Titanic 2012

[littlebeast13]

This is a fabulous avatar. It will win.

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

ES turns four in April. I'd say he qualifies for the latter (and TGS may also qualify him for the former)....

lb13

[MarleysGh0st]

Make sure ES gets that life preserver.....

lb13

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

ES turns four in April. I'd say he qualifies for the latter (and TGS may also qualify him for the former)....

lb13

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

[silverscreenselect]

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

Hence the origin of the phrase about mangy rodents deserting the sinking ship.

[MarleysGh0st]

The good news is that they have found a few survivors who were still trapped on the ship but still alive.

They'll have an interesting story to tell--a real-life Poseidon Adventure.

[ulysses5019]

I thought people might be interested in this account on the Cruisecritic bulletin board posted by a survivor of the Concordia (it's the first post in the thread):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1548951

Sadly, from what I've been able to gather, a lot of what went wrong on the Titanic went wrong here as well, the main difference being that they weren't in the middle of the North Atlantic when it happened but just offshore. The crew wasn't as well versed as they should have been; it took a long time to order evacuation; and the evacuation wasn't handled well. I can tell you based on my own experience that most people on any cruise ship would have little or no idea what to do in case of an emergency; they view the mandatory muster drill (which puts a lot of people in cramped quarters on a side deck) as a huge inconvenience.

Somehow, the side of the ship that was actually gashed is the side that is out of the water. Apparently, the captain tried to take on ballast to compensate for the flooding on one side of the ship and overcompensated. In addition, he left the ship while there were still passengers onboard. Since this was an Italian cruise line with mostly Italian officers and an Italian captain sinking in Italy, the authorities are likely to go after him hard. There's been some reports he's already been charged with manslaughter, and if not, it's a distinct possibility in the near future.

There's three confirmed dead, two passengers and one crew; those bodies were found in the water. There's about forty still missing, and divers are going through the submerged areas of the ship right now. The good news is that they have found a few survivors who were still trapped on the ship but still alive. This ship has a very similar design to the one Mrs. SSS and I went on last summer.

So Gene Hackman was a passenger?

[ulysses5019]

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

ES turns four in April. I'd say he qualifies for the latter (and TGS may also qualify him for the former)....

lb13

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

What about that overstuffed, bloated Gambian rodent?

[ulysses5019]

Hey! What happened to women and children first?

ES turns four in April. I'd say he qualifies for the latter (and TGS may also qualify him for the former)....

lb13

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

And don't forget the rodents of unusual size.

[SportsFan68]

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

Hence the origin of the phrase about mangy rodents deserting the sinking ship.

Apropos the mangy rodent desertion but not much else --

[Giant Gambian Rat]

ES turns four in April. I'd say he qualifies for the latter (and TGS may also qualify him for the former)....

lb13

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

What about that overstuffed, bloated Gambian rodent?

I prefer to travel by Zepplin its safer that way.

[ulysses5019]

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

What about that overstuffed, bloated Gambian rodent?

I prefer to travel by Zepplin its safer that way.

As long as like you, it's filled with hot air.

[a1mamacat]

The folks and I have been discussing our next trip.

We briefly (very very briefly) looked at a Polynesian cruise, but I could put a downpayment on a deluxe condo for the cost

We are now looking at a Miami to LA cruise, or a New York to Quebec cruise in the late summer/early fall. If we do the NY cruise, it will be my first time ever in NY city. There are a couple of pre-boarding days in the city, so a fest is a possibility.

Mom wants NY to Quebec

Dad wants Miami to LA

I am the tie-breaker.

Heat, Sun, Panama Canal vs Autumnal foliage and sweaters

[elwoodblues]

I just saw the beginning of Entertainment Tonight, and they were calling this incident a "real-life Titanic."

Um, wasn't the Titanic a "real-life Titanic"?

[Jeemie]

ABC News played a tape of the Coast Guard talking with the captain that pretty much damns the captain forever.

He is screwed...rightfully so. He was off the ship before they ever sounded the evacuation.

Listening to the Coast Guard guy rip the captain a new asshole was pleasing to hear.

[Bob Juch]

ABC News played a tape of the Coast Guard talking with the captain that pretty much damns the captain forever.

He is screwed...rightfully so. He was off the ship before they ever sounded the evacuation.

Listening to the Coast Guard guy rip the captain a new asshole was pleasing to hear.

I wouldn't hire him to paddle my canoe.

[wintergreen48]

ABC News played a tape of the Coast Guard talking with the captain that pretty much damns the captain forever.

He is screwed...rightfully so. He was off the ship before they ever sounded the evacuation.

Listening to the Coast Guard guy rip the captain a new asshole was pleasing to hear.

I wouldn't hire him to paddle my canoe.

Paddling a canoe actually requires a pretty high level of skill, unless you don't mind (1) tipping over or (2) zig-zagging and going in circles; I would bet that most European cruise ship captains have little or no canoeing experience. What you mean is, you wouldn't trust the captain to hand you a canoe paddle. On shore.

[ulysses5019]

Well, I think there's an apparent size order to the rule.

So it's squirrels, children and women first!

Hence the origin of the phrase about mangy rodents deserting the sinking ship.

Apropos the mangy rodent desertion but not much else --

I wonder if that captain is related to ES?

[tanstaafl2]

Haven't paid much attention to these pictures (the fact that I will cruising on a ship in a field of massive icebergs in a couple of weeks probably has nothing to do with not wanting to be seeing a reminder of the potential for problems...) but this is a pretty interesting picture. It appears that a chunk of the bottom is still wedge in that gaping hole in the hull!

When we go on a cruise, I enjoy watching the ship leave and also watching it enter and leave various ports (when this happens at a time I'm awake), and frankly I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Many of the ports these cruise ships use are located in spots designed for ship sizes and shapes of hundreds or even thousands of years ago. This ship was 950 feet long and 150 feet wide and weighed over 100,000 tons. There are some RCI ships that are 400 feet longer than that. They just aren't designed for maneuvering in and out of tight spaces and in many cases neither the cruise lines nor the countries where they are docking have the funds available to make their ports safer for these types of vessels.

This same ship had a near miss a couple of years ago when it slammed into a pier where it was docking, and now this.

Tight spaces is one thing for a big ship like this and I will grant you the island is pretty close to the starboard side. But in this case it appears he had perhaps just a bit more flexibility to port. It's probably a good 60 nautical miles to the coast of Corsica.

I don't think tight spaces is to blame here. A tight Captain perhaps...

[Lackadaisical Stumblebum]

ABC News played a tape of the Coast Guard talking with the captain that pretty much damns the captain forever.

He is screwed...rightfully so. He was off the ship before they ever sounded the evacuation.

Listening to the Coast Guard guy rip the captain a new asshole was pleasing to hear.

Aw, cut him some slack. He was apparently under the impression that he was playing the role of J. Bruce Ismay...

[silverscreenselect]

More bad news for the captain:

On Thursday, a new audiotape emerged of the first contact between port officials and the Costa Concordia, in which Schettino is heard insisting that his cruise ship had only a blackout a full 30 minutes after it had rammed into a reef.

The recording between Schettino and Livorno port officials began at 10:12 p.m. Italian time on Friday, a good 30 minutes after the ship violently hit a reef and panicked passengers had fled the dining room to get their life jackets.

In it, Schettino is heard assuring the officer that he was checking out the reasons for the blackout. But he doesn't volunteer that the ship had hit a reef.

The port officer tells Schettino that his agency had heard from a relative of one of ship's sailors that "during dinner everything fell on their heads." Passengers in the dining area reported plates and glasses slamming down onto diners. "We are verifying the conditions on board," Schettino replies.

Asked if passengers had been told to put on life jackets, he responds: "Correct."

Costa Concordia crew members, who have been returning home are starting to speak out about the chaotic evacuation. They say that Schettino sounded the alarm too late and didn't give orders or instructions about how to evacuate passengers. Eventually, crew members started lowering lifeboats on their own.

"They asked us to make announcements to say that it was electrical problems and that our technicians were working on it and to not panic," French steward Thibault Francois told France-2 television Thursday. "I told myself this doesn't sound good."

He said the captain took too long to react and that eventually his boss told him to start escorting passengers to lifeboats. "No, there were no orders from the management," he said.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/stor ... 52663632/1

BTW, a in a poll earlier this week, the Captain replaced former PM Berlusconi as the most despised person in Italy.

[ulysses5019]

BTW, a in a poll earlier this week, the Captain replaced former PM Berlusconi as the most despised person in Italy.

I guess es hasn't made a visit to Italy.

[Bob Juch]

More bad news for the captain:

On Thursday, a new audiotape emerged of the first contact between port officials and the Costa Concordia, in which Schettino is heard insisting that his cruise ship had only a blackout a full 30 minutes after it had rammed into a reef.

The recording between Schettino and Livorno port officials began at 10:12 p.m. Italian time on Friday, a good 30 minutes after the ship violently hit a reef and panicked passengers had fled the dining room to get their life jackets.

In it, Schettino is heard assuring the officer that he was checking out the reasons for the blackout. But he doesn't volunteer that the ship had hit a reef.

The port officer tells Schettino that his agency had heard from a relative of one of ship's sailors that "during dinner everything fell on their heads." Passengers in the dining area reported plates and glasses slamming down onto diners. "We are verifying the conditions on board," Schettino replies.

Asked if passengers had been told to put on life jackets, he responds: "Correct."

Costa Concordia crew members, who have been returning home are starting to speak out about the chaotic evacuation. They say that Schettino sounded the alarm too late and didn't give orders or instructions about how to evacuate passengers. Eventually, crew members started lowering lifeboats on their own.

"They asked us to make announcements to say that it was electrical problems and that our technicians were working on it and to not panic," French steward Thibault Francois told France-2 television Thursday. "I told myself this doesn't sound good."

He said the captain took too long to react and that eventually his boss told him to start escorting passengers to lifeboats. "No, there were no orders from the management," he said.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/stor ... 52663632/1

BTW, a in a poll earlier this week, the Captain replaced former PM Berlusconi as the most despised person in Italy.

After they hit the rocks the captain ordered dinner for both himself and his ladyfriend (who may have been aboard illegally).

[SportsFan68]

BTW, a in a poll earlier this week, the Captain replaced former PM Berlusconi as the most despised person in Italy.

I guess es hasn't made a visit to Italy.

LOL!

[elwoodblues]

BTW, a in a poll earlier this week, the Captain replaced former PM Berlusconi as the most despised person in Italy.

I guess es hasn't made a visit to Italy.

LOL!

A certain avatar suggests that he has been there.

[littlebeast13]

I guess es hasn't made a visit to Italy.

LOL!

A certain avatar suggests that he has been there.

With HIS ladyfriend.

And the gondola never did run aground.....

lb13

[SportsFan68]

I guess es hasn't made a visit to Italy.

LOL!

A certain avatar suggests that he has been there.

That was totally phonied up.

Ick.