In this case it was a Dutch ship. What rational would they have for turning her away?
The Dutch island of St. Maarten has a tender dock a few meters away from the international airport that was open for the purposes of repatriation and medical evacuation flights. The Zaandam is a Dutch ship. The captain and company had at least a week to make arrangements for evacuation flights from St. Maarten or even a US west coast port where the same evacuation facilities were available.
The captain was more interested in his career with a corrupt company than the health of those who foolishly believed they were under his protection. His was a personal and commercial decision where he put company profit above the risks to the lives of everyone onboard. His choices were those of a coward.
“Befehl ist Befehl” didn’t work in 1945, it shouldn’t work today.
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I’m sorry Kennebec captain. that is apples and oranges. Many industries use bad practices that are coming to light perhaps, perhaps not. Oil doesn’t get sick. It just causes wars. People got sick for not a good reason other than when operators chased the dollar. Oil was the lifeblood of my career, I am glad to be retired now, both are ugly businesses. I never killed anybody in pursuit of money. The cruise guys knew what was going on and still did “Business as usual”.
Are you actually pretending you don’t know this? The sales pitch to wary custumers promising that they’ll be fine because the warm weather where they are going is going to kill the virus? Why would you want to shield these polluting scumbags?
I’m not trying to defend anyone. Just asking if there is a link that shows this is a true statement.
I think some of them knew. Certainly they kept in touch with the ships doctor during a voyage?
Collectively, I don’t think any captain could argue that the virus wasn’t aboard some of the ships. Some could have hoped that they were lucky and their particular ship would maybe somehow avoid the virus. But that is a pretty risky path.
Would also think company wide communication between the ships and officers had some info regarding a bit of concern regarding increasing illness aboard their vessels. Maybe not, who knows? Would be interesting to find out. Negligence either way.
Yeah, what are the odds those conversations were held within range of a VDR microphone?
From the link posted above:
Among them is Tom Sheehan, from Sarasota. When he boarded Carnival’s Costa Luminosa in Fort Lauderdale on March 5, his family said he had no idea that Jamaica had barred Italian passengers from getting off the ship on a previous cruise, or that a passenger, who later died of COVID-19, had been medically evacuated in the Cayman Islands.
Sheehan, 69, died in a Sarasota hospital on March 30; his kids said goodbye to him over speakerphone.
“If the ship had told everyone what was going on, my dad and stepmom would have gotten off in Puerto Rico and flown home,” said his son Kevin Sheehan. “But they didn’t tell them. So they stayed on the ship.”
I guess you could make an argument that if certain cruise ship captains were kept in the dark by their own medical staffs and also blissfully unaware of what was going on aboard other ships and their ports of call, and if you fall for the smarmy puff piece in your OP, then yeah, I guess you could make a case that every single captain operated in the best interest of his passengers.
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“We kept saying, ‘They’ll do better. They’ll see what happened on the Diamond and the Grand, and they’ll do better for us.’ But what they did was way worse — and they lied as well,” said Kelea M. Edgar Nevis, 57, of Arizona, who was on the ship with her 80-year-old husband. “It was ridiculous.”
Citing ship logs, the Miami Herald reported on Wednesday that at least 24 crew members and 50 passengers on the Costa Luminosa were classified as sick. On Thursday, Carnival said that only seven people, including two crew members, were showing symptoms, and that the logs included people who were close contacts of the sick.
…and the ship captains tried to figure out what to do.
KC - Is that enough? There’s plenty more but I think you already know that.
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Case closed. Guilty
I sold mine for medical reasons and I miss it. I’m down to delivering boats using the ICW or puttering around the harbor in a pontoon boat.
Also sold him a cherry Burb to tow it. Family discount. Similar reasons for selling. I am now the master baiter, All good, kept it in the family.
Chevy Suburban?
Without the accused being allowed to defend themselves from sever accusations from fellow mariners? Even fellow Masters.
Do you KNOW the actual events, or are you letting your hater of anything to do with the American end of the Cruise industry, FOC ships and anybody that “take your jobs away”, colour your judgment.
Maybe the English Captain should be invited here to tell his side of the story? Oh no, that may not meet with the approval of those who have already made up their mind that he (and all other involved with the Cruise industry) are cold-hearted capitalists that don’t care about anything but money.
Commodore Christopher Rynd (retired), who spent a lifetime in the cruise industry, doesn’t know what he is talking about. (or is an apologist for the stone-cold capitalists that run the cruise industry)
PS> “Home ported” means the port where they turn around and it change by the season. (The Zaandam is a regular in Alaska during the summer season, “home ported” in Seattle)
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You betcha. SLE with brown leather interior and towing package. Loved it, and so does Lil bro. Passed everything but a gas station, but not too bad really. Towing beast, none better. Hardly felt 6000 lb boat behind me. Going or coming back from the ramp. Worst thing was the mosquitos at Manteo, Hatteras, or Oregon Inlet boat ramps. Effing nightmare, like Alfred Hitchcock bad.
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Sorry Ombugge, this one is a no brainer. Nice try, but not a good one to champion for.
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The entire world knows the facts. The company lobbied for days until the Panama Canal allowed them to transit. The ship bypassed Dutch (flag state) territories where passengers and sick crew could have been evacuated, and continued on to its scheduled arrival port in time for the next scheduled cruise. Those are the facts, everything else you mention is pure speculation and apology.
This event is like person A claiming self defense for shooting person B in the back while B is running away.
You nailed it Bug. Spot on.
Did you miss the quote marks around “home ported” and the term “fictional” with reference to what the cruise company would like its victims to believe.
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@Kennebec_Captain No one is accusing you of supporting or condemning the cruise industry. (Not me, at least.)
Big oil is a necessary evil to our economy and our way of life. It would be great if they could be replaced by non-fossil fuels but that’s not a reality today.
On the other hand, the cruise industry is not a necessary evil. It’s entertainment for the richest peoples of the world by the poorest peoples of the world. That by itself isn’t an evil. What makes it so is how they drive poor nations into debt to make a few well connected locals and many investors rich. It’s a parasitic, destructive industry - at least here off the coasts of the United States.
That article you posted mentions the laudable assistance provided to Vanuatu after a typhoon. Have you noticed what the industry does in the Caribbean after a hurricane? Like parasites when a host is sick they move on to healthier hosts leaving the wreckage to others. They cancel those port calls and move on to a neighboring island. They do some public relations display of help but it’s mostly for show.
@ombugge Hopefully the rest of the industry isn’t like the FoC parasites off our coasts. Hopefully they are beneficial to the economies of the locals and not just investors and the Banana Republics’ best connected.
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