Watch: Cruise from hell sailed right through “bomb cyclone” despite storm forecast
According to the video’s YouTube page, the ship consistently rocked for three days, people were sleeping in the hallways because water was leaking into their rooms, and some were walking around the ship wearing life jackets.
CRUISE SHIP CAUGHT IN A BOMB CYCLONE (Norwegian Breakaway) Link to youtube
Yes, bad, cold, snowy weather swept over USA from Canada and into the Atlantic after New Year. And modern cruiseship deckhouses are neither watertight nor weathertight. The deckhouse is just a cheap hotel fitted on top of a self-propelled barge.
So a little water came into the deckhouse. Nothing to complain about.
This will probably get more and bigger headlines than the loss of 33 seafarers on the El Faro.
Not to mention 32 on the Sanchi.
Circumventing such a big bad weather system will cause a delay of days from which, knowing the American claim culture, countless claims will arise. So I can imagine that they decided to press on, nevertheless the inconvience for the passengers, to arrive on schedule at the destination.
It is a shame that water could enter the accommodation, although it presented no real danger as such. From what I saw the ship behaved very well in those heavy seas.
That is quite a bit of water damage to repair.
Looks like the ship rode it out pretty well, aside from the bit of water that came into the deckhouse up top.
Maybe worth the bit of extra money to make a few more things watertight, eh?
All would have gone to hell if a big sea blew out a few window and or balconies. At some point their luck will run out. The Captain on the El Farro was confident that the ship could handle the storm. Did work though, 33 crew lost their life.
Old saying
The schedule is flexible the ship is not.
New Saying; the schedule is fixed and the ship HAVE to comply. (No matter weather or any other “excuses”)
I didn’t watch the video that closely but was all that water coming from outside? A cruise ship like that might have indoor features such as swimming pools and I don’t know what else. Maybe from doors left open.
Ship builders certainly know to construct a watertight window.
This ship has the pools on deck 16 of 18; outside, but surrounded by sunbath terraces on deck 17. Many Jacuzzi are in the Spa center and in luxury suites, all on the uppermost decks.
It is surprising how small the ship’s movements can be to let the water spill over. With larger movements, the tons of water on deck cannot evacuate around the pools; the water takes the staircases and, with the movements, spreads on the lower decks.
Why didn’t they empty the pools, going into this announced heavy weather?
Someone will need a good explanation.
On the low public promenade deck, water may have entered by the doors, opened by curious passengers, unable to close them again.
Seems like it might have been coming in from the sliding glass doors. At 3:33 there is one of those doors not fully closed.
This storm was very well forecasted, likely they have good routing. Maybe they need to watch not just wave height but wind speed limits.
Sure is a lot of tacky decor inside that ship.
The days of Mauritania are long gone
No, ship windows are not watertight. Ship’s do not float on deck houses, even if the Swedish Maritime administration thinks so, to explain (cover up) the M/S Estonia sinking 1994.
And when there is a storm, the wind blows away the seawater on the ocean surface, so it becomes a salt rain.
Ship windows are not watertight (as in being able to resist permanent submersion and water pressure), but at least all fixed and most openable portholes certainly are weathertight and should be capable of resisting sea spray, perhaps even occasional submersion (green water). However, when you give passengers the liberty of opening sliding doors at their discretion, some water will eventually end inside the ship. Perhaps the cabin doors should be weathertight instead?
I’ve been playing with the idea of glazed-over balconies for cold-environment cruise ships. It would also give the ships a “cleaner” look. Of course, salt deposits would be a pain to clean…