Pompeyfan
15th September 2005, 16:52
My two trips back to sea this year made me wonder how passengers who have never been to sea before or didn't understand nautical terms on board would cope in an emergency and would their lack of knowledge aboard ship cause a problem such as a fire. On my recent cruise to Norway I was comparing life aboard cruise ships to my time during the 'line voyage' era. Crew wise it is very different, although in a funny sort of way just the same if you can make any sense of that?!. But what stood out like a sore thumb was that in that week, I can't remember a nautical word being used except the masters address during passenger muster station. After that, it was all shoreside words. People had no idea where starboard or port were, bow or stern or even which way the ship was heading once inside. Most knew that the floor was a deck but words like bulkhead and deckhead was alien to them. And few knew where the lifeboats were. That word boat came into being a lot because most thinking the ship itself was a boat, could not understand how other boats came into the equation when having to abandon ship. Yes, some were that thick!. Not many I am glad to say but enough to make me worry if we had to abandon ship because muster stations seemed total mayhem. So what would a real situation be like?.
On the ferry, it was a smokers paradise. I don't think they could smoke in their cabins, so they concregated wherever they could setting off spinklers in some cases indicating that the system was working, but they were also out on deck smoking throwing the lighted fag over the side. We all know that you should never do that because the fags blows into the deck below, but they did not know this or were told. Luckily on the ferry, the decks were steel and usually wet, so the likelyhood of a fire caused by this is very remote, but one fag did blow in through a door as a passenger opened it and loads were stubbed out on the carpet inside, but on cruise ships there are more situations where a fag blowing in could cause a fire. Back to the ferry, safety announcements are played as the ship sails, but that is it. No muster stations with better information like on a cruise. Although I did see a demonstration of how to put on a life jacket in one of the public rooms and possibly other safety information, but it was not mandatory as on a cruise. Also, on the ferry, life jackets were not in the cabins. Well, not mine anyway.
So my question is should we be concerned that so many landlubbers are going to sea these days. Would they understand what to do when crew went into autamatic mode or would crew have to translate nautical words they use in their own weekly drills to words passengers understood. And is throwing lighted fags over the side a problem, or am I looking for something that will never happen?.
Certainly closer to home people are losing their lives all the time by going to sea with no knowledge of it, but do members think there could be a problem on cruise ships or ferries having explained my concerns?. (Cloud) David
On the ferry, it was a smokers paradise. I don't think they could smoke in their cabins, so they concregated wherever they could setting off spinklers in some cases indicating that the system was working, but they were also out on deck smoking throwing the lighted fag over the side. We all know that you should never do that because the fags blows into the deck below, but they did not know this or were told. Luckily on the ferry, the decks were steel and usually wet, so the likelyhood of a fire caused by this is very remote, but one fag did blow in through a door as a passenger opened it and loads were stubbed out on the carpet inside, but on cruise ships there are more situations where a fag blowing in could cause a fire. Back to the ferry, safety announcements are played as the ship sails, but that is it. No muster stations with better information like on a cruise. Although I did see a demonstration of how to put on a life jacket in one of the public rooms and possibly other safety information, but it was not mandatory as on a cruise. Also, on the ferry, life jackets were not in the cabins. Well, not mine anyway.
So my question is should we be concerned that so many landlubbers are going to sea these days. Would they understand what to do when crew went into autamatic mode or would crew have to translate nautical words they use in their own weekly drills to words passengers understood. And is throwing lighted fags over the side a problem, or am I looking for something that will never happen?.
Certainly closer to home people are losing their lives all the time by going to sea with no knowledge of it, but do members think there could be a problem on cruise ships or ferries having explained my concerns?. (Cloud) David