I’ve been watching the unfolding story of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster and the growing list of ways in which the captain and others screwed up. I have a little experience in things nautical even though I spent more of my Navy career behind a desk than at sea.
The Costa Concordia grounding looks like a classic case of human error rather than weather or mechanical malfunction. This was no uncharted reef: people have been sailing ships along the coast of Italy for 3,000 years. Piloting a ship along a coast is the most accurate kind of navigation because you can see landmarks on shore, either visually or on radar, and can plot the ship’s position within a matter of feet. The guys on the Costa Concordia’s bridge should have known exactly where the rocks were and where their ship was.
The risk of bumping into things makes mariners extra-careful when they’re close to shore. When they enter or leave a harbor ships post extra lookouts, watch every radar display and depth indicator, and often hire a local harbor pilot who knows all the shoals and currents. This is when the captain’s reputation is most on the line, so skippers are on the bridge micromanaging and tend to avoid distractions such as blondes.
Cruise ships are especially good at close-quarters maneuvering because they enter and leave harbors every day. Most have side thrusters (jets that nudge the ship from side to side) that make them highly maneuverable for their size. When I took a couple of cruises a few years ago, I was impressed by the skill with which the captains parked their ships alongside the pier. That’s not easy to do, even for the nimble minesweeper I served on.
Update: Apparently the Costa Concordia was going 16 knots as it approached the island. That’s a good cruising speed in the open ocean, but close to shore it’s the equivalent of navigating the WalMart parking lot at 50 mph. When the ship turned, its excess speed carried it onto the rocks.
One effect of the Costa Concordia disaster is that cruising will be safer than ever (for a while, at least) because the cruise ship industry will overreact by doubling down on safety measures. I saw this happen in the Navy.
Pratas Reef is a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the South China Sea. It’s marked on all the charts and can be seen from space, so ships know where it is and have used it as a navigational aid to fix their positions. Easy as it is to find (or miss), the destroyer USS Frank Knox (DD742) somehow ran bang into Pratas Reef in 1965, resulting in a massive salvage effort and several courts-martial.
The following year my ship passed through the area on a course that took us within about 50 miles of Pratas Reef. The captain doubled the watches and was on the bridge all night. Can’t argue with his logic: If there’s anything worse than being the first captain to hit Pratas Reef, it’s being the second.
As I write this, every cruise line is reviewing its safety procedures and issuing stern memoranda to its captains. Cruise ships may be the safest places on the planet in the near future. I’ll bet the Costa line is offering some terrific deals. If you don’t mind a lifeboat drill every hour, that is.
Anyone for a Mediterranean cruise?
I’ve been watching the unfolding story of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster and the growing list of ways in which the captain and others screwed up. I have a little experience in things nautical even though I spent more of my Navy career behind a desk than at sea.
The Costa Concordia grounding looks like a classic case of human error rather than weather or mechanical malfunction. This was no uncharted reef: people have been sailing ships along the coast of Italy for 3,000 years. Piloting a ship along a coast is the most accurate kind of navigation because you can see landmarks on shore, either visually or on radar, and can plot the ship’s position within a matter of feet. The guys on the Costa Concordia’s bridge should have known exactly where the rocks were and where their ship was.
The risk of bumping into things makes mariners extra-careful when they’re close to shore. When they enter or leave a harbor ships post extra lookouts, watch every radar display and depth indicator, and often hire a local harbor pilot who knows all the shoals and currents. This is when the captain’s reputation is most on the line, so skippers are on the bridge micromanaging and tend to avoid distractions such as blondes.
Cruise ships are especially good at close-quarters maneuvering because they enter and leave harbors every day. Most have side thrusters (jets that nudge the ship from side to side) that make them highly maneuverable for their size. When I took a couple of cruises a few years ago, I was impressed by the skill with which the captains parked their ships alongside the pier. That’s not easy to do, even for the nimble minesweeper I served on.
Update: Apparently the Costa Concordia was going 16 knots as it approached the island. That’s a good cruising speed in the open ocean, but close to shore it’s the equivalent of navigating the WalMart parking lot at 50 mph. When the ship turned, its excess speed carried it onto the rocks.
One effect of the Costa Concordia disaster is that cruising will be safer than ever (for a while, at least) because the cruise ship industry will overreact by doubling down on safety measures. I saw this happen in the Navy.
Pratas Reef is a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the South China Sea. It’s marked on all the charts and can be seen from space, so ships know where it is and have used it as a navigational aid to fix their positions. Easy as it is to find (or miss), the destroyer USS Frank Knox (DD742) somehow ran bang into Pratas Reef in 1965, resulting in a massive salvage effort and several courts-martial.
The following year my ship passed through the area on a course that took us within about 50 miles of Pratas Reef. The captain doubled the watches and was on the bridge all night. Can’t argue with his logic: If there’s anything worse than being the first captain to hit Pratas Reef, it’s being the second.
As I write this, every cruise line is reviewing its safety procedures and issuing stern memoranda to its captains. Cruise ships may be the safest places on the planet in the near future. I’ll bet the Costa line is offering some terrific deals. If you don’t mind a lifeboat drill every hour, that is.
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