I had asked Malcolm Oliver this question via e-mail. He thinks it is interesting and it may happen sooner or later.
The last Cruise Ship to sink with a high death toll..
MV Estonia (Technically a car ferry)
others....
SS Central America
RMS Titanic
RMS Empress of Ireland
RMS Lusitania
SS Yarmouth Castle

there may be more I didn't list (What was the Egypt's death toll?)....

What will join this chain of doomed liners and cruise ships?

Likely Candidates-
Old, poorly maintaned ships-
Watch out! People on SS Dolphin IV,
MS Carousel, MS Sundream, MV Seawing, SS Seabreeze, or any other poorly maintaned ship may have their last view of their ship as plunging bow first into the nice, warm ocean! (Note: The SeaBreeze is out of service. I hope nobody like Airtours takes it. I want Costa to rejuvinate the poor lady!)

Very New Ships-
Those on the MS Millenium have less risk of disaster. However, just like airplanes, there are design flaws in ships. Some can be a nuisance, while others may cause a newbuild like the MS Millenium to burn, take in seawater, capsize, explode, and finally, sink.

Let me know what are the ships you think will go down with a high death toll, as long as the ship is currently floating, is being built, or is planned to be built with the design finalized.

[This message has been edited by Jesse C (edited 11-16-2000).]

However, I think that due to the 'law of averages' unfortunately there are bound to be accidents, sooner or later! After all there are more cruise ships than ever. Hopefully any modern disasters will not cause a loss of life. (For example, the Norwegian Dream's accident was serious, but thankfully no loss of life).

I think that fire at sea is a bigger risk, and more likely, that a ship actually sinking! Hopefully the new SOLAS regs will protect passengers safety.

If we could accurately predict such things, we could stop them before they happen! But we can't!

Keepcruisinregardless

Yeah, I can think of better topics. The chances are, in my estimation, slim. But possible; you never know.

I think the large, and I mean the large mega ships are a disaster waiting to happen.
Question: Obviously they have run drills testing the life boats and everything else, but have they ever tested a ship with 3000 screaming passengers? Have they organized the passengers and lowered the boats under those conditions????

NO! So I guess we will not know what will happen unless it happens. Will we.
This is a fact of cruising that one cannot and should not ignore. Good question Jesse!

Anyone against this should know that the RMS Titanic, RMS Empress of Ireland, RMS Lusitania, HMHS Brittanic, TN Andrea Doria, SS Yarmouth Castle, SS Oceanos, SS Morro Castle, SS Royal Pacific, and MV Estonia all sank because of some kind of neglect, whether it is people making sticky desicions, or jumping the book when it comes to rules, (Captian Edward J. Smith and Captain Piero Calamai did this, and lost their vessels, the RMS Titanic and the TN Andrea Doria, respectively) or an error in the design. There are some accidents that happened when the captains tried their best (MS Prinsendam).....

and I acknowledge them too. I do think it would have been scary to be on the MV Estonia. I would have been blocked by many people in the halls.

There are accidents waiting to happen. Premier ships and the Airtours terrible Trio Ships (MV Seawing, MV Carousel, MS Sundream) are troubled, according to the Travelpage Reviews. (Again, Premier Cruise Line ceased all operations recently.)

I think this is an interesting topic.
I wish you luck!

Jesse

It's my impression that there have been only two times this century that passengers and crew have been put off in boats only -- that is, there were no ships nearby and, if you wanted to survive, you had to be in a boat.

They were the Titanic and the Prinsendam.

Er, pardon? I've been on Airtours' Sunbird three times and safety was right at the top of the agenda. Not just the passenger drills, but the crew drills and the safety inspections are meticulous and rigorous. The master, Capt Philip Rentell, is a safety fanatic ... even the entertainment staff have safety responsibilities, and they are drilled relentlessly.

Fires and collisions on ships are inevitable, but the chances of them occurring on newer ships should be a lot less or there's no sense in having all these new regulations. Most fires on ships start in the engine room for obvious reasons and the spread is often greater on old ships because of the dirty conditions found in them. That makes it really tough to try and control a fire and the old steam driven ones can be a nightmare.

quote:

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Originally posted by geno-r:
Also don't forget the ship ( I can never remember it's name) that caught fire off the Jersey coast. It'spassengers were put off in Lifeboats

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Geno-R, you must be talking of the Morro Castle. Some passengers (not all) were put into lifeboats but since the fire started from a lower deck and went to the upper ones it cutoff access to passengers to several lifeboats. Result: many lifeboats were destroyed by fire.
The saddest aspect of the Morro Castle disaster was that some of the lifeboats that managed to escape the ship were occupied mainly by crew members that didn't bother to turn back and help rescue the passengers that were drowning on the troubled waters (the Morro Castle was being hit by a storm). So when the first lifeboats arrived on shore the occupants were crew members.

Regards

(Hopefully my clever deployment of the asterisk has prevented any offence being cause, but if not, Joe and Malcolm, feel free to edit to your hearts' content - there are only so many ways to convey a message).

Paddy.

That said, I recall that the worst of the disasters were caused by war or collisions. The Empress of Ireland and the Andrea Doria both sank due to collisions caused by officer error. Wasn't there a ship that caught fire in the Gulf of Alaska some years back? I don't recall any fatalities.

OK, here's the statistical analysis, in my view. Since Carnival owns the most ships, it's likely to be there that lightning finally strikes. Since collisions are usually the cause, it's likely to be in a congested area, such as outside Miami, St. Thomas, or some such. Since there are many more cargo ships than cruise ships, the collision is likely to be with a cargo ship.

Putting all that together (but don't bet the farm on this!!!!), my wild-novelist-imagination would pick the Elation, which often has a fog and traffic problem leaving the L.A. harbor.

-Carnival's MS Elation

That is it. This could become the hottest topic ever, since many people are moved by the topic, whether it is positive, or negative.

It is scary when It actually happens.
I think the SS Yarmouth Castle disaster, MS Estonia disaster, RMS Titanic, and the RMS Empress of Ireland disaster are the scariest in my opinion. The least scary is the HMHS Brittanic, though the thought of getting chopped into pieces by the HMHS Brittanic's still running propellers is like watching a plane go down, but not as comforting.

I am going to do this every Friday.

Good Luck!
Jesse