the sinking of the Titanic! It is amazing that we have a major sinking of a liner only three months short of the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic (15 April, 1912). [Incidentally, the Greek version of the previous post has been published by Historical Quest.]
I have no technical data, so I can only talk about personal impressions, but these ships look so top-heavy. 15 decks jam-packed with passengers who are heavy from over-eating with their 23kg suitcases each, plus numerous pieces of furniture, household equipment, computers, delivery wagons, TV screens, wiring etc etc. When I took my mother for one of those cruises, even she (with absolutely no knowledge of maritime affairs or marine technology) instinctively felt that there is something inherently unsafe. She kept asking if the ship is really, really safe. I foolishly kept answering it is OK, there must be a heavy enough ballast at the bottom so the ship is well balanced.
Guess I was totally wrong. I had no idea that a liner could capsize so easily!
Here is one of the Costa liners, which is similar to Costa Concordia that sunk:
Incidentally, I took this picture at Rhodes, where there is a medieval castle under archaeological excavation in the port.
Our own cruise liner, which is of the similar size, looked like this:
I have no technical data, so I can only talk about personal impressions, but these ships look so top-heavy. 15 decks jam-packed with passengers who are heavy from over-eating with their 23kg suitcases each, plus numerous pieces of furniture, household equipment, computers, delivery wagons, TV screens, wiring etc etc. When I took my mother for one of those cruises, even she (with absolutely no knowledge of maritime affairs or marine technology) instinctively felt that there is something inherently unsafe. She kept asking if the ship is really, really safe. I foolishly kept answering it is OK, there must be a heavy enough ballast at the bottom so the ship is well balanced.
Guess I was totally wrong. I had no idea that a liner could capsize so easily!
Here is one of the Costa liners, which is similar to Costa Concordia that sunk:
Incidentally, I took this picture at Rhodes, where there is a medieval castle under archaeological excavation in the port.
Our own cruise liner, which is of the similar size, looked like this:
See how top-heavy these ships are. I thought they only looked that way, but maybe they are indeed of unstable design. Very worrying indeed.
So what is the morale? A hundred years ago, we learnt that a passenger liner must have sufficient number of life boats and some sort of early warning system for any obstacles ahead. Radar since became a standard item for big ships. This time, I suppose, we need to think of a system that would enable passengers to escape even if the ship is toppling over. Perhaps active sonar (with strong pings!) might be fitted for detection of underwater obstacles? But then, a fully automated and computerised system that can totally override a panicking captain and crew might improve marine safety dramatically!
