LIFEBOATS, LIFERAFTS, SOLAS, DRILLS AND MORE. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SAFETY ABOARD CRUISE SHIPS!!!

Every cruise ship has them, and you should take them very seriously indeed. I’m talking lifeboat drills, of course.

In the many years that I’ve been cruising, I have attended literally hundreds of lifeboat drills, and it’s never ceased to amaze me, just how many passengers turn up today, to what is a very serious part of their cruise safety, and make fun of the whole situation. We can see the funny side of it, but there is a very serious reality.

Cruise ships today are big business. Twenty years ago, when I attended the naming ceremony of the P & O Oriana by H M The Queen, at 70,000 tonnes, that was an enormous ship. Today, that is a little baby compared to Britannia, also named by H M The Queen, only last week. That ship dwarfs the Oriana, and it makes you start to realise that today’s ships carrying upwards of 3,000 to 5000 passengers, are seriously big business, if you consider what could happen in the event of a tragedy at sea.

I knew one of the past passengers who, fortunately, escaped from the Costa Concordia disaster. However, the events that day left him shaken and not keen to set foot on another ship, before he knew just what sort of safety procedures were in place.

Also, many years ago, I was out one day, when I heard on the news, that a cruise ship had caught fire off the coast of East Africa and was sinking. I was panic stricken because I knew the only two ships sailing out in that area, at that time, were two on which I had passengers. In the event, it was the Achille Lauro that had caught fire, and I had four passengers on board that ship that day

My clients survived, I’m glad to say, and they continued to travel with me for many years thereafter.

The rules that govern safety of life at sea (SOLAS) today, are highly complex, and delve into every aspect of ships at sea, including lifeboat capacity, and what is, and is not, required. I’m really not going to touch upon this, needless to say that every cruise ship that is launched nowadays must satisfy the requirements of SOLAS and that not only means that there must be sufficient lifeboat capacity, but also liferaft capacity, for all guests, and crew, in the event that the ship was sailing with full capacity, and a tragedy struck.

I think the reality is alarming and something that most of us would like to ignore, and that is that in the event of a serious tragedy at sea, where a cruise ship starts to list significantly, to either one side, or the other, the likelihood of being able to launch all lifeboats, is actually highly improbable, because once the ship leans too far to one side, the upper side cannot launch all its lifeboats.

I have noticed some fairly serious articles, discussing this very point, by experts in the industry, who claim that cruise ships do not carry enough lifeboat capacity nor liferaft capacity, to get all passengers and crew off safely, in the event of a tragedy aboard ship.

I would love to know your thoughts on this. Have you ever thought about this or, is it something you really would rather not consider?

This might be of interest to you…     the difference between lifeboats and liferafts on cruise ships.

Modern lifeboats have a motor and use a davit or launching system, whereas liferafts usually do not have a motor and are stored in a collapsed format in heavy-duty fiberglass canisters on deck.

The disadvantage of lifeboats is that launching may take longer than the liferafts. The disadvantage of liferafts is that they may not be as efficient because of inflation system failures.

For those looking for more information about a particular cruise ship, contact the cruise line directly. They are required to answer your questions about the lifeboat and liferaft situation onboard.