Abandon Ship


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Ferry van Eeuwen

 

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Abandon Ship

 

From 1975 the ms Prinsendam switched to the more lucrative Alaska cruise trade and was based at Vancouver. While sailing west of Sitka, Alaska and on 4th October, 1980 another engine room fire broke out. Luckily the passengers and crew (520 in total) were all saved. Disembarkation took place in an orderly fashion without any panic. Despite furious efforts to extinguish the fire the ship the ship heeled over more and more and eventually sank on 11th October, 1980 at 08.35 local time. Despite to the vicinity of land and therefore the availability of almost immediate help, the ship could not be saved. Luckily nobody got killed in the incident, a little miracle.

This picture shows one of ms Prinsendam's lifeboats with survivors as taken from a helicopter. Also can be seen the basket with which the survivors were hoisted to the helicopter and safety. According to the Alaskan Daily News of 8 October, 1980, the picture was taken when almost half or the passengers were saved. It was a lucky thing that the 300 meter tanker Williamsburg was at only a few hours sailing from the Prinsendam. This tanker even had two helicopter platforms which could be used to bring the rescued passengers in safety. Meaning transporting the freezing passengers to a nearby warm shelter, with food and drink. Later the Williamsburg sailed with 360 passengers to Valdez, Alaska.

Before World War II one of the most famous Dutch Merchant Navy Captains, who served with one of the biggest ship owners, described the dangers with the transport of passengers over the seven seas as follows:

The general public thinks, that in the case of a ship disaster, a passenger quietly boards one of the lifeboats and then calmly rows or sails away from the sinking ship. It is always day time, clear weather and the sea is smooth of course. What a childish thought!

Let's pretend that we go to sea with a well equipped ship, all for our pleasure. There is plenty of food, drink, entertainment and all kinds of luxury. The ship is booked full to the last cabin.

Now we visualize a heavenly place ashore called "Our Pleasure". This place is surrounded by a 10 meter high fence, which one cannot climb because of sure electrocution. Thus nobody can get away. Inside all thinkable pleasures are available. Brilliant food, a fine wine cellar, friendly service personnel, music, dance, films, theatre, luxury shops and more. There is food and beverages stored for three weeks. The kitchens are next to the dining rooms. Right underneath is a storage of 2000 tons of fuel bunkers, as well as steam turbines or diesel engines with temperatures up to 1200 degrees Celsius. Once the iron gate is hermetically closed and sealed behind the last guest the party starts and swings in no time. It is a three week party, so everybody has to sit it out until the end, before the gates will be opened again.

How many party participants do you think would be in for such a treat? Very few indeed. Newspapers would report about the foolishness of such a dangerous concept and declare the entrepreneur who organised this happening completely insane.

So far for the Dutch Captain's story, who may have exaggerated a bit, but in essence it is true. He is an experienced sailor who realises the many dangers of a complete and complex factory, which a ship is. If ashore a fire breaks out in such an industrial environment, professional fire fighters and/or specialised services will be called in by the local skeleton company fire brigade. That is if they suspect at some moment that they cannot control any more the fire with their limited means. On board a ship you are self sustaining in every respect. No outside help is available at a moment's notice. Because of the locked in premises of the engine room the fire has to be controlled from the luxury quarters which locks in same. A dangerous and almost impossible situation. Although plenty of water is available it is to be expected that a some point the pumps will stop working as they are either in the engine room or powered from the engine room. Usually a loosing battle. The ms Prinsendam was very lucky that they were sailing close to land when the engine room fire started.  Shore based helicopters could assist quickly and by chance the Williamsburg was close which all accounted for zero causalities. How different this would have been if the ship had been far away from the shore and help! As the size of cruise ships have been increased beyond imagination and along with it the number of passengers all for scale of economy reasons, a real calamity at sea will have much bigger consequences than ever before.

The largest cruise ship in the world is the Queen Mary 2 who received a subdued launch in France, when festivities were cancelled in honour of 15 people who fell to their deaths in November 2004, when a dockside gangway to the ship collapsed. Bad luck continued to plague the ship after it arrived in Britain, when two women in their 60s broke their legs in separate incidents on board.

For an overview of all the other ships on which I sailed during my period at sea please visit the Marine page.