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One of the things I noted on several cruises — lifeboat drill. The ship is required to have a lifeboat drill where everyone puts on their life jacket and musters on the boat deck. For most, the drill draws a big yawn from the passengers. These are the same passengers likely to be dead if the ship has an emergency like the Costa Concordia. They panic and run about like beheaded chickens. Such things can't happen, can they? They can.

Personally, I want to know where the life boat is AND the life rafts. If the ship gets into trouble, I'm making tracks for the boat deck or raft. Having seen the crews on these cruise ships, they are not sailors; they are glorified hotel staff that happen to be on a ship. A very few are capable, but most are not. The same thing can be said about the most deadly enemy a ship can face at sea — fire.

Carnival Cruise Lines’ ship Ecstasy had an engine room fire on July 20, 1998. There were 2,400 passengers and 950 crew aboard. The fire suppression systems worked. There were no casualties, but things were touch and go while the crew fought the fire. Fortunately, the ship was off Miami Beach and there was plenty of assistance available. The damaged liner returned to port about 1 am the following morning. Passengers were tired, hungry, and thirsty — but alive. I wonder how many of them thought they might have had to abandon ship while off the bright lights of Miami? Not many, probably.

On November 9-10, 2010, the 113,000 ton Carnival Splendor, with over 4,000 passengers and crew, suffered an engine room fire 14 hours after departing San Diego for a 7 day cruise off Mexico's West Coast. No casualties occurred, but the liner was dead in the water for hours before tugs arrived. Passengers were days without air conditioning, electricity, hot running water, hot food service, telephones, and limited running water and bathroom facilities. The ship was towed back to San Diego by tugboats averaging four to five knots. Fires were put out and the passengers were only inconvenienced. How many of the over 4,000 aboard were ready to abandon ship. Again, not many.

The average cruise passenger is totally unaware of how deadly events can transpire quickly at sea. The law of averages says that sooner or later, your shipboard emergency will come up. Are you ready?