The Largest Ocean Liner to Die At Sea

CameraQuest

CameraQuest

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The news of the Costa Concordia wreck off Italy seldom mentions that it is by far the LARGEST ocean liner ever to die at sea.

At 115,000 tons, it is almost 3 times the size of the 46,000 Titanic. Likewise it is about 50% larger than the 83,000 ton Queen Elizabeth that sank in Hong Kong harbor by fire while undergoing refitting.

In other words, when you look at pics like these
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...vor-Manrico-Giampedroni-airlifted-safety.html

realize that is one incredibly large ship!

Stephen
 
Has the ship died? The owners are talking about it being back in business by November. Mind you, it's going to be one hell of an operation to re-float it.
 
Back in the 1950s I traveled with my parents on a couple of Orient Line ships that were, i think, about 30,000 tons. Then we went on the Queen Mary which was three times bigger. It was huge!

The Costa Concordia, as the OP has pointed out, is about 50% bigger again.

What a mess. They think it will take less than a year to get it back into business. That seems incredible to me. I'm glad the cleanup is not my job (though I guess it will pay well....).
 
I have to admit that those shots of the ship being stranded just meters off shore are incredible. It seems to have been a coincidence of unlucky decision and mistake in a map. Still - several people payed with their lives ...

A bit off topic - I have seen how and engine on a large liner was exchanged in a dry dock (those guys just cut a hole in the side of the bode and slid the old engine out and new in and then close the hole). In the mean the rest of the boat was "CLAd". Pretty incredible. So as long as they manage to get the thing in a dock, they can get it fixed.
 
Sure looks top heavy. It is hard to believe that this is the best design for a ship that you want to remain upright when it takes on water. It does look like a ship trying to get as many paying passengers into a ship of a given size at the waterline.
 
It is an incredibly large ship that was unfortunately captained by an incredibly incompetant idiot, by all accounts...
 
Just refreshed my memory about the Andrea Doria which of course sank right here off our New England coast. According to the Wiki article, part of the difficulty in getting the passengers off her was that a good part of the crew was among the first to abandon ship. Sound familiar?

This captain had absolutely no business being there in the first place, of course.
 
Technically cruise ships such as the Costa Concordia are not ocean liners, similar but different enough. They are built to different standards and I would not want to make the North Atlantic crossing during the storm season in a cruise ship. They are not made to take the same punishment. Personally I think of cruise ships as overgrown party barges. Here is the difference explained http://misunderstoodmariner.blogspot.com/2009/07/ocean-liners-vs-cruise-ships.html .

That said, the sight of the Costa Concordia on it's side is stunning. Keep in mind that the standard for evacuation of passengers in life boats is 20 minutes, IIRC from the news last night. Good luck when the largest cruise ships carry 5-6000 passengers with plans for up to 10,000 passenger capacity ships in the wings.

Bob
 
dabick42 said:
It is an incredibly large ship that was unfortunately captained by an incredibly incompetant idiot, by all accounts...
Click to expand...

I suspect there's more to come on this: there was a massive error in hitting the rock in the first place, but I think the captain did well to beach the ship close to shore to enable the evacuation. OK that was a confusing nightmare for the passengers, and some people lost their life, but compared to if it had been in deeper water then there should be recognition that (after the accident) it could have been an awful lot worse.

If you look at the ships track it is actually facing the opposite direction from its route and the holed side of the hull is uppermost. It's not a small thing to spin a cruise liner that size through 180 degrees when it was probably going at 15kts and stop it that close to land.
 
Some of those (impressive) pictures will make it to the World Press Photo, no doubt. Shocking event, but great shots.
 
AJS Lamb said:
Has the ship died? The owners are talking about it being back in business by November. Mind you, it's going to be one hell of an operation to re-float it.
Click to expand...

Dutch company Smit Tak will float anything submerged. They salvaged the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk back in 2000. :cool:
 
bwcolor said:
Sure looks top heavy. It is hard to believe that this is the best design for a ship that you want to remain upright when it takes on water. It does look like a ship trying to get as many paying passengers into a ship of a given size at the waterline.
Click to expand...


ditto. I had no idea it was that much bigger than the Titanic! It really scraped the rocks bad. The irony is that the light house shouted CAUTION! How much does a tub like that cost to build? $300-400 million USD? Lloyd's of London must be freakin out about now.
 
The other thing you have to wonder about is that, from reports on the news, life boat stations had not even been practiced before the sinking/grounding. Going back over 40 years ago, the first thing we exercised after clearing harbour was "boats and floats". This on a destroyer with no passengers that did not have the first clue.

Bob
 
buzzardkid said:
Dutch company Smit Tak will float anything submerged. They salvaged the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk back in 2000. :cool:
Click to expand...

They have done some amazing things. I remember a documentary where they raised a WWII German U-Boat in the Baltic.

Bob
 
1. I agree there will be more and relevant details to come.
2. These liners look top heavy, but apparently are not.
3. The move towards shore might have helped those swimming for it, but also was the major cause of it listing so badly.
4. The loss of any life is dreadful, but it is remarkable that over 99% survived.
 
The top heavy look still meets marine engineering standards WRT center of gravity I am sure. It is accomplished through the use fairly lightweight materials. There is also a massive amount of glass area on cruise ships that you would never see on an ocean liner. The more holes you punch in the superstructure the weaker it can become and the glazing is also less resistant to wave impact than any solid superstructure. The other drawback to such massive superstructures is that they act like a great big sail making maneuvering tricky with any kind of wind up. All ok for their intended use, fair weather sailing.

Bob
 
batterytypehah! said:
Just refreshed my memory about the Andrea Doria which of course sank right here off our New England coast. According to the Wiki article, part of the difficulty in getting the passengers off her was that a good part of the crew was among the first to abandon ship. Sound familiar?
Click to expand...

The Andrea Doria crew was not blamed with abandoning the ship - on the contrary, the rescue effort seems to have been quite unusually successful and well-coordinated. Indeed they managed to rescue everybody alive on board, no mean feat on a ship that had suffered a severe crash out at sea and had more than 200 injured.

Boats full of waiters may insult the ethics of Titanic viewers - but on post-Titanic ships the orchestra is NOT supposed to drown. The service crew (waiters, musicians, cooks etc.) are passengers as far as emergency procedures are concerned and should leave the ship along with the same, and with the crew decks being lowest chances are that they are evacuated first. Only the stewards, medical and nautical staff are involved in the rescue operations and supposed to stay aboard as long as needed.
 
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