The Bermuda Triangle?
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.
She uses azipods - does not have rudders. Propellers are tractor type, pulling vessel through water and the props are connected to electric motors which are just aft of the props. The entire assembly pivots like an outboard motor. Norwegian Star had a similar problem a few years ago entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca returning from an Alaska trip.
It was most likely a software error in the computer controls for one or more interlinked ships systems.
Everyday cruise liners are sailing the seas...the amount of accidents are miniscule. Let's all become hysterical now...it's what we do best.
>What's the metacentric height on one of those?
Way outside my engineering expertise, but look at pcitires at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cruisenewsdaily.com/s-prcrown1-a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cruisenewsdaily.com/s-prcrown.html&h=279&w=500&sz=85&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=6MiyiDqMQwEgzM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522crown%2Bprincess%2522%2B%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-08,GGLD:en%26sa%3DG
and you can see, that with a draft of only 26 feet, she is VERY top-heavy.
Could it be something called a stabilizer?
Does that work with a live GPS connection? Can that be hacked?
Yep, now I remember reading about them. Same as the Tractor tugs use. That could create a whole different set of dynamics if they some how worked against each other.
Psssssssst....There are several reports that black helicopters made the ship tilt. Pass it on.
Are there any NAVY guys here that could make some phone calls?
Or maybe it hit something too.
Could be a sunken wreck the cruise ship bottomed out on.
Well, just damne. There goes my theory of Hamas whales.
good idea - somebody likely moused in a course correction in the nav system, and some software glitch (or perhaps human entry error) decided it needed to turn the ship 180 degrees the other way.
If you want to cause mass casualties on a cruise ship, seems like there would be a lot more reliable ways to do it than cranking the wheel over. I'm not going to mention them, but anybody with a little imagination can no doubt think of several.
ding ding ding, we have a winner!
Thanks for the ping. At this point, I haven't heard whether the list was caused by the rudder or the roll fins or the thrusters, but I would look for a problem in the autopilot. Those ships are on autopilot when they are at sea, and it sounds as though this one was just about far enough out of port to be engaging the autopilot.
The Bermuda Triangle?
George Bush did it... Harry and Nancy Pelosi say so.
Hi Carlo!
Just pinging you to this thread. I'm on your ping list and seem to recall you have worked as a chef on the crusie lines. Any thoughts or experiences you could provide?
(Yes, I know food and hydraulics are different things. If I'm wrong about the cruise line thing, I'll just smack myself on the side of my head with a plate of prosciutto!) :>)
That's what it looked like to me at just a glance! It looked inordinately top heavy and I wondered immediately how it would fare in rough seas!!!
But that's something I'm totally uninformed about!!!
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