Just Heard - Egyptian Cruise Ship Missing

[tomc]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020400473.html

[tumeroll]

We may all get upset on occassion by all of the rules and regulations imposed by the US on passenegr ships but here is a perfect example of what can happen when a ship has no such requirements. Under life boated, a captain that it appears bailed early if not first and most likely a crew who did likewise. Of the 400 people saved I'll bet there is a high proportion of crew members in the total. So when cruising, one needs to be very aware of safety features when taking a ship not calling at US ports or any type of transportation medium not regulated by the US. Many countries simply put a very low value on human life.

[dougnewmanatsea]

Dear All,

 

Sorry I missed thread earlier. It is gratifying to know that my input is so valued by the members of this board!

 

First things first. This vessel was not and has never been a cruise ship. As others have mentioned, she was a roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. In layman's terms, this means she was a passenger ship with a car deck.

 

It is true that vessels of this type can be vulnerable to stability problems. In particular, because the car deck itself is one large open space from one end of the ship to the other, if the watertight bow and stern doors are breached, water can move freely throughout the length of the ship along the car deck. This is unlike other types of modern passenger ship which have watertight compartments to help the ship maintain stability in the event of water ingress.

 

Ro-ro passenger ships are used all over the world, and generally they are quite safe. For example, perhaps the most famous ferry disaster of all time, the ESTONIA disaster in 1994, can be attributed largely to inadequate maintenance procedures and other lapses on the part of the ship's operators which created an unsafe situation. No vessel has ever sunk simply because it is a ro-ro vessel, but it might be said that there is greater potential for danger with ro-ro vessels because of their inherent design shortcomings.

 

As for the history of this particular ship, she was built in Italy in 1970 as the BOCCACCIO for the state-owned shipping company Tirrenia, one of the largest, oldest and most respected ferry operators in the Mediterranean. Tirrenia was the arm of the state-owned Italian shipping group Finmare concerned with services in the Western Mediterranean. Its Eastern Mediterranean counterpart was Adriatica, which later became part of Tirrena; other arms of Finmare included Italia, famous for liners like the MICHELANGELO and RAFFAELLO, and Lloyd Triestino, who owned other well-known ships such as the GALILEO GALILEI and the GUGLIELMO MARCONI. In 1970, Finmare was still one of the largest shipping companies on the world, with an integrated short-sea and long-distance network spanning not only the Mediterranean but virtually the entire world from the Americas to Australia.

 

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, traditional short-sea passenger ships throughout Europe were rapidly being replaced by ro-ro vessels for easier carriage of cars, trucks, and trailers. BOCCACCIO represented Tirrenia's entry into this new era. She was the first of six new ships introduced in 1970 and 1971, known collectively as the Poeti ("Poets"); the others were CARDUCCI, LEOPARDI, MANZONI, PETRARCA, and PASCOLI.

 

Successive orders of other ro-ro ships followed and between 1991 and 1992, five of the Poeti - all but LEOPARDI - were extensively rebuilt with new, tall superstructures. This increased their gross tonnage from 6,900 GT to 11,799 GT and allowed their passenger capacities to be increased greatly. To realize the impact of this refit, compare this photo of BOCCACCIO before the refit with this one of the refitted vessel.

 

The first of the Poeti to leave Tirrenia was LEOPARDI, which had not been rebuilt. She went to the Egyptian-owned El Salam Trading Company and became their SANTA CATHERINE.

 

Obviously El Salam were pleased with this acquisition as in 1999 they bought all five remaining Poeti-class ships. BOCCACCIO beacme AL SALAM BOCCACCIO 98; CARDUCCI became AL SALAM CARDUCCI 92; MANZONI became AL SALAM MANZONI 94; PETRARCA became AL SALAM PETRARCA 90; and PASCOLI became AL SALAM PASCOLI 96.

 

El Salam Maritime are the largest privately-owned shipping company in Egypt, and they employed the Poeti on various routes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea. In 2002, AL SALAM PETRARCA 90 sank with the loss of one life. In 2005, SANTA CATHERINE (the former LEOPARDI, the one ship which Tirrenia hadn't rebuilt in the early 1990s), was sold for scrap. The other four Poeti continued in service, but of course with the tragic sinking of AL SALAM BOCCACCIO 98, that number is now down to three.

 

Like many shipping companies in the developing world, El Salam's safety record is not particularly reassuring. While this is, as far as I am aware, the first major disaster in the company's history, in addition to the sinking of AL SALAM PETRARCA 90 in 2002, just this past October (2005) another one of their ships, PRIDE OF AL SALAM 95 - originally the Townsend Thoresen cross-channel ferry FREE ENTERPRISE IV and later PRIDE OF SANDWICH and PRIDE OF AILSA with P&O - sank after colliding with a Cypriot freighter. Two lives were lost.

 

Now, a word on safety regulations. It is true that the comprehensive safety regulations that exist in the US, the UK, and most other developed countries do help to ensure that our shipping is generally much safer than that in other parts of the world (one need only look at the safety record of shipping in, for example, the Philipines to see how dangerous travel by sea can be) but nonetheless no amount of regulations, money, or modern technology can ensure complete safety. We need only look at the tragic capsizing of the HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE in 1987 at Zeebrugge to remind us of this fact. She was one of the largest, fastest, newest and most modern ships on the English Channel, operating under the British flag from a British port and owned by what at the time was arguably the most prestigious shipping company in the world, the venerable P&O. And yet she capsized in calm weather on a routine crossing, killing 193 of the 573 on board. By no stretch of the imagination could one compare the safety situation of shipping on the English Channel to that on the Red Sea - but nonetheless, tragedies like this still happen. All we can do is make them as infrequent as possible and minimize their impact.

 

Finally, my condolences go out to all the innocent victims of this tragedy. Let us hope that whatever mistakes were made, they are learned from so that a repeat of this horrible event can be avoided.

[elmorejj]

Doug, thank you, I knew we could rely on you to bring us the info on the ship.

 

BTW, I sailed on the Herald from the UK to Zeebrugge, pre the capsizing of this ferry...........jean:cool:

[dougnewmanatsea]

I sailed on the Herald from the UK to Zeebrugge, pre the capsizing of this ferry

It must have been a very odd feeling for you when she sank!

 

I've never been on a ship involved in a disaster... (Yet...) But I know what it feels like when someplace one's been becomes a disaster scene (blown up by a bomb, washed away by a storm, whatever) with great loss of life and, well, it's not a pleasant feeling :( .

[HeatherInFlorida]

Thank you, Doug! You know how we rely on you for this info:) ... thanks for all the input. I share your condolences to all the families of this tragic event. I think what bothered me most was they were all alone out there with no one knowing what happened for hours. Sent chills through my bones.

[kaseyoz]

some 'good' news about this disaster on our news this morning is that they found a little boy still alive in the water many hours later. he had lost his parents and sister but he made it