 |
Let's just thank heavens Sandra Bullock was on board to save those people! |
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.
I just returned from a caribbean cruise and my room steward was a wonderful young woman from Indonesia. I asked her how she got to work on a cruise ship and she explained there is nothing in Indonesia that allows them to make any money to live a decent life. The only ones who live good are those who own their own business (which is her goal and is saving her pay)and those who leave the country to find better jobs.She & her husband both work on the ship and their child is taken care of by her parents. We talked quite a bit about her country and it's problems and I found her quite willing to talk about the terrorists etc. and the future of Indonesia. She is not very hopeful for a future there without terrorism.
Sounds like the ship snagged a fishing net or some other object underwater. imho
It was the same port - but a different ship. It was a Royal Caribbean - out of Port Canaveral - and what happened was this - they were out to sea, the ship started slowing down, then the engines stopped, then the ship lost all power and started listing. ( Seems the phrase "like walking up hill" was used) The power was off and the ship was listing for 2 to 3 hours - there wasn't water, air conditioning etc. After some time the ship brought out bottled water, but there wasn't water to flush the toilets etc. And no, it didn't make the news. These family members have been taking cruises for years and have never experienced anything like this and up until that time, had never heard of anyone experiencing this... It is odd - and odder yet that it's out of the same port but on a different line.
Do they have feathers? Do they lay eggs? Were they called "birds" for thousands of years up until the 1950s? Do little kids instintively think they are birds?
No? I guess your rhetorical question was just pretty damned stupid, then.
Second, its easy to see how this can happen. I had a similiar incident happen to me. Modern ships are completely automated integrated. In my situation, while steaming at 24 knots, the ship's speed sensor quite communicating with the auto-pilot. This caused the autopilot to think I was traveling at 0 knots; and therefore applied a full rudder to make a small course change. (When you go slow, you need to use more rudder). Needless to say, 35 degrees of rudder while doing 24 knots will cause you to roll pretty dang significantly.
There are many other things that could cause this ship to heel... terrorism isn't one of them.
Well, yesterday's event--if it was terrorism--fell a few notches short of 'perfect'.
|
Let's just thank heavens Sandra Bullock was on board to save those people! |
Were you on that cruise ship?
Why is everybody concentrating on the "turn" and not the "list"? That degree of list is impossible to explain, ergo "possible sabotage". I agree with your thoughts because I had 'em myself. Thanks for posting this. Perhaps it will get some people to think and get them out of their everyday complacency.
Sunni's and Shia may not play well together but that doesn't mean that Al Qaeda and bin Laden can't do something to enable their getting along better.
Let me try this one more time...
SOURCES?????
Not needed. Innuendo and sheer conjecture along with a vivid but twisted imagination and a grass knoll is all that is needed to establish FR as the home of wacadoos what am.
>Innuendo and sheer conjecture along with a vivid but twisted imagination and a grass knoll is all that is needed to establish FR as the home of wacadoos what am.
Perhaps you are right. I hope so. On the other hand, I was thinking of your comment today as I stood in the shadow of the two World Trade Center Towers and watched the airliners on approach for LaGuardia and JFK soar over, laughing inside at the fools who say one airplane could take down the strength and majesty of one of these great buildings.....
In addition I invite you to look at the photos referenced in post #84, of a ship that draws only 24 feet of water, and tell me they are truly seaworthy.
Love the condescending attitude. Thanks. You compare flying an airplane to a ship using a lot of rudder... All power to you, but I still think that's idiotic.
I invite you to look at the photos referenced in post #84, of a ship that draws only 24 feet of water, and tell me they are truly seaworthy.
I invite you to look at the photos in my profile and tell me you have more credibility on this issue than I do. I think I'll use something a little more scientific to determine stability than the photos in post #84.
Ummm, because the turn caused the list? That degree of list is impossible to explain, ergo "possible sabotage".
Yes, these ships were sabotaged too because they are listing a lot in calm seas. (/sarc)
Oops, in my above post, "That degree of list is impossible to explain, ergo "possible sabotage"." is a quote from your post, not a comment by me.
BUMP, in light of the Miami Port incident today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.