Costa Cruises liner adrift after fire on board

Reuters/Yahoo Nws ^ | 2/27/12 | Gavin Jones

[Kartographer]

A liner owned by the same company as the Costa Concordia, on which at least 25 people died when it ran aground off Italy last month, was adrift in the Indian Ocean on Monday after a fire in the engine room left it without power, the company said.

Costa Cruises said the fire on the 29,000-tonne Costa Allegra had been put out and none of the passengers or crew were hurt.

[Kartographer]

Maybe the Somalian Navy will come to their rescue!

[Noumenon]

I know what this is all about - the cruise line will charge extra for the “Poseidon Adventure” option.

[Robe]

I like this part..."the ship had no engine power but was able to steer.

Kinda like I got good news and bad news .. the bad news is we are hopelessly lost , the good news is we're making good time

Badda Boom Tiss (rimshot)

[KarlInOhio]

Abandon ship! Women, children and ship captains first. No, just ship captain first, then women and children second.

[Pecos]

In this case, “I can’t actually get you home, but we can take turns playing with the ship’s wheel.”

[GeronL]

I’d hate to have stock in that company right now.

[GeronL]

Its owned by Carnival Cruise lines.

It is -0.04 right now. wow. (-0.13%)

guess the stock ain’t hurting too bad, weird.

[MtBaldy]

“Abandon ship! Women, children and ship captains first. No, just ship captain first, then women and children second.”

Actually on the Concordia it was more like: Captain and bridge officers first. Crew second. Women and children and other passengers fend for yourself.

Other disabled Carnival ships have had similar problems.

[BwanaNdege]

Your photo’s source website, Defense Web in South Africa, may call these guys “Somali pirates”, but I SERIOUSLY doubt that they are Somali.

I’d guess these guys are working the Strait of Malacca and are either Malay or Indonesian.

[Kartographer]

It’s the way of the world now days, everthing is contracted out. ;-)

[BwanaNdege]

“Kartographer”??

Do you make maps, or take photos of go-karts?

[Kartographer]

I draw maps, but only of places you have read about like Mithgar, Middle Earth, etc.. Here is one of my maps, it is of Robert Howards Hyorian World of Conan and hangs it Howard's house turned musuem in Cross Plains Tx.

[Tailback]

Cool map! Is that on sheepskin?

Whenever I mention Robert E. Howard to anyone that likes the Conan movies, I always get a puzzled “who?” in response. Sigh...

He was ahead of his time in writing.

[GonzoGOP]

Kinda like I got good news and bad news

Well having helm control does make it a lot easier to tow. Now they just have to get the tug there before the pirates.

They should name their next ship the Costa Calamity or the Costa Molly Brown.

[Kartographer]

It's on 'aged' canvass. Here's another look at one I did for the Howard Days' Auction.

[KarlInOhio]

I like the inclusion of a Carnival ship in the southwest. Very topical. :-)

[Kartographer]

Looks like these people have always had their problems, fires, groundings, sea monsters.....

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Next time, don’t forget to mention his literary buddy, H.P. Lovecraft. Odds are, that’ll draw a blank.

Strangely, Lovecraft is quite popular here in the Czech Republic; any well-stocked bookstore (or even public library) has his works on the shelves (in Czech translation, mind you).

Yes, Howard was definitely ahead of his time.

[BfloGuy]

This is like after a plane crash when the media reports every aborted take-off and engine malfunction on that airline for weeks.

[BwanaNdege]

Interesting!

It looks like a mirror of the Tigris & Euphrates, only you were having so much fun charting rivers you couldn’t stop!

As an 81mm mortar forward observer in Vietnam, I lived with a map. Later, on the USMC orienteering team, I spent a lot of time running around Europe, Canada & Quantico with 1:24,000 topo maps. We also made our own maps of training areas.

S.I. Hayakawa in his masterpiece, “Language in Thought & Action”, has an interesting chapter called Maps & Territories. Here are a few quotes from the book:

“The Word Is Not the Thing

Citizens of a modern society need [...] more than that ordinary “common sense” which was defined by Stuart Chase as that which tells you that the world is flat. They need to be systematically aware of the powers and limitations of symbols, especially words, if they are to guard against being driven into complete bewilderment by the complexity of their semantic environment. The first of the principles governing symbols is this: The symbol is NOT the thing symbolized; the word is NOT the thing; the map is NOT the territory it stands for. (p.29-30) (editor’s link)
See also: The Meaning of Meaning (1923)
See also: Science and Sanity (1933)