Click:
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.
Big ships like this one can't make radical abrupt turns. It takes much effort to even begin to turn a ship like this. It's not a formula car for cryin out loud. This explanation is BS.
> I'd be curious what kind of steering system it has.
> Cables? Hydraulics? Electronic controls?
Steering (and listing) is not just a matter of rudder,
or even differential thrust, on modern ships. They also
often have stabilizer vanes (for heavy seas) and/or
bow/stern thrusters (for tug-less docking). In concert,
all of these systems could impart some interesting
dynamics.
Given the number of fires, groundings, illnesses and
other mishaps attributable to incompetence on these
boats, I'm inclined to think malfunction/incompetence
until contrary evidence arises.
What, he gets 4 more virgins if he kills Christians and Jews? ;o)
Where is Michael Rivero anyway?
>Big ships like this one can't make radical abrupt turns.
But this one did, didn't it? (see MSM reports, please)
>Where is Michael Rivero anyway?
He lived on the Big Island, part of the Free Hawaii Movement.
What?
...The 3000 passenger 22-knot floating hotel "Crown Princess" was 11 miles south of Port Canaveral, heading out on a Western Caribbean cruise ...
It had completed the Western Caribbean cruise and was heading to Brooklyn.
...the ship was launched in 2003...
It was launched in 2006.
The steering system is hydraulic electric. Huge hydraulic rams position the rudder. The controls are electric, unless things have changed since I retired as a Coast Guard Marine Inspector, there should be servos controlling the whole system from the bridge to the steering compartment.
These ships have thew equivalent of airplane "black boxes"...every movement, every control input to the engines and systems is recorded, as well as who did what...this will be easy to backtrack and confirm/deny..
Did you short the cruise lines today?
Click:
Agree those ships don't turn quickly, but they can turn on a dime with the thrusters.
>>...the ship was launched in 2003...
>It was launched in 2006.
Actually no. Stories about it being launched in 2006 are wrong. It was launched (made to float) in 2003, fitted out, then christened (by Martha Stewart!) in 2006.
In the cruise business, launching to revenue runs is a few years.
"...a worse drunk." Ok--now you're bragging.
I'm looking into the mysterious deaths in Disney rides, particularly the Rock n Roller Coaster. I can't think of a more nefarious way to rent the very fabric of Amercan society than by fostering doubt about one of our great rock and roll icons. It's horrifying. I'm not sure how these fiendish devils came up with it.
>Did you short the cruise lines today?
No.
I did Google
:~)
Sounds like a situation desperate for investigation done in full broad daylight with complete disclosure.
>"...a worse drunk." Ok--now you're bragging.
Yeah, but they fixed the wall so all is Ok now!
:~)
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