piper28

Eh, I don't know of any reason to suspect anything that major in the way of damage. If a ship that size could be damaged that badly by 30 foot seas, it shouldn't be sailing in the first place.

I do think they basically got caught off guard on how bad the storm was, and that it was more severe than they expected. But keep in mind, they sail these ships doing transatlantics through the north atlantic, and a number of ships do trips around cape horn. Both of these locations are known for having severe weather, and the ships can handle it. (Personally, on the cape horn trip I did, we had ridiculously calm weather, almost something of a let down when you hear about how bad it can be there. Captain said it was the best weather he'd had in 30 years of sailing that route). It's pretty easy to decide in hindsight that the weather was too bad to sail, but weather forecasts aren't exactly perfect, so I can understand them thinking they'd be ok. (And I can pretty much guarantee, the cruise line was screwed whether they left port or not, because if they hadn't, everyone would be griping about how the weather wasn't that bad and they should have sailed and they ruined the cruise. I've seen enough of that type of .....ing from people when a ship misses port and all the armchair sailors all think the captain made the wrong call because the weather looks fine to them.)

Now, as for the question about rescue? Personally, I'd guess if one of these ships ever really sank in a rapid fashion somewhere that's not easy to get to, it's going to be real ugly. I was always real surprised at just how little loss of life there was on the Concordia incident. I'd expect the Coast Guard would try up to the limits of what they could do and if they at all thought they could fly they would - look back at Sandy and them getting most of the crew of the Bounty rescued. But you're not going to helicopter rescue that many people, and getting enough ship based assets out there in that type of weather is not going to be quick.

I tend to think for myself that if I happen to be on a ship and something goes seriously wrong, there's going to be a good chance of not making it. Especially on routes where you may be a long ways from shore, and thus a long ways from anything that can come to assistance. It's just one of those risks you take, but in general, the safety record is pretty good. Outside the Concordia, it's been quite some time since one of the major lines has lost a ship (I know some smaller lines have had incidents, but even then, the track record is pretty good). And guess what, it's a pretty similar experience on an airline. If something real major goes wrong, there's a decent chance you're not going to make it - but again, in general, the safety record is pretty good.