“BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A Canadian cruise ship struck submerged ice off Antarctica and began sinking, but all 154 passengers and crew, Americans and Britons among them, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship.
The entire vessel finally slipped beneath the waves Friday evening, about 20 hours after the predawn accident near Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands, the Chilean navy said.” (Link)
All I can say is wow. One would think that an incident like this could be avoided with our current technology. I guess that since the chunk of ice was submerged under water (doesn’t ice float?) it would be a little harder to detect. Luckily, this was a small crusie ship, and there were enough lifeboats for everyone to safely evacuate.
The titanic did not have enough lifeboats for all of their passengers, and the boats also left the ship before they were at maximum capacity. In today’s modern world, all cruise ships are required to have enough life boats to safely evacuate all passengers.
At the beginning of every voyage, any cruise ship is required to hold an evacuation drill:
Under the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea regulations, cruise ships must conduct a safety drill within 24 hours of sailing with instructions on the use of life jackets and how and where to muster in an emergency. The regulations also require that ships carry a life jacket for every passenger, plus another 15%, at least 5% of which must be stored “in conspicuous places on deck or at muster stations.” And under the cruise line association standards, members must carry even more life jackets than what the International Maritime Organizationrequires: about 400 extra jackets for a 2,500-passenger ship, which must be “readily accessible.” (Link)
This is the second cruise ship sinking in less than a year. Earlier in the year, the Sea Diamond, a Greek flagged ship sunk in the Aegean Sea. In this case, the captain was charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence; as the ship struck a well known, marked reef.
In the case of the smaller ship that sunk today, it is unknown whether or not the crew will be charged with any counts of negligence.