You have all already heard of the grounding of the Costa Concordia, I am sure, and the positively shameful fashion in which the evacuation of that doomed ship was completely and totally botched up:
She said: ‘I want everyone to know how badly some people [aboard the sinking cruise liner Costa Concordia] behaved. It was a nightmare. I lost my daughter and my grandchildren in the chaos.
I was standing by the lifeboats and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls. It was awful. There was a total lack of organisation. There was no one telling people where to go.
And when we finally got into a lifeboat, people, grown men, were trying to jump into the boat. I thought, if they land in here we are going to capsize.
[...]
‘We fled with only the clothes we were standing in and my poor wife lost her shoes. We’ve lost our passports, £500 cash and my credit cards, which were all in the ship’s safe.’ Mr Rodford said the officers were no help. ‘The people who served us our dinner were the people who helped us get on the lifeboats and were manning the lifeboats. I didn’t see captains’ jackets and things like that. It was the staff who had served us dinner.
Given my Navy history, I could probably annihilate thousands of innocent bytes explaining just how the spineless scum masquerading as "officers" onboard that particular cruise ship completely and totally failed their crew and passengers (and said failure started long before the puddle of piss sporting captain’s bars pulled the "Screw y’all, I’m outta’ here" maneuver), but to save my keyboard from "death by pounding", I am going to go a different direction today. However, do keep in mind that no one I am quoting is trying to excuse, mitigate, or rationalize that failure of the captain and his crew, and neither am I.
On the one hand, consider this:
This was not so much predictable as predicted. Women have methodically attacked the concept of male duty and honor through every possible means for the past ninety years, and now they are whining that they don’t get special treatment simply because a ship happens to be sinking. Why, exactly, should any man "prioritise women, expectant mothers and children"? On what grounds can they be reasonably expected to do so, those outdated traditional grounds that the schools teach is hateful, sexist, and bigoted?
Those big, burly crewmen shoving aside women as they prioritized their own escape should have been wearing t-shirts that said "this is what a feminist looks like". Enjoy the crash.
"Feminists" have been demanding "equality" for decades now, and imposing it by governmental, bureaucratic, or policy fiat wherever and whenever they can. In a world where "equality" reigns supreme, "women and children first" is a completely meaningless, semantically null concept, at least when it comes to the women. Whoops. (I, personally, make something of an exception for children, given their marked inequality with adults, but, then, I would be pushing women into a lifeboat before me anywise.)
And just to tie this back to being a gunblog, this is the world the "gun control" extremists would force upon us – one where the larger and stronger gets what the larger and stronger wants because they are larger and stronger, while the smaller and weaker are lucky to survive… if they survive at all. On the other hand, by allowing a 120-pound-soaking-wet woman to authoritatively and finally decline the undesired proposal of sexual activities offered by a 300-pound ex-convict, a firearm ensures the thin veneer of ‘civilization’ remains intact and prevents the creation of another victim.
On the other hand, consider this:
And I mean that. For two generations, Europeans have been coddled by their governments – asked to do ever less (other than support their Ruling Elite) while the Governments do ever more. We saw the result of that, in the icy waters of the Mediterranean, as society went feral and it was sauve qui peut.
Again, from my Naval background, and my generally inquisitive nature, I know how to deploy most forms of lifeboats – do you? Would you learn how to before/after boarding a vessel? Would you even know where the boats/rafts were located? Think more generally… do you know how to handle alfa, bravo, or charlie fires? What about deltas? Do you know what those are? Think even more broadly… how long could you and your family deal with a loss of power in your house without outside assistance? Water? Internet?
Odds are, most of my readers are probably capable of handling those kinds of scenarios… but what about your neighbors? What about the "average" American, much less the average human?
We have successfully created an entire population of people who are entirely dependent upon other people for pretty much everything, up to and including direction in their lives. When faced with an emergency situation, do you think they will immediately spring into action with a well-formulated plan in hand, or do you think they will stand around, waiting for directions, and blaming someone else for not "saving them"? Yeah. Me too.
And on the gripping hand, I will leave you with this: your life is your responsibility, and your responsibility alone, unless another of-age adult voluntarily accepts responsibility for it. The captain of a ship does exactly that – accepts responsibility for his crew and any passengers onboard – every time he orders his sailors to cast off, and the captain and officers of this cruise liner disastrously failed in their responsibilities, orders, and obligations. However, that failure does not absolve you of your eternal responsibility for your own life, and the cold reality that when the chips are down, the odds are very good that no one is going to save you but you.
Me, I am going to take the steps I see as necessary to improve my chances at success. How about you?
I couldn’t agree more, Linoge.
When the ship is tied to the pier, there are three categories of people onboard. The Captain, The Crew, and Visitors. Once the lines are singled up or the anchor windlass starts hauling up the chain, there are no more “Visitors.”
If you find yourself onboard a vessel that isn’t firmly secured to a fixed object you can take this simple test to determine which category you find yourself.
1. Are you the Captain?
2. Then you are part of the Crew.
People unclear on the concept should be tied to a piece of driftwood and promoted to Captain of it.
When you are at sea, your life belongs to the ship. When you start thinking that your life is more important than the object keeping you and all your fellow crewmembers from drowning, you get people killed. I would sincerely consider keeping your head around me when at sea as if you panic and try to take others with you, you will regret it. At least for as long as it takes you to drown.
At least the Pilipino crew seems to have acquitted themselves with honor. There are many reports that it was their teamwork and coordinated action that led to the relatively safe evacuation of the ship. They might not get individual recognition, but they will at least be able to sleep at night.
That’s what I don’t get. How can a man be faced with a choice between honor and safety choose that safety and live with himself? How do you face the rest of your life knowing that you trampled an old lady to get to the lifeboats?
Sadly I’ve read about this same sort of reaction on other cruise ships. Like others, I’m at a loss as to how someone could look in a mirror if they abandoned their duties.
Linoge, you forgot about the screaming alpha. It runs through the engineering spaces, makes an awful racket and definitely leaves an ash. Most commonly associated with careless shipyard welders immolating their leathers and then panicking.
Actually, I would sleep quite easily after putting my 1 year old and 3 year old to bed. Their dependance on me makes my survival more important than some aging bint who might be in my way.
Like Linoge, I’m a Navy man. Were I crew on a sinking vessel my evacuation priorities would be passengers first, crew second. But, thats what I signed up for. Were I a passenger my priorities would be my children, my wife, then maybe anyone elses children that might need a hand if I could do so safely, then myself. And thats it.
The Costa Concordia has been ALL over the place on the men’s rights movement websites, who generally agree with what you posted- the decades of feminism, intrusion of govt, etc. Basically, it’s a ‘careful what you wish for’ thing that came true.
One thing I did notice was a point made in one of those forums- something you’d know more about since you’re a navy guy. The ship was a cruise ship, not a liner, so a lot of the crew is made up of cooks and entertainers, not people who would be reasonably expected to know how to operate a ship in case of disaster. Wouldn’t their lives be considered along with the passengers since their skill sets don’t really aid the situation, or am I just gagging on smoke blown up my ass?
@ Sean D Sorrentino: Honestly, I am willing to give the passengers a bye when it comes to keeping the ship afloat – I would not / could not trust them on a damage control party (not due to any specific shortcoming on their part, just a general lack of training and integration with the crew), and would prefer that they just stay out of the way.
However, I cannot and will not give them a similar pass for their own lives and safety. Yes, the officers failed miserably in this case, and every last one of them should be held accountable for that failure… but that does not give the passengers someone to blame, nor does it give them excuses. It just means someone else screwed up.
And you are right – I did the cooks, waitstaff, and service crew a disservice by not mentioning that they did stand up and do their duties – and that of their superiors – when it came to getting their charges to lifeboats and safety. Given how the officers treat those folks, they deserve far more credit than they will receive.
@ SGB: Again, I am certainly not trying to excuse the failures of the crew, but every great disaster is a group project, and the passengers did their best to ensure this was going to be one. I know that sounds like “blaming the victims”, but when the way to not be a victim consists of reading a placard or a note in your ‘welcome aboard’ package, why would you not do that?
@ LC Scotty: I wish I could say that my only experiences with those were shipyard welders…
@ Pol Mordreth: I rather believe Sean was referring to the officers and most of the crew in this particular case, and how they failed in their assumed duties and responsibilities to the passengers. I certainly would not expect the crew to help each other out – I might like it, and I would probably end up doing it myself, but not their jobs.
@ the dude: So, “Navy” and “cruise liner” are very different worlds… My understanding about the latter (I have never been on one, personally) is that the officers and technical ratings are typically from one company (and generally one country), while the “service” crew are provided by another company/subcontract, and tend to be from all over the place. And, unsurprisingly, the two bodies do not get along very well – the former tends to disdain the latter whenever and wherever possible, and, in glaring cases of managerial idiocy, often in public.
Do those “service” types know how to set up triangular shoring so someone can tack-weld a patch over a hole in the hull? Probably not. But I would not consider it too much for them to know how to lower lifeboats and deploy rafts, if I were the owner/operator of a cruise line. Whether or not they are so trained… honestly, I have no idea. In this particular case, though, it apparently was the cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers who got the passengers safely over the side, so there is that.
I’ve been on two cruises (both on the same ship, a Royal Caribbean vessel out of Bayonne), and both times the lifeboat drills were detailed, comprehensive, and occurred very shortly after departure. (The second time I think we were still alongside the pier.)
As a sometime follower of the philosophy of Heinlein and Kipling, I find the behavior of the captain despicable. It is his duty to “stand and be still to the Birkenhead drill.” This is not only a tradition, but evidently codified maritime law.
Abandoning your crew, and especially abandoning your passengers, is definitely one of those things that will get you hung out to dry in very short order, whether you do it in international waters or not.
Good to hear that all cruise companies are not so negligent… Maybe I should do a post about the basic operations of the most common models. Hell, the simplest ones (the ones that look like rounded 55gal drums) you just undo the straps for and kick off the ship. They do all the rest.
I returned from a cruise liner holiday just over a week ago. A practice life-boat MUSTER was performed the day of embarkation. This is a requirement of Australian maritime law apparently. All passengers were advised of their muster point – ours was the theater (along with 1000 or so other passengers).
The only things covered were:
1) A verbal description of the ABANDON SHIP signal
2) WHERE to muster when you heard the signal
3) HOW and WHEN to don the life jacket that you needed to retrieve from your stateroom when you heard the signal.
There was no mention of:
1) The life-boats or their mechanisms for launching
2) Which lifeboat you would be using
3) How to board a life-boat
4) How to get to the life-boats from the muster point
All of this was apparently to be conveyed only in the event of a real emergency.
Overall, I thought it was a little on the light side, but then I am helicopter escape certified, and do “launch the lifeboats” drills every six months.
I can easily project how the panic of a real emergency combined with no real knowledge or skill could cause the whole process to devolve into disaster.
Interesting… Thanks for the first-hand report. I, too, find that considerably light in terms of training and preparation, but it appears to be more than the officers of the Costa Concordia did, so at least there is that…
But, yeah, “mustering” people is all good and well, but unless you are mustering them on the lifeboat/raft debarkation stations, there are all manner of things that can go wrong between “getting people together” and “getting people off the boat”.