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.