Originally Posted by
weltfrieden
I've been trying to convince a couple of family members to go on a cruise for
the very first time. They don't like ships... not even little paddle boats in
amusement parks. It doesn't help that the Anthem incident is on all TV news
stations repeated in the last few days.
It does make me think... if a mega ship like Anthem sank last week, would the
USCG/Navy or other rescue ships or helicopters reach the passengers in those
monster waves? The Titanic struck an iceberg but remained in relatively
calm waters. The passengers were able to board lifeboats and be rescued by
other ships. (obviously their problem was not nearly enough lifeboats, but
that's not a problem these days)
The truth is that if the Anthem had broken up or capsized during that storm there would have been little the USCG/Navy could have done for several hours if not days. It's probably one of those cases that the cruise lines would rather not discuss a lot. The loss of life would have been substantial and maybe close to total. Like airlines cruise lines go back to the statistical passenger miles versus accidents comparisons to show it is a relatively and actually very safe way to travel or vacation. Obviously the potential exists for a travel disaster of significant proportion with cruise ships getting bigger and bigger.