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Originally posted by BMWM5:
[...] I understand the Carnival Triumph as I'm sure other cruise ships do not have double hulls, redundant electrical or propulsion drive systems.

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Carnival Triumph does not have a double hull but important sections of her hull - like the engine room compartment - do have a double bottom. While there is certainly room for improvement, she actually has redundancy in her propulsion system. New regulations actually demand entirely independent propulsion systems for emergencies, however, Carnival Triumph does not yet comply with these new regulations.

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Originally posted by BMWM5:
[...]
The USCG should set standards for watertight compartmentalization, size of rooms etc etc.

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There are of course standards for compartemtalization and these regulations actually have been updated recently.

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Originally posted by BMWM5:
[...]
I believe most of the safety improvements to passenger ships after 1912 have been discarded in favor of more profits.

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However there are still things that could be done to better protect this generation of cruise ships either with more emergency power systems or protections. For example if the issue turns out to be that the cabling from the forward spaces to the switchboard was destroyed they could easily retrofit to armor the cable to protect it against heat/fire. While that might not provide propulsion it might permit the ship to have more power in he aftermath of a situation similar to the current one.

You can rest assured that the US Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Bureau are both on this case. In fact the Coast Guard began interviewing passengers and crew before the ship ever docked. They will come out with an extensive report and recommendations.

Problem is that the Coast Guard is largely powerless to enforce those recommendations unless they believe the ship places people in imminent danger. The Coast Guard can not force a ship or line not registered in the USA to do anything but they can bar a ship from sailing in US waters or taking on US passengers. Granted its a technicality but still in the past old ships went to other places in the world to escape the reaches of the US Coast Guard.

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Originally posted by SSTRAVELER:
The "Safe Return" regulations only concern newly built ships. None of the old cruise ships have to or will be retrofitted.

However there are still things that could be done to better protect this generation of cruise ships either with more emergency power systems or protections.

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SSUS, Connie, Indy, Leo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafaello all had twin engine rooms with a separation so if one went out, the ship still had power albeit one propeller. It is nothing that has not been done in the past.

If I were a marine engineer, have back up generators in another part of the ship so the hotel systems work, and bow thrusters too.

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Originally posted by BMWM5:
It's my belief that one of these floating barges is ripe for a major disaster, far beyond what happened to the Titanic in 1912. I believe most of the safety improvements to passenger ships after 1912 have been discarded in favor of more profits.

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Sorry, people have been shoveling this horse manure for decades and decades. No one really and truly believes this 'chicken little sky is falling crap' except the uninformed masses that eat up this garbage dished out by the cable news outlets on the 'horrors of living on a prison ship' when these events happen.

you are more likely to be injured in a car going from the housing development, to the mall, to the office park, by a 20something who is texting while driving in all 3 lanes at once, or a blue hair falling asleep at the wheel and jumping the sidewalk.

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:

Sorry, people have been shoveling this horse manure for decades and decades. No one really and truly believes this 'chicken little sky is falling crap' except the uninformed masses that eat up this garbage dished out by the cable news outlets on the 'horrors of living on a prison ship' when these events happen.

And it's not like these things happen every week. With tens of thousands of departures and a hundred million passengers served in the last decade, cruise lines actually have a pretty good track record. At least I have a better chance at survival on a stricken ship than I do on an airplane plummeting from 21,000 feet. There's no parachutes in them things, ya know.

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Originally posted by desirod7:

If I were a marine engineer, have back up generators in another part of the ship so the hotel systems work, and bow thrusters too.

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The electric load required to maintain the full hotel systems alone makes this impractical. The a/c is going to be a major power hog not to mention elevators, the full galley, etc. etc. but there's no question that the regulators could and should be looking at more power backup (or redundancy in the cabling, etc.) in the instance where the ship is incapacitated but not in any danger and passengers stay aboard.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
[....]
If I were a marine engineer, have back up generators in another part of the ship so the hotel systems work, and bow thrusters too. [....]/QB]

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There is actually already quite some redundancy in the typical (diesel electric) setup of contemporary cruise ships and it should actually not be too difficult to push that a little bit further by isolating the different systems a bit better from each other.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
[QB][....]
I am wondering if ships could have wind turbines to run generators. There is plenty of wind at speed or in port at the height of a funnel top.

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That would not only be impractical - the power would hardly be sufficient to do something meaningful. What could be achieved with such a turbine is easier achieved with a (small) diesel engine.

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:

Sorry, people have been shoveling this horse manure for decades and decades. No one really and truly believes this 'chicken little sky is falling crap' except the uninformed masses that eat up this garbage dished out by the cable news outlets on the 'horrors of living on a prison ship' when these events happen.

And it's not like these things happen every week. With tens of thousands of departures and a hundred million passengers served in the last decade, cruise lines actually have a pretty good track record. At least I have a better chance at survival on a stricken ship than I do on an airplane plummeting from 21,000 feet. There's no parachutes in them things, ya know.

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Thanks for that reply. The thing that bugs me about an incident like the Triumph is that everyone becomes an expert after the fact.