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http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/14/world/europe/italy-cruise-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

How can this even happen with today's technology?

3 reported dead... 40 to 50 missing.....

Dude, Spoilers, I haven't watched Titanic yet...

Jay said:

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http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/14/world/europe/italy-cruise-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

How can this even happen with today's technology?

3 reported dead... 40 to 50 missing.....

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All the technology in the world can't stop a drunken captain.


*note: I don't actually know if the captain was drunk.

There's apparently varying stories out, with some of the crew claiming the captain steered a course to close to the coast despite warnings of shallow seabed, and the captain claiming the rock that they bumped into wasn't on the charts. Technology is all well and good, but they don't compensate for human errors.

Or human stupid.

No ship is unsinkable.

I thought their electricity crapped out and they were essentially floating dead in the water.

Most recent I've heard is that the captain tried to take a "tourism" route, a route closer to the island that the tourists on the island appreciate because it lets them see the ship better. A different cruise ship did the same thing last year and the ship's captain was given an official thank you for it from whomever is in charge of said island (governor, mayor, whatever), and this guy was trying to do the same. The difference is, the captain last year was 300 yards out from the island, well safe of the reef, and this guy was 150 yards out, and hit the reef; while he was off the bridge dining with passengers (on cruises it's not uncommon to have a captain's table with the option for passengers to dine with him, so the fact that he wasn't at the helm isn't all that big an issue by itself). It's amazing how quickly the official tune from the cruise line went from Carnival saying that the captain did nothing wrong to Costa saying that it's the captain's fault. I'd be interested to know if any of the junior officers are disciplined for not refusing to accept the course he set and putting the ship on a safer course, and interested to know if the passengers' account that there was no safety training at the beginning of the voyage is true or not; because if that's true, Carnival could be seeing a massive, massive fine over this one.

Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. I've often wondered how long before some cruise ship plows ashore (ok, this wasn't ashore), what with all the ferried ramming into their moorings we've had lately.

Cruise ships are mass graves, defying death on a quirk of physics. That anyone is calm on one blows my mind - don't they know even in the best of circumstances, they're bobbing precariously above 2 miles of cold, black liquid funeral full of lovecraftian horrors?

Jay said:

View attachment 4023View attachment 4024

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/14/world/europe/italy-cruise-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

How can this even happen with today's technology?

3 reported dead... 40 to 50 missing.....

Click to expand...

Shegokigo said:

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Indeed, boss. Now, can we talk about my hazardous work bonus? *hides blowtorch*

GasBandit said:

Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. I've often wondered how long before some cruise ship plows ashore (ok, this wasn't ashore), what with all the ferried ramming into their moorings we've had lately.

Cruise ships are mass graves, defying death on a quirk of physics. That anyone is calm on one blows my mind - don't they know even in the best of circumstances, they're bobbing precariously above 2 miles of cold, black liquid funeral full of lovecraftian horrors?

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Duty-free shopping, all-you-can-eat buffets and one-night stands. That's about the basic premise, I think.

Jay said:

How can this even happen with today's technology?

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Re: The Titanic

How can this even happen with today's technology?

i.e. Let a numbnutz behind the tiller and all hell can break loose.
Added at: 14:21
This weekend another captain said that the rock they hit has been on the charts since the Iron Age...

sixpackshaker said:

This weekend another captain said that the rock they hit has been on the charts since the Iron Age...

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Well there you have it, they where using Bronze Age maps...

North_Ranger said:

Duty-free shopping, all-you-can-eat buffets and one-night stands. That's about the basic premise, I think.

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I guess sex and bargains are enough to distract most people from endless fathoms of unlit, salty, monster-infested, smothering doom.

@Li3n said:

Well there you have it, they where using Bronze Age maps...

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Nope, he was just being an ass-hat. Who I guess was "driving by feel/eye." And not looking at his charts, at all.

sixpackshaker said:

Nope, he was just being an ass-hat. Who I guess was "driving by feel/eye." And not looking at his charts, at all.

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Probably was at the "Captain's table" and wasn't at the con at all.

I read they drive close to the island so tourists can have a good look at the scenery and do a trip later onto bring money to the inhabitants. Mr ubercaptain just took the ship even closer to impress some friends or such he has on the island. Of course that's just one more rumor, but it really seems that he was the first off board and used his cell phone to call about the calamity; very nice of him to pin himself down so neatly.

This guy seems to be quite the opposite of captain Chesley 'Hudson' Sullenberger.

GasBandit said:

I guess sex and bargains are enough to distract most people from endless fathoms of unlit, salty, monster-infested, smothering doom.

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It's not so bad here in the Baltic Sea, really... The average depth is about 180 ft, it's more brackish than salty... and the only time there's monsters in it is when the Sauna Society go skinny-dipping.

Unless, of course, you're scared shitless by this sea monster:



In the Mediterranean... well, what with all the sirens and harpies and six-headed sea monsters and onion-fearing witches living on islands and turning men into pigs, there you are indeed pretty much fucked.

sixpackshaker said:

Nope, he was just being an ass-hat. Who I guess was "driving by feel/eye." And not looking at his charts, at all.

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"Obviously this blue part here is the land..."

"BUT IT WASN'T ON GOOGLE MAPS!"

sixpackshaker said:

Nope, he was just being an ass-hat. Who I guess was "driving by feel/eye." And not looking at his charts, at all.

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Man, and i was so sure he had a 5000 year old map...