Lauching Lifeboats While Listing

[98Charlie]

A thread about lifeboats (Click Here To Go There) spurred the question in me:

At what degree of list are the lifeboats on one side of the ship unable to be launched?

 

Charlie

[hammybee]

Well I guess if the list is severe enough, they will hit the water , now won't they. :)

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14012560/

[98Charlie]

Well I guess if the list is severe enough, they will hit the water , now won't they. :)

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14012560/

No, no, no, the other side of the ship:D

 

Charlie

[stowaway2k]

A thread about lifeboats (Click Here To Go There) spurred the question in me:

At what degree of list are the lifeboats on one side of the ship unable to be launched?

 

Charlie

 

20 degrees is a figure I've seen.

It would take quite a catastrophe, such as with the Andrea Doria, for a ship to gain a list of 20 degrees fast enough to prevent the boats from being launched.

Other than the lifeboats, cruiseships nowdays have dozens of rafts, which you have all seen, designed to fully inflate upon contact with the water.

[waterrats]

I would guess that if a ship is going down and there is a large list, if I were crew, I would launch the boats empty and then people can fill them from the water. Better to have them off the ship than keeping them on the ship.

[chasetf]

I would guess that if a ship is going down and there is a large list, if I were crew, I would launch the boats empty and then people can fill them from the water. Better to have them off the ship than keeping them on the ship.

Why have the passengers jump in the water. Launch them empty like you suggest, launch the "listing" side with passengers, then lift, fill and launch those empty lifeboats launched from the other side. :D ;)

[Cruise Gypsy]

Here is a description from Wikipedia about the life boat evacuation of the SS Andrea Doria:

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

Immediately after the collision, Andrea Doria began to take on water and started to list severely to starboard. Within minutes, the list was at least 18 degrees.

 

On Andrea Doria, the decision to abandon ship was made within 30 minutes of impact. A sufficient number of lifeboats for all of the passengers and crew were positioned on each side of the Boat Deck. Procedures called for lowering the lifeboats to be fastened alongside the glass-enclosed Promenade Deck (one deck below), where evacuees could step out windows directly into the boats, which would then be lowered down to the sea.

 

However, it was soon determined that half of the lifeboats, those on the port side, were unlaunchable due to the severe list, which left them high in the air. To make matters worse, the list also complicated normal lifeboat procedures on the starboard side. Instead of loading lifeboats at the side of the Promenade Deck and then lowering them into the water, it would be necessary to put the empty boats in the water first, and somehow get evacuees down the exterior of the ship to water level to board. This was eventually accomplished through ropes, jacob's ladders, and a large fishing net.

 

 

[spongerob]

There is a very good book available about Andrea Doria. I can't remember the title off hand but I'm sure you could find it on Amazon. The most fortunate thing in that accident was that many ships were nearby and assisted by providing their own boats. I think even the Stockholm launched her boats. The worst thing was that many crewmembers abandoned their assigned emergency stations and got off the ship first.

 

The crew attempted to launch the port-side (high side of the list) boats by sliding them down the hull. The rivets tore up the boats so severely that they could not be used.

[tomc]

I liked the scene in "Titanic" when the guy went off the stern, hit the propeller, did a one-and-a-half, and eventually made a mightly splash.

 

I said, "5.9!" The people around me were not amused.

[stowaway2k]

There is a very good book available about Andrea Doria. quote]

 

SAVED! The Story of the Andrea Doria - the Greatest Sea Rescue in History by William Hoffer

This one is my favorite of the Andrea Doria books, extremely exciting reading

 

COLLISION COURSE The classic story of the most extraordinary sea disaster of our times--the S.S. Andrea Doria and the M.S. Stockholm

by Alvin Moscow

 

DESPERATE HOURS The Epic Rescue of the Andrea Doria

by Richard Goldstein

 

ALIVE On the Andrea Doria The Greatest Sea Rescue in History

by Pierette Domenica Simpson

Released last year. The author is a survivor, telling her story and that of others, plus how the aftermath was dealt with and life as an Andrea Doria survivor

 

http://www.andreadoria.org/

 

Over fifty years later, still the 'greatest sea rescue in history'.

 

The most amazing story, to me, is that of the US serviceman, with a severe injury, who was being shipped back stateside. In his bunk highly medicated, he slept through the collision. Hospital staff were over-worked with multiple injuries (and fatalities) due to the collision, and the serviceman was basically forgotten. He woke up to find that he was practically sleeping on the wall. By then the ship was completely abandoned. He made is way, in excrutiating pain, in darkness and alone, on a severely listing ship, to the open decks on the stern of the ship. He was spotted by rescuers as he was dangling from the nets and ropes that were earlier used by passengers to abandon ship. Rescuers were hesitant to approach the ship to rescue him. Due to the severe list of the Andrea Doria, she appeared to be moments from capsizing completely, and rescuers didn't want to become victims. There he waited, for hours, pounded by the sea while his pajamas were stripped from him.

Finally a boat made a dash for him, and he was saved.

What a nightmare.

Imagine, waking up in the dark to find that your ship is sinking, it has been abandoned, and you are completely on your own. :eek:

[songanddance]

Not to further roil the waters of confidence but on a cruise last year during a crew lifeboat launch drill, I asked the deck officer if they had ever had a drill where the crew tried to launch a life boat into either 20 - 30 foot seas or with a 20-30 knot wind. He said no it would not be a safe procedure.

 

I guess if you are ever on a ship that needs to be evacuated you best pray that the seas are calm as are the winds for if not, everyone will be a novice in the evacuation procedure from deck officer on down.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[tomc]

But they did a pretty good job on the old Prinsendam. Of course, that wasn't a drill.

[rkacruiser]

When aboard a vessel, if one will look upwards when standing beneath the lifeboats, one will see many cylinders containing, I am told, compressed gas. I have been told that these cylinders of gas are there to be used to help to push the lifeboat davits into proper position for the launching of the lifeboats in case "an Andrea Doria situation" would develop and cause the proper launching of the lifeboats to be made difficult or impossible.