# Another Lifeboat Accident



## Tony Morris (Oct 7, 2006)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...at-detaches-world-s-biggest-cruise-liner.html

I thought with new ships and the latest gear this was now a thing of the past, but it seems not.

Tony


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## slick (Mar 31, 2006)

Hello Tony,
Like you and others who use SN, I am mystified as to the continuing toll of Seafarers using modern Lifeboats and other "flotation devices".
I remember reading a book in my youth concerning Schat Davits, it showed a picture of Schat in a lifeboat of a heeled ship being lowered down the ships on the skates.
Perhaps some of the wise men and designers would care to come forward to show us mortals how to do it...., that is safely.
One can only imagine the effect on Passengers...
A complete rethink maybe required....
Tagalog is not the language Passengers want to hear on the Boat Deck.

Yours aye,

slick


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## Tony Morris (Oct 7, 2006)

Last few ships I was on we had to secure the lifeboats fore n aft with wire strops until in the water then release. I thought that the modern release gear was supposed to be safe but it now appears that this is BS, glad I took my pensions in July.

Tony


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

Maybe some one released something they should not have. I wait for the investigation to be over. My condolences to the family of the dead crew member and I hope the injured recover.


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

I offer my condolences also and a hope for speedy recovery for the injured. It's hard to imagine how these things happen today. Rarely heard of when I was at sea.
Not to make light of the matter however, but on the Afon Gwili in 52, that couldn't have happened.
Holed off La Rochelle - fortunately in the deep tank - we made it back to dry-dock in Cardiff. Subsequent to a survey we were instructed to lower the boats. Hours with chipping hammers and other gear and still not freed, they were condemned.
Reminiscing on our probable fate if she'd been holed elsewhere, most of us paid off. 

Taff


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## ChasH (May 23, 2014)

*lifeboats*

I was working on one ship,going round with D.T.I. surveyor we rolled out a fire hose switched the water on and it was like a sprinkler more holes in it than a calendar. I decided to look at the lifeboats, to my horror i saw the wire on the drum was 16mm lashing wire the lay was open and the wire was galvanised i immediate reported this to the surveyor he ordered the boat to be lowered and when it came to the drum end and it was short about a fathom off the water, the ship was detained and arrested till all was put right, i would report any ship in this condition the lifeboats are put there to save our lives not to kill us chas


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## NZSCOTTY (May 20, 2006)

I never allowed anyone in the boat during lowering for boat drill. All personnel got in and out when boat in the water. We have all seen and heard of these accidents over the years.


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## Lurch (Jul 29, 2011)

The fact is modern lifeboats have killed more people than they have saved. Well intentioned but poorly implemented legislation has led to a multitude of boat release systems, all of which have to be learned by agency crews with very mixed training and experience.

Add in the fact of the sheer scale of the life boats on the Oasis class vessels and the problems are amplified by a similar magnitude. Imagine, a lifeboat with the capacity of a jumbo jet - that is what they are doing. To my mind it is completely unsafe and an absolute disaster in the making.


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## tiachapman (Mar 25, 2008)

dummys in charge these days


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Lurch said:


> To my mind it is completely unsafe and an absolute disaster in the making.


Ah, but they say that the ship itself is a 'lifeboat'!!!!


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

1934 - the year I was born! What happened??

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/safety-at-sea/query/lifeboats

Taff


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## Cutsplice (May 23, 2008)

NZSCOTTY said:


> I never allowed anyone in the boat during lowering for boat drill. All personnel got in and out when boat in the water. We have all seen and heard of these accidents over the years.


Same here no one in the boat during drills, I was never happy with these quick release boats, in an emergency I would chance it, otherwise put it in the water then man it.


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## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

re: otherwise put it in the water then man it.

For USCG inspections it was necessary to fill a lifeboat with its rated number of occupants. Sometimes this required finding additional persons not ship crew to reach the desired number.

Boats were lowered to just above the water and everyone climbed down a chain and wood 'rope' ladder to the boat. When the boat was stuffed full then it would be released and make a big splash.

Greg Hayden


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## lagerstedt (Oct 16, 2005)

I often wonder what the survival rate, or % of persons on board, in this case 6000 plus passengers and 2000 plus crew would be if there was a need for a mass evactuation or abandon ship requirement at sea. There seems to be very few lifeboats for that number of persons. No doubt there are other devises on board, however we have all been through rough seas and know how you can get tossed around.


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## Andrew Craig-Bennett (Mar 13, 2007)

Lurch said:


> The fact is modern lifeboats have killed more people than they have saved. Well intentioned but poorly implemented legislation has led to a multitude of boat release systems, all of which have to be learned by agency crews with very mixed training and experience.
> 
> Add in the fact of the sheer scale of the life boats on the Oasis class vessels and the problems are amplified by a similar magnitude. Imagine, a lifeboat with the capacity of a jumbo jet - that is what they are doing. To my mind it is completely unsafe and an absolute disaster in the making.


I first heard those words from Jimmy Lough in 1985 and they are still true


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## nickwilson89 (May 25, 2014)

tsell said:


> 1934 - the year I was born! What happened??
> 
> http://www.britishpathe.com/video/safety-at-sea/query/lifeboats
> 
> Taff


Watching those davits run out in perfect unison is more entertaining than synchronized swimming.. Nick


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Hi, Nick, the couple of foreign vessels I sailed on had extremely well-maintained lifeboat gear and it seemed to me that they revered the lives of the crew more than our own people, where we had to free the frozen gear before lowering. Incidentally, we always filled the boats with crew, then lowered them. Nobody questioned it because that was how it was done.
In my experience, some bosuns were more into keeping us soogeeing weather deckheads than maintaining lifeboat gear.

Taff


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