Posted on 07/19/2006 7:49:50 PM PDT by MindBender26
There is a strong but previously undisclosed undercurrent running through the Coast Guard’s investigation of yesterday’s cruise ship accident that left 92 passengers seriously injured, two of them critically. The questions are being whispered, but there is no denying them; “Was this a terrorist attempt to sink the ship?”
This much is known. The 3000 passenger 22-knot floating hotel "Crown Princess" was 11 miles south of Port Canaveral, heading out on a Western Caribbean cruise when suddenly, everything turned topsy-turvy. According to passengers, the ship listed somewhere between 20 and 40 degrees as the vessel made a violent and unnecessary turn to the left.
I’ll leave the passengers descriptions of down becoming up, merchandise sliding earthquake-like off shelves and people flying everywhere with a force that was so strong the water cascaded out of the ship’s four swimming pools to other accounts.
Here is the understory.
So far there is absolutely no explanation of why the ship executed the vicious turn to port and everything not tied down slipped to starboard. It had been to sea before, recently docking in Florida on a trip down from New York. The weather was fine, the sea calm and clear and no other vessels in the area. They can find no mechanical problem…. and ships weighting 226,000,000 pounds don’t just turn like that by accident.
The current question then is; was it attempted sabotage?
Two factors are on everyone in the federal law enforcement and news media fields minds tonight. These ultra modern cruise ships (the ship was launched in 2003) are nothing more than top heavy, barely seaworthy floating Miami Beach-like art deco hotels. Many experienced seamen think they are an accident waiting to happen with their huge sail-like sides ready to catch a freak wind or wave and little natural stability. More than one marine architect thinks it’s just a matter of time until one capsizes.
Add to that the composition of the crews. Cruise lines “rent” their ship’s crews. The dining room staff, from waiters and busboys to the overly gracious matre-d are supplied from one agency, the cabin stewards from another, while another company supplies the deck department, (the traditional “sailors.”)
On one ship I was on last year, the only direct employees of the cruise line were the Master, the Chief Engineer, the Purser (who is really a nautical hotel manager) and the Social Director with the bad toupee. Everyone else, from head pastry chef to hull painter to helmsman were all “rented” from a Ships Chandler (supplier) service.
Remember that word; “helmsman.” He’s the one who steers the ship. Too fast a turn and perhaps a huge ship turns over and becomes huge permanent underwater monument to wretched excess.
Many of these rented crews, especially the “sailors” are from Indonesia. Indonesia has a huge and increasingly violent and fundamentalist Moslem population.
The questions being asked tonight, as I said, quietly, here in Florida are, was there a radical Moslem at the wheel and did he try to capsize the Crown Princess and thereby take 3000 infidels to the bottom with her?
Think about the Moslem mind. 3000 scantily clad, alcohol drinking, pork eating Christians and Jews drowned in a flash. What a great way to guarantee a madly hyper-focused helmsman his 76 virgins! No need to get a shoe bomb on a Trans-Atlantic airplane. Just take a hard left and they’re all dead, in time and in range of the cameras for the evening news.
(We all hope) It will probably turn out to not be the case, but in the Islam’s war on America, stranger tales have turned out to be true.
Turns to the left seem to always be violent.
As a computer science professional, all I have to say is...sounds reasonable to me.
One does not have to be Captain to understand the navigational systems, manner of propulsion, or passenger comfort systems.
My response may have sounded condescending, but it was truly a question that gave it's own answer. Your craft does not have these systems, although it might have hydraulic planes, or tilt adjustment for the propulsion.
If it had the items I mentioned, it would be able to make those 'impossible' manuevers, wouldn't it?
Just trying to say your first argument was invalid due to a difference in equipment.
I read one passenger report saying that she noticed a persistent tilt before the incident, which would point to the stabilizers it would seem. Also, I don't recall any mention of a turn in the initial reports.
Reuters quotes a Carnival statement, "Crown Princess experienced an unexpected list to the port side as she began sailing north toward her final port of New York." But then in the same statement, "... some passengers were injured as the ship sharply turned ...", and the article goes on to say, " U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Donnie Brzuska said the ship listed because of a problem in the steering mechanism."
But what about that passenger report? Here it is - 20 Seriously Hurt When Cruise Ship Tips to Side Off Florida Coast (AP) :
"Some passengers said the ship was already tilting Tuesday morning, even before the sudden roll to the side. Martha Lynn George said she at first thought something was wrong with her bed when she awoke but then realized the whole ship was slightly tilted."
I once captained a raft until my sister threw me over board!
GAK!
Olde Maritime Saying
So why don't they hire Americans or Hispanics?
I wouldn't be caught on a ship like this with the people described. It was scary enough being in a hotel in Eastern Europe with these people cleaning the rooms. (I was probably the only one who noticed and have openly said anything.)
"Did you short the cruise lines today?"
Good one!
Wow! Very interesting. Very scary. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Your reply is NOT to the Daily KOS standard! 30 lashes for failing to rabble-rouse!
These two points are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
you and your dirty, paranoid vanity
Sounds like a union/labor wind up speech...
Or an "Outsourcing is evil, evil, evil" whine...
No jokes about the Bermuda Triangle....
EVERY seriously scary experience I've ever had on the water -- was in the "Triangle", within 60 nautical miles of Great Harbor Cay..
After the last one, My fatherinlaw and I decided to stay the hell out....
Semper Fi
Je*us Ch*ist...the first time one of these meets a rogue wave sideways there's gonna be BIG trouble...
Without more info, speculation is meaningless. The news articles lack any specifics that could be helpful. EXCEPT- An AP article did state that passengers noted the Tuesday night movie onboard was supposed to be...Titanic.
Maybe it's 'cause I work on ships (Ch Eng), and remain slightly superstitious, but any friggin outfit that wants to show a shipwreck movie during a cruise is just asking for trouble!
No. The Hezbollah are Shia Muslims. Al-Quieda is Sunni. The Shia and the Sunnis do not play well together.
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