Pear Link
Contact me on:
  • Home
  • The Chain Locker Blog
  • Personal
  • Professional
  • Links & Enthusiasms
  • Contact Me

Cruise Ship Ignores Fishermen In Distress - 2 Die

4/22/2012

0 Comments

 
THE CHAIN LOCKER
Picture
Adrian Vasquez - Click on photo to go to BBC report

I know most have heard by now about the cruise ship STAR PRINCESS ignoring three fishermen in distress, two of whom subsequently died. Princess Cruises has apologized for the incident, calling it a "breakdown in communication." (Click the photo for a report from the BBC) 

Apparently on 10 March, several of STAR PRINCESS' passengers saw three fishermen in a small boat trying to attract attention. They reported this to an officer, even giving him their glasses to look at the boat. The officer in turn reported this to someone via walkie-talkie - it's not clear to whom - but no action was taken, and the ship sailed on. The fishermen had been adrift since 24 February at that time. One of the three fishermen died that night.

Princess Cruises maintains that the bridge was never informed. (Another source I read indicated that the officer to whom the passengers reported the boat in distress might have been a junior purser, not a navigating officer.)  The passengers, seeing that no action was taken, also reported the boat's position via email to a Coast Guard website. But the boat continued to drift for another two weeks, by which time two of the men were dead of exposure and thirst.

According to the Guardian, on the night of March 10 one of the men, Oropeces Betancourt, 24, died of dehydration. The second, Fernando Osorio, 16, died on March 15 from dehydration, sunburn and heat stroke. The lone survivor, Adrian Vasquez, was picked up by the Ecuadorian Coast Guard after 28 days adrift, near the Galapagos Islands - 1000km from the mainland - kept alive, he said, by a fortunate rainstorm and by eating raw fish. 

Vasquez reportedly told the Associated Press:  "I said 'God will not forgive them'. Today, I still feel rage when I remember."

There are several points here that I see.

First, I've never worked in the cruise industry, so maybe I'm way off base. But I think it's possible that in large, internally-focussed institutions like this cruise ship (and that's one description of what they are, necessarily, as a floating entertainment business) that the traditional seamanship you and I grew up with may get pushed aside. 

COSTA CONCORDIA (see related stories in the Categories listing on the right side of the page) is an example of this: Capt. Schettino, apparently a highly qualified officer, can't have been that poor a seaman. Maybe he was carried away trying to entertain the passengers; and it was said that he and other company Captains had performed that dangerous stunt before, so maybe the company had a safety culture problem - not that that lets Schettino off the hook. But whatever he was thinking, good seamanship was not uppermost in his mind at that moment. Does the high-pressure cruise ship environment make traditional seamanship more difficult?

Second, there is this prescient comment on another blog post from Stanislas Oriot (see "Fatigue Video" in the Categories column to the right of the page). He says, "I think we can link what it seems to be more of a modern problem on ships with our modern life, which is more and more virtual, quick and - maybe I exagerate - inhuman." 

Stanislas, a student in the French merchant marine, was commenting on the problem of fatigue and alertness aboard ships, but I think he's describing a more general issue, as well. In our intensely online-oriented culture, some blurring begins to take place between electronic reality and real life. I've several times had new men on board who got so wrapped up in the screens that they forgot to look out the window! I'm sure this has happened to many other captains. 


The modern electronic bridge (even on tugs these days) can threaten take up a watchstander's attention to the exclusion of physical reality. "If it ain't on my screen, it ain't really real," might sum up the problem. Were the watchstanders on STAR PRINCESS as aware as they might have been of the nature of the traffic around their ship?

Finally, there is a trend I seem to see developing lately: can the greater oversight of the Master made possible by constant satellite communications tend toward reducing his autonomy and authority? One of the reports about the COSTA CONCORDIA emergency response said that Schettino had ten phone calls to and from his office in the hour after the accident. What effect might that have had on his actions - such as the controversial delay in calling Abandon Ship? 


I think that the advent of rapid, continuous communications at sea has already begin to alter the Master's authority. Like many other cultural paradigms, this one is undergoing change in this age of burgeoning, ubiquitous communication. But we might wisely examine these subtle changes before just accepting them! 

The mistake in the STAR PRINCESS case may not directly involve the Captain. But it's his ship, his authority, and his responsibility. Dilute that concept and you've begun to undermine the whole structure of authority and control at sea. 



Many of you out there work on cruise ships, and may be able to speak to these issues out of direct experience. Please let us know what you think!

0 Comments

    THE CHAIN LOCKER BLOG

    Author

    Reid is a career mariner who, after a lifetime afloat, still loves his profession. Thus this blog!

    THE CHAIN LOCKER blog welcomes your comments and photos - we have a big industry, so write & help us to understand your corner of it! All submissions are welcome.

    Archives

    August 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011

    Categories

    All
    1800s Anchor Found
    Abandoned Seafarers
    Adrian Vasquez
    Adrian Vs Princess
    Arctic Oil Exploration
    Asian Shipowners Forum
    Avocet
    Banquo's Ghost
    Big "U"
    Bravery 2013 Imo
    Capt. Schettino
    Capt. Schettino's Logic
    Capt. Schettino Update
    Chengtu Saves Yachtsmen
    China-Argentina Delivery
    Cma Cgm Marco Polo
    Costa Concordia
    Costa Concordia Ais
    Costa Concordia Black Box
    Costa Concordia Br Video
    Costa Concordia Discovery Channel
    Costa Concordia From Space
    Costa Concordia Salvage
    Costa Concordia Schettino U/D
    Costa Concordia Wrap-up
    Costa Concordia Wreck
    Daylight Saving Time
    Dheeraj Tirawi - Hero
    Disney Fantasy Rescues 4
    Distraction
    Ecdis Knowledge Deficient
    Ecdis Problems Noted: Iho
    Enrica Lexie Released
    Enrica Lexie Settlement
    Eof
    Eu Attacks Pirates Ashore
    Eu Navfor Attacks Ashore
    Fatigue Video
    Felix Luckner
    Filipino Seamen Bubble 2
    Filipino Seamen On Bubble
    Fire Fighting Robot
    First Post - An Invitation
    Fishermen Ignored
    Fishermen Shot
    Fit 1
    Fit 2
    Fit 3
    Freeman Rhuland
    Gearbulk Lays Off Crews
    Gert B Buttgenbach
    Hisham Almiraat
    Homemade Wind Turbines
    Horizon Fatigue Study
    Horizon Reliance 1
    Horizon Reliance 2
    Horizon Reliance 3
    Horizon Reliance 4
    How To Participate
    Hybrid Osv
    Iceberg-1
    Iceberg 1 Mag
    Iceberg 1 - Time To Act
    Iceberg 1 Website
    Iceberg I A. Burney
    Iceberg I Movie
    Iceberg I - Petition
    Icebreaker Aiviq
    Icebreaker Aiviq Video
    Keel Walk
    Kennebec Captain
    Large Bridge Teams
    Let's Connect!
    Lng
    Lngcoldfacts Blog
    LNG-Powered Tug
    Maersk Texas
    Mag Twitter Account
    Mariner's Fatigue
    Maritime Mentors
    Masters
    Missing Vdr Data
    Mlc Ratification
    Mv Eglantine
    Mv Iceberg 1 Mag Blog
    Mv Prabha Daya
    Mv Xianghuamen Freed
    Northern Sea Route
    Nuclear Icebreaker
    Ocean Waves
    Panama Canal Time-Lapse
    Patriotism
    Piracy Survivor Alex
    Piracy The Human Cost Video
    Piracy Water Cannon
    Pirate Attacks 2011-12
    Pirate Coast Video
    Pirates Battle Nato
    Pirates Ransom Their Own
    Pirates Up Ante
    Please Send Pictures
    Prohibiting Ransoms
    Rescue At Sea
    Rolls-Royce LNG Engine
    Rotortug
    Rotortug Redux
    Seagoing Automobiles
    Seeadler
    Shipwrecks
    Skandi Vega
    SOS - Save Our Seafarers
    Star Princess
    Starting Out
    Stcw Manning Math
    This Is Your Blog!
    Tugboat In Trouble
    Usns Rappahannock
    Uss Miami
    Viking Lady
    Watch Systems
    W. Laurence Allen
    Women At Sea
    Yekaterinburg
    Youth

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly