Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Cruise Ship collides with riverboat in Venice

Coral

By Coral,
in River Cruising

 Share

Recommended Posts

I like vacation

I like vacation

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, TravelerThom said:

The pictures I’ve seen seem to show NO damage to the stern. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/venedig-schiffsunfall-103.html

I’m confused by some of the pictures, but am under the impression that River Countess damage was limited to bow and forward section of the boat. Did you have confirmation that the pilot house was ripped off? I have not seen evidence that the sun deck suffered structural damage. 

There is certainly considerable cosmetic and quite likely structural damage to the port side of the bow. 

 

uniworld.PNG

crash.PNG

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gnome12 Excellent Advice! Rare

gnome12

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, TravelerThom said:

The pictures I’ve seen seem to show NO damage to the stern. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/venedig-schiffsunfall-103.html

I’m confused by some of the pictures, but am under the impression that River Countess damage was limited to bow and forward section of the boat. Did you have confirmation that the pilot house was ripped off? I have not seen evidence that the sun deck suffered structural damage. 

There is certainly considerable cosmetic and quite likely structural damage to the port side of the bow. 

I don’t remember where I saw the videos but there was very extensive damage to the wheelhouse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TravelerThom

TravelerThom

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, I like vacation said:

 

uniworld.PNG

crash.PNG

If you are going to post something, some words (YOU provided NONE) of explanation would be useful. Yes I had seen this were the small picture in the upper right certainly looks like a trashed wheelhouse, BUT the larger picture showing the sun deck from above seems to show very little damage (the sun deck railing and planters seem undisturbed). As I previously stated I’m confused by the pictures. Showing the same pictures I’ve seen before without explanation is not helpful. Where is the trashed wheelhouse in the picture showing the entire sun deck? Given that the River Countess sun deck picture is showing the boat well away from the embankment I am assuming that that picture was taken after the boat and ship had both reached their immediate post crash positions. Would that assumption be incorrect?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TravelerThom

TravelerThom

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, acwmom said:

There's a video on YouTube which is 9:45 long, it has footage which shows the damage.

 

Start around 8:30

 

https://youtu.be/gnPhEXXyGG0

Thanks for this link. I guess the ship hull bulge passed above the sun deck railing, pushed the umbrellas slightly to the side and clipped the roof of the wheelhouse and peeled it back. Not being a ship collision expert, I’ll leave future analysis to others. 

 

It seems like the wreak could have been much worse and luckily appears to have resulted in only a few injuries. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
I like vacation

I like vacation

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, TravelerThom said:

If you are going to post something, some words (YOU provided NONE) of explanation would be useful. Yes I had seen this were the small picture in the upper right certainly looks like a trashed wheelhouse, BUT the larger picture showing the sun deck from above seems to show very little damage (the sun deck railing and planters seem undisturbed). As I previously stated I’m confused by the pictures. Showing the same pictures I’ve seen before without explanation is not helpful. Where is the trashed wheelhouse in the picture showing the entire sun deck? Given that the River Countess sun deck picture is showing the boat well away from the embankment I am assuming that that picture was taken after the boat and ship had both reached their immediate post crash positions. Would that assumption be incorrect?

 

I have no way of knowing what pictures you had seen before and therefore posted a picture of the wheel house that showed the damage.  Always thought that a picture is worth a thousand words.   

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
steamboats Great Review Rare

steamboats

Posted
Posted

@TravelerThom I don´t have the footage (my DH showed it to me) but there were some aerial shots of the pilot house. As for the stern. Check google earth for pictures - it´s hard for me to explain in English but the pier has sort of a platform going into the Guidecca canal. The River Countess was docked in front of that area and has been pushed backwards. So it must have hit that part of the pier with the stern. And you can see damage at the stern on the photo in the Tagesschau article you´ve linked to. The MSC Opera might have later ripped off that part of the pier. One video taken from the ship shows the bow parallel to a building which is past that part of the pier.

 

@Lois R The MSC Opera has azipods which propel but also steer the ship. They lost control over the pods and therefore nor steering or stopping. They tried to stop the ship by throwing the anchor. On many footage you can see the port anchor chain. The towboats weren´t able to stop the ship either. And yes, they saw it coming and therefore blew the ships horn as emergency signal for a couple of minutes (I read something about 10 min but I think that might be a little bit too long). The pilot was quoted that nobody on the bridge of the MSC Opera could explain what happened. The engine sort of locked up and according to the pilot association even picked up speed.

 

steamboats

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
capriccio

capriccio

Posted
Posted

There are new photos and videos on the MSC thread: 

 

See post #93 for a picture of the dining room on the River Countess and the article (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7098103/Pilot-cruise-ship-smashed-Venice-canal-tour-boat-describes-horror-crash.html) in post #92 for additional videos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Coral "Live from...." Rare

Coral

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 minutes ago, capriccio said:

There are new photos and videos on the MSC thread: 

 

See post #93 for a picture of the dining room on the River Countess and the article (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7098103/Pilot-cruise-ship-smashed-Venice-canal-tour-boat-describes-horror-crash.html) in post #92 for additional videos.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TLCOhio "Live from...." Rare

TLCOhio

Posted
Posted

There is much to consider and what is involved about Venice.  Hopeful things work out for those with upcoming cruises involving Venice.   It's an amazing city!!  But, its history and architecture creates unique challenges. 

 

Clearly, Venice is in the news right now!!  But, not the best publicity and these issues raise added, future questions.  From the BBC this morning, they had this headline: “Venice crash captain ordered 'all procedures to avoid impact' ” with these story highlights: “A recording has emerged of the captain of a cruise ship describing an engine fault causing the vessel to crash into a tourist boat in Venice on Sunday.  In a conversation with the harbour master, the captain of the MSC Opera says that dropping two anchors was not enough because the engine was 'locked'.   'We have activated all possible procedures to avoid impact,'  he says.  The crash left four people hurt and has reignited calls to ban large vessels from the city's Giudecca canal.”

 

As to the government battles/debates, here is what was shared in this BBC story: "The incident has sparked a row between Italy's two ruling parties. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League party blamed the populist Five Star Movement for stifling progress to resolve the issue.  Speaking at a rally in Tivoli, Mr Salvini said a solution to prevent such accidents - the enlargement of part of the canal - had been developed and shared last year, but the plans had been blocked "because a 'no' was received from a ministry, and it was not a ministry of the League". The Five Star Movement said in response that "if the League has a plan to solve everything tomorrow, they should present it", adding that they had seen no proposal from the party."

 

Full story at:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48496412

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Venice: Loving It & Why??!!  Is one of your future desires or past favorites? See these many visual samples for its great history and architecture.  This posting is now at 83,028 views. 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1278226

 

Here is the BBC graphic that shows the exact location where this crash happened in historic Venice.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger/better!)

2028820615_ScreenShot2019-06-03at8_09_09AM.thumb.png.23ed9f38a1818c6cb64999fcf61aa69d.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lois R Great Review Rare

Lois R

Posted
Posted
28 minutes ago, skiptomylou said:

We just heard from our travel Agent that the River Countess is expected to resume service on July 21

 

Well, that is promising except for the folks who are sailing between now and then.....I wonder what they are doing for the passengers who are supposed to sail...…...

 

I am cruising in October so I have time on my side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pully8

pully8

Posted
Posted

At least with this Uniworld itinerary there is very little cruising, the ship acts as a floating hotel and bus tours occur most days.

They may simply have passengers in hotels and continue the itinerary as planned.

Albeit we know a hotel experience is not the same as on the ship in terms of food/drinks and service.

Thankfully in this incident there were no fatalities reported.

Clearly the large cruise ships need to be not permitted to dock near the fragile and beautiful historic areas of Venice. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lois R Great Review Rare

Lois R

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, acwmom said:

One of the injured passengers just posted a very complimentary note on Uniworld's FB page.  She gave high praises to a crew member named Louisa.

 

Robin

Thanks for posting this Robin......glad to know she had a good experience in a situation such as this one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...
Canal archive

Canal archive

Posted
Posted (edited)

If you read the report the court did make the judgement and all concurred. I suspect it was made by a London court either to do with the insurance companies base or as a neutral maritime law centre.

Regardless I’m glad it’s all settled these things take so much longer usually.

Edited by Canal archive
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...