New Cruise Safety Measures – Too Little Too Late?

Consider the amount of very, very bad news that has occurred in the cruise industry this year, its no big surprise that the industry itself is trying to undo some of the damage.  Besides the fact that ticket prices are falling and people are beginning to question whether floating themselves over 10,000 feet of water is really that great of an idea, it just makes sense that some changes are in order to prevent further damage to the industry.

So, the cruise industry, as led by its spokes-group Cruise Line International Association and the European Cruise Council, has come together to institute some new cruise safety measures that have already been put in place, effective immediately, among its member cruise lines.

What are these new rules, and – the really big question – are they going to make a difference to cruise safety?  Well, I’ll let you judge that for yourself.

The first of the new cruise safety measures provides that additional life jackets will be

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

required on each ship, so that there will be way more life jackets than could possibly be needed on each ship.  But wait!  The emergency personnel on every ship I’ve ever sailed on has always emphasized that if you aren’t in your cabin when called to your muster stations (in the event of a real emergency), not to go back to your cabin to get your life jackets, because plenty were already available.  So….what is the difference here?  Didn’t they already have more life jackets than they already needed?  I have seen large bins full of life preservers, or at least that is how they were labeled.  Maybe that’s not what they were after all?  Well, I don’t know the answer to that, but the new standard is that the life jackets available will be “far in excess” of the numbers that conceivably could be needed.  And, apropos of the picture with the young’un, it’s really important to get those life jackets on correctly!

The second of the cruise safety measures is a tightening of access to the ship’s Bridge.  This, too is a surprise to me.  Wasn’t the ship’s bridge already secure?  I know that since 9/11, I personally have not been able to get anywhere near the bridge except for one paid tour on Carnival, and on that tour, we were wanded, inspected, and not allowed to carry any cameras.  We were additionally told exactly where to stand and what we were allowed to touch (essentially, nothing).  So, what’s this all about?

Well, it appears that the real change is during restricted maneuvering, or “when increased vigilance is required.”  I suppose that makes sense, because when the ship is going through a tight spot, the captain, the other officers who have the ability to steer the ship, and the pilot, if one is aboard, should have unrestricted access to the bridge, with no distractions.  Was this a problem before?

It seems that it was.  According to a story in toledoBlade.com, Captain Schettino’s girlfriend was on the bridge during the time the Concordia was making its close-in pass. Apparently the good Captain wanted to impress on his girlfriend how daring he was and how close he could get to the island without crashing.  Oh wait….they did crash.  Seems Captain Schettino has a problem with truthfulness as well, since he asserted that no one but operational personnel was on the bridge during the sail-by.  Ah, love.  Nothing like a girlfriend aboard to get you to crash upon the rocks.

So, no more girlfriends on the bridge when things are tight.

Finally, all members of the bridge team must be pre-briefed on any passage planning before implementation, and a designated officer must be aware of and approve of the passage.

They didn’t already? This statement, taken as a reaction to the Concordia disaster, seems to intimate that no one in authority knew that the ship was going out of its way to ‘buzz’ the Island of Giglio.  But the captain knew.  Didn’t he?  Wasn’t he the one that took the ship so close in?

This is, to me a strange requirement.  The Captain, according to maritime law IS the master of the ship.  All decisions come down to him.  While every good thing that happens may not accrue to the captain, it’s a certainty that every bad thing that happens is definitely his fault. Why?  Because it’s his responsibility.  This is going to change?

I guess my best take on these three new rules is that first, why wait until the horse is out of the barn before you close the gate?  None of these rules are more important than they were before.  Secondly, one thing you never will be able to actually legislate is common sense, a commodity that is so UN-common as to be barely recognizable and even less apparent in our personal and business interactions in today’s world.