Trouble on the High Seas
“127 Feared Dead in Cameroon Ferry Sinking” (3/23/06)
Hmm, that is really sad. Wasn’t there just another big ferry accident? Let’s search a minute…
“Two now believed dead after B.C. ferry sinking off north coast” (3/23/06)
Um, that is not the one I was thinking of; you mean there have been two ferry sinkings just today? Let’s search a little further…
“Fifty missing in Bangladesh ferry sinking” (2/26/06)
No, that is awful, but it’s still not the one I remember, one more time…
“Red Sea bridge plan revived following ferry disaster (3/23/06)… The February 3 sinking of the Egyptian ferry Al Salam Boccaccio 98 in the Red Sea has revived interest in a project to build a bridge linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The ferry foundered in the middle of the Red Sea as it sailed from the Saudi port of Duba and Safaga in Egypt. Only 388 out of more than 1,400 passengers were rescued.”
Yes, that is the one I was thinking of, the worst one I can remember. Is it just me, or do you think a certain industry needs to have a safety stand down day?
When I met my husband, his parents had just retired to Cape May, New Jersey, and my parents had a beach house in Delaware. The quickest, easiest, and most expensive way to get back and forth between our families was on the Cape May – Lewes Ferry. It used to have a little jingle – “Cape May Lewes Ferry, enjoy the ri-i-ide” – that my husband and I joked should be our wedding song. Never in those early years did it occur to me that the ferry might sink, and fortunately, it didn’t. Over the past 10 years and over the course of probably 100 crossings, the only problems that we have encountered on the open sea of the Delaware Bay are two bouts of sea sickness in members of my extended family. Usually, the water is so flat, we have trouble determining if we are actually moving. Even on the roughest day, the greatest concern we have about the roll of the boat is whether or not we need to keep our hands on our cocktails to prevent them from sliding across the table.
Since we’ve had little kiddies to take care of however, I have become much more safety conscious on the boat. I always make sure we are sitting near life jackets (actually, it is virtually impossible to sit in an area that is not near life jackets) and I silently (or sometimes out loud) determine which kids I’ll save and which will be my husband’s responsibility. He generally gives me a strange look and returns to his Budweiser, but I always feel better having put the plan in place. I vaguely remember a documentary I saw once about ferry sinkings, how some of the big ferries abroad have large doors that must be closed once all of the cars have been loaded. If the doors are open and the sea is rough, the water pours onto the car deck and sinks the boat. The Cape May ferry does not depend on doors but instead has a car deck above water level. It is also much smaller and takes a much shorter ride across a much calmer body of water. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
A few years ago the ferry people (port authority? I don’t know) renovated all the boats and added nice bars with bartenders where you could get a drink rather than taking a can of beer out of the stand cooler in the cafeteria. They also added restaurants to a couple of the bigger boats where people could have a sort of dinner cruise, eating a meal and watching the sunset on a round trip ferry ride. They advertised these restaurants as great place for parties and wedding receptions, but we never had a chance to investigate because shortly after they opened, the health department shut them down, and as far as I know the restaurants have never reopened. The boats still go back and forth but the restaurants are empty. If we’re hungry, we can get prepackaged food in the snack bar, and maybe that is for the best. Here is what else I found while searching today:
Queen Mary 2 reports outbreak of stomach virus en route to Los Angeles (3/6/06)
Sick Ship – Over 200 Royal Caribbean Passengers Catch Stomach Flu (3/6/06)
Illness sends ship passengers to hospital - Seven cruise-ship passengers were admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital and 20 more received emergency medical treatment after a health scare on a visiting cruise ship. (3/12/06)
Aren’t cruises really expensive? Isn’t one of their main selling points the 24-hour availability of all the food you can eat? Could it be that the cruise industry has found a way to keep people from eating them out of profits? My in-laws have been on two cruises without getting sick, one to Alaska and one to Russia. Maybe the cold weather keeps the germs at bay. Unfortunately, even if you manage to avoid the germs:
12 from Florida cruise ship die in Chile bus crash (3/23/06)
What? and
Cigarette Eyed in Deadly Cruise Ship Fire (3/23/06).
Are you kidding me? Is it just me, or do you think a certain other industry might benefit from a safety stand down day? According to the box office returns, everyone in the world saw Titanic. Having seen the potential for mass annihilation, why would anyone choose to get aboard one of these death traps? Because they love the show “The Love Boat?” We’ve all seen the sad stories of those happy faces from The Love Boat and what was really going on behind the scenes on the set of that groundbreaking show. Everyone looked like they were having so much fun because they were all coked up. And even that intrepid group of sailors managed to get taken hostage as a group by one man with a spear. Clearly even in the eyes of Hollywood this is not an industry that employs a lot of the country’s finest minds.
However, my favorite cruise ship story is this one:
“On November 5, pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at a 440-foot luxury cruise liner operated by Seabourn Cruise Line. No one was hurt, and the captain was able to get away before the pirates could board the ship.”
Pirates? Haven’t we made any progress since the days of Blackbeard? That story is from November 5, 2005, not November 5, 1705. Who knows what else is happening on these boats. According to the news channels, if you choose to honeymoon on one you should wear a life jacket at all times and perhaps consider tethering yourself to the boat. You should avoid your fellow passengers and all members of the crew since they have managed to get aboard without undergoing any sort of security scrutiny. Keep an eye out for the food, the fires, the day trips, and now, the pirates. I’m starting to think taking a cruise would not be especially relaxing.
What can be done about these problems on the high seas? I have no idea. I don’t understand how thousands and thousands of people can be lost at sea in the 21st century, or how there is no cure to this epidemic of ferry sinkings. I don’t know if other countries have encouraged their citizens to have a hand in their own safety - whether by suggesting that they check that those big doors have closed or providing an emergency means of communication so that anyone on a troubled boat could try to get help or at least report a fire even if the captain didn’t think it was necessary. I hope they have. As for the cruise ships, I think I’ll just stay away. If we need a romantic getaway with a pool, we’ll get a hotel room with a big hot tub. If we need a 24-hour all-you-can eat buffet, we’ll head to my parents house where the room rates are reasonable, the sanitation is enforced, and in case of emergency, the fire department is right down the street.
Hmm, that is really sad. Wasn’t there just another big ferry accident? Let’s search a minute…
“Two now believed dead after B.C. ferry sinking off north coast” (3/23/06)
Um, that is not the one I was thinking of; you mean there have been two ferry sinkings just today? Let’s search a little further…
“Fifty missing in Bangladesh ferry sinking” (2/26/06)
No, that is awful, but it’s still not the one I remember, one more time…
“Red Sea bridge plan revived following ferry disaster (3/23/06)… The February 3 sinking of the Egyptian ferry Al Salam Boccaccio 98 in the Red Sea has revived interest in a project to build a bridge linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The ferry foundered in the middle of the Red Sea as it sailed from the Saudi port of Duba and Safaga in Egypt. Only 388 out of more than 1,400 passengers were rescued.”
Yes, that is the one I was thinking of, the worst one I can remember. Is it just me, or do you think a certain industry needs to have a safety stand down day?
When I met my husband, his parents had just retired to Cape May, New Jersey, and my parents had a beach house in Delaware. The quickest, easiest, and most expensive way to get back and forth between our families was on the Cape May – Lewes Ferry. It used to have a little jingle – “Cape May Lewes Ferry, enjoy the ri-i-ide” – that my husband and I joked should be our wedding song. Never in those early years did it occur to me that the ferry might sink, and fortunately, it didn’t. Over the past 10 years and over the course of probably 100 crossings, the only problems that we have encountered on the open sea of the Delaware Bay are two bouts of sea sickness in members of my extended family. Usually, the water is so flat, we have trouble determining if we are actually moving. Even on the roughest day, the greatest concern we have about the roll of the boat is whether or not we need to keep our hands on our cocktails to prevent them from sliding across the table.
Since we’ve had little kiddies to take care of however, I have become much more safety conscious on the boat. I always make sure we are sitting near life jackets (actually, it is virtually impossible to sit in an area that is not near life jackets) and I silently (or sometimes out loud) determine which kids I’ll save and which will be my husband’s responsibility. He generally gives me a strange look and returns to his Budweiser, but I always feel better having put the plan in place. I vaguely remember a documentary I saw once about ferry sinkings, how some of the big ferries abroad have large doors that must be closed once all of the cars have been loaded. If the doors are open and the sea is rough, the water pours onto the car deck and sinks the boat. The Cape May ferry does not depend on doors but instead has a car deck above water level. It is also much smaller and takes a much shorter ride across a much calmer body of water. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
A few years ago the ferry people (port authority? I don’t know) renovated all the boats and added nice bars with bartenders where you could get a drink rather than taking a can of beer out of the stand cooler in the cafeteria. They also added restaurants to a couple of the bigger boats where people could have a sort of dinner cruise, eating a meal and watching the sunset on a round trip ferry ride. They advertised these restaurants as great place for parties and wedding receptions, but we never had a chance to investigate because shortly after they opened, the health department shut them down, and as far as I know the restaurants have never reopened. The boats still go back and forth but the restaurants are empty. If we’re hungry, we can get prepackaged food in the snack bar, and maybe that is for the best. Here is what else I found while searching today:
Queen Mary 2 reports outbreak of stomach virus en route to Los Angeles (3/6/06)
Sick Ship – Over 200 Royal Caribbean Passengers Catch Stomach Flu (3/6/06)
Illness sends ship passengers to hospital - Seven cruise-ship passengers were admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital and 20 more received emergency medical treatment after a health scare on a visiting cruise ship. (3/12/06)
Aren’t cruises really expensive? Isn’t one of their main selling points the 24-hour availability of all the food you can eat? Could it be that the cruise industry has found a way to keep people from eating them out of profits? My in-laws have been on two cruises without getting sick, one to Alaska and one to Russia. Maybe the cold weather keeps the germs at bay. Unfortunately, even if you manage to avoid the germs:
12 from Florida cruise ship die in Chile bus crash (3/23/06)
What? and
Cigarette Eyed in Deadly Cruise Ship Fire (3/23/06).
Are you kidding me? Is it just me, or do you think a certain other industry might benefit from a safety stand down day? According to the box office returns, everyone in the world saw Titanic. Having seen the potential for mass annihilation, why would anyone choose to get aboard one of these death traps? Because they love the show “The Love Boat?” We’ve all seen the sad stories of those happy faces from The Love Boat and what was really going on behind the scenes on the set of that groundbreaking show. Everyone looked like they were having so much fun because they were all coked up. And even that intrepid group of sailors managed to get taken hostage as a group by one man with a spear. Clearly even in the eyes of Hollywood this is not an industry that employs a lot of the country’s finest minds.
However, my favorite cruise ship story is this one:
“On November 5, pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at a 440-foot luxury cruise liner operated by Seabourn Cruise Line. No one was hurt, and the captain was able to get away before the pirates could board the ship.”
Pirates? Haven’t we made any progress since the days of Blackbeard? That story is from November 5, 2005, not November 5, 1705. Who knows what else is happening on these boats. According to the news channels, if you choose to honeymoon on one you should wear a life jacket at all times and perhaps consider tethering yourself to the boat. You should avoid your fellow passengers and all members of the crew since they have managed to get aboard without undergoing any sort of security scrutiny. Keep an eye out for the food, the fires, the day trips, and now, the pirates. I’m starting to think taking a cruise would not be especially relaxing.
What can be done about these problems on the high seas? I have no idea. I don’t understand how thousands and thousands of people can be lost at sea in the 21st century, or how there is no cure to this epidemic of ferry sinkings. I don’t know if other countries have encouraged their citizens to have a hand in their own safety - whether by suggesting that they check that those big doors have closed or providing an emergency means of communication so that anyone on a troubled boat could try to get help or at least report a fire even if the captain didn’t think it was necessary. I hope they have. As for the cruise ships, I think I’ll just stay away. If we need a romantic getaway with a pool, we’ll get a hotel room with a big hot tub. If we need a 24-hour all-you-can eat buffet, we’ll head to my parents house where the room rates are reasonable, the sanitation is enforced, and in case of emergency, the fire department is right down the street.
posted by Shannon at 10:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home