 by oo7 Bond!

[kazu]

This begs the question has any one here ever been involved with any emergency @ sea with a HAL ship. I for one have not with HAL but was involved with a sea rescue off Ireland in April 2012. We had an apparent heart attack on the ship and had to turn around so the helicopter could make it out to us safely and return to land. It turned out to be a severe chest infection like pneumonia. The seas were rough and had to endure another extra 6 hours because of the situation. I know in talking to people afterwards I heard no regrets etc. Do it again in a heart beat. Just wondering.

 

Our ship stopped when they saw someone in the ocean. There was some fuss and they ended up pulling out a dummy that another ship had lost ;)

 

The thing is they saw the life jacket and went to work. It was quite interesting. I suspect the water was very cold there so I was quite thankful it was just a dummy.

 

Med evacs we have seen. This was the only 'rescue' we saw so far.

[take us away]

This begs the question has any one here ever been involved with any emergency @ sea with a HAL ship. I for one have not with HAL but was involved with a sea rescue off Ireland in April 2012. We had an apparent heart attack on the ship and had to turn around so the helicopter could make it out to us safely and return to land. It turned out to be a severe chest infection like pneumonia. The seas were rough and had to endure another extra 6 hours because of the situation. I know in talking to people afterwards I heard no regrets etc. Do it again in a heart beat. Just wondering.

 

Have had to zigzag (think it was on the Noordam a few years ago) while waiting for the USCG to come and air evacuate a lady via helicopter off the back deck due to an injury as we were too far from an island and she was not doing well (rumor was she bashed her head on the bathroom sink when she tripped over the threshold). The rescue was just like in the movies with the basket coming down with the paramedic CG person, the lady getting loaded in on a stretcher and up they went, then the basket came back down and her husband went up.

 

This year, we did a 360 turn off the Chilean because several people in the Lido having early coffee saw fishermen in the water. After searching for quite a while visually, with radar and the thermal imagers, the captain comes on and explains we are leaving as it was decided with the Chilean Navy that the people seen were sitting on their net buoys tending their nets. There were hundreds of net buoys in the area around the sea lane and we did see other fishermen doing the same thing but their little boats were obviously next to each one.

 

We have seen ambulances and (hate to say this) hearses parked next to the ship on more than 1 occasion.

Edited December 30, 2013 by take us away

[tonopah1kid]

Have had to zigzag (think it was on the Noordam a few years ago) while waiting for the USCG to come and air evacuate a lady via helicopter off the back deck due to an injury as we were too far from an island and she was not doing well (rumor was she bashed her head on the bathroom sink when she tripped over the threshold). The rescue was just like in the movies with the basket coming down with the paramedic CG person, the lady getting loaded in on a stretcher and up they went, then the basket came back down and her husband went up.

 

This year, we did a 360 turn off the Chilean because several people in the Lido having early coffee saw fishermen in the water. After searching for quite a while visually, with radar and the thermal imagers, the captain comes on and explains we are leaving as it was decided with the Chilean Navy that the people seen were sitting on their net buoys tending their nets. There were hundreds of net buoys in the area around the sea lane and we did see other fishermen doing the same thing but their little boats were obviously next to each one.

 

We have seen ambulances and (hate to say this) hearses parked next to the ship on more than 1 occasion.

 

We were returning to FLL from the Med in Dec 2011 and we heading to half moon cay, for our final stop. It was about 8:00pm and the Captain announced that due to an emergency illness, we would be detouring to a direct FLL course for a couple of hours, as a USCG helicopter was going to enroute to us, first stopping in Nassau for fuel. It would be about 3 hours before the helo would arrive at which time we (Maasdam) would slow to facilitate the transfer. The front deck area and all upper forward deck access was closed off and the friendship lights were lower. A USGS C-130 arrived overhead about 10:00pm and circled us at about 1000 feet, it was to be a "back-up" in case of "complications". The Helo arrived and hovered above the front deck, for about 20 minutes, taking the patient and wife (?) up in a basket.

After the Helo and C130 left, we resumed course to Half moon cay, and arrived on time, as we increased to about 21 knots instead of the previous 16 or so.

 

This was the end of a 45 day roundtriip cruise, during which we had several "medical" evacuations! Supposedly, we also had 2 onboard deaths, which were still with us in the freezer. Crewmembers told us that it wasn't unusual to put "on board" deaths there, so things maybe processed in the Port of Departure/Arrival? Not dropped off in some in between country?

 

Anybody know whether this is true??

[take us away]

Yes, they have freezers specifically for a death on board as well as coffin boxes. Just a fact of life; sad though. It is usually the family's wish to disembark the body at the home port as much cheaper to transport the body to their final resting place. Had a friend lose her husband to a heart attack while on board and he was cremated at the next port which was all arranged by HAL as was his final wish. Have also seen more than 1 body disembarked at a foreign port - assume to be flown home. We get up early and like to watch us dock in and this was handled 1st thing so all cleared before most people were up and about. HAL used to do burials at sea but not sure if still available. Any one know if they still do these??

[RuthC]

HAL used to do burials at sea but not sure if still available. Any one know if they still do these??

There have been a few posts about burial of cremated remains from HAL ships. Some of the posts have been in recent times. I've never read that HAL has stopped doing them, but I haven't checked with HAL about it, either.