What happens after a Captain makes the decision to abandon ship?

I had a fabulous conversation which was so interesting for me as a cruise specialist. My first encounter with a customer who had to abandon ship. This was years ago! So nobody panic and no need to cancel any cruises you have recently booked with me!

The sailing was in the Baltic in 2011. There were around 400 British passengers out of 1800 and the ship lost power. I know full well that this affects every basic function on the ship. Including air conditioning, lighting, ovens, lifts, flushing vacuum toilets, water generation and pumping. As well as the obvious navigation steering and movement of the ship. The ship was to be towed back to Sweden where it had set off from.

But these conditions are not going to make cruisers happy. Imagine a dark, hungry, ship full of demanding people wanting a lovely holiday.

I know some decisions are made in haste and regretted later. One of these, would be under these conditions, to give everyone on the ship free drinks!!! Where is the waste going to go with no toilets working and 1800 people with full bladders… There was also no warm food available for a day, and sandwiches do not really count as cruise food.

For safety reasons the Captain took the decision to abandon the ship and pleasure craft from the coast of Sweden were bought alongside for people to scramble onto. Luggage was then thrown onto a separate craft causing damage to many bags. A police craft then followed the pleasure craft all the way back to port.

The coastguard came to collect the Captain for questioning and the enquiry began as to why the ship could leave with an engine fault, that later failed again, that then caused the upset and discomfort of all the passengers.

Many things happen in an incident like this. Aeroplanes are chartered to return people home, coach companies are called to transfer people, hotel rooms are arranged for those that cannot be moved straight away. Plus, lessons are learned the hard way. Hopefully so they don’t happen again.

Every passenger received a free cruise of their choice to the value of the cruise they were on. This is a great gesture from a committed company. But will not take away the passengers uncomfortable experience of a ship with no power.