Florida Maritime Accident Lawyer
Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Titanic Sinking a Product's Liability Case
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
You recall how it happened in the movie Titanic--Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are in the cargo hold, having just made love in the back seat of an automobile. They exit the car just as the ship hits an iceberg. The jagged edge of the iceberg slits a gash in the steel shell plating on the starboard side of the vessel, buckling the frames and causing the water to come rushing in. Guess what? According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, it didn't happen that way.
It turns out that in the year 1911, the shipbuilding industry was on the verge of a revolution in materials. Steel, a combination of iron, manganese and other metals, was on the way in and pure iron was on the way out, and the most important place to use the newer, stronger material, was in the rivets. Consequently, the Titanic was built with steel rivets throughout its middle, where a ship experiences the most stress. However, in the bow and the stern the plates were held together with iron rivets, and it turns out that many of those were substandard.
How did they discover this, you may ask? The 1996 expedition to the graveyard of the Titanic in the northern Atlantic Ocean showed that the iceberg had never penetrated the hull, there was no gash in the side, and the water which caused the world's largest ocean liner to sink in 1912, costing over 1500 lives, came in through the seams between nine sets of adjacent plates in the bow of the vessel. The expedition also recovered some of the rivets from the hull, and took them ashore for testing.
By comparing the chemical composition and grain structure of the rivets from the Titanic with the chemical composition and grain structure of rivets from the Brooklyn Bridge, which was completed in 1883, researchers were able to discover that the Titanic rivets has up to three times the amount of impurities and slag as the Brooklyn Bridge rivets did.
What does this mean for us today? It can be taken as an important lesson that lack of care in even small jobs can have catastrophic results. In the mid 1300's a children's nursery rhyme was written that went like this:
For want of a nail the [horse]shoe was lost.
For want of a [horse]shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a nail.
Each of us may feel that our jobs are small and insignificant. However, what each of us does each day makes a difference. Because the powerful play of life goes on and each day, and each you and I have the opportunity to contribute a verse.
St Marys to Fernandina Beach Ferry Service may Start in January
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Amelia River Cruises has leased dock space in St. Marys, Georgia to begin water taxi service between that city and Fernandina Beach. The water taxi, which will carry up to 100 passengers for $13 too $14 per person per trip, is expected to run four times per day. The trip takes about 45 minutes. The company hopes to begin service in January, 2008.
Amelia River Cruises has not yet obtained dock space in Fernandina Beach, but that is expected to occur shortly.
Norovirus and Cruise Ships: An abbreviated history
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
A really detailed history of outbreaks of contagious diseases on cruise ships can be found CruiseJunkie.com.
CDC reports on the 2002 M.S. Amsterdam outbreak can be found at the CDC site.
Here is an abbreviated history, focusing on known or suspected norovirus outbreaks:
Continue reading "Norovirus and Cruise Ships: An abbreviated history"
Cruise Ships Scoring Lowest in CDC Sanitation Scores
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
The bottom eleven ships on the CDC Sanitation Scores all tend to be specialized cruise vessels like sailing ships, diving ships, oceanographic research ships, and cruises to Alaska. Here they are in reverse order:
These ships "passed" their sanitation test, but just barely:
Explorer Of The Seas 10/11/2006 89 (Oceanographic Research Cruises to Caribbean)
Palm Beach Princess 08/02/2006 89 (Gambling Cruises of Palm Beach)
Island Adventure 07/06/2006 89 (Whale Watching vessel, Washington)
Spirit Of Endeavor 08/17/2006 89 (Cruise West, Alaska)
Prinsendam 12/20/2005 88 (Holland America, World Voyages)
Oosterdam 10/07/2006 88 (Holland America, Alaska)
Grande Caribe 09/03/2006 87 (Great Lakes, New England, Coast of Maine)
Yorktown Clipper 09/20/2006 87 (Cruise West to Alaska)
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These three ships got "failing scores" below 85:
Nautilus Explorer 06/25/2005 78 (Diving Vacations-Alaska, B.C.)
Legacy 05/26/2006 72 (Sailing ship in Virgin Islands)
And the lowest scoring is a sailing ship:
Stad Amsterdam 04/08/2006 62 (Sailing ship in Caribbean)
(Personally, I'd like to sail on the Stad Amsterdam or the Legacy, regardless of their CDC ratings. Sailing ships need to be "cut some slack" and it looks like a unique experience.)
NOTABLY, NONE OF THESE SHIPS HAS HAD A MAJOR OUTBREAK OF NOROVIRUS!!!
List of Cruise Ships Scoring "100" on CDC Sanitation Inspections
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Are you concerned about recent outbreaks of Norovirus on cruise ships? Good sanitation is no guarantee that your ship won't be affected, but here is a list of the ships that have recently gotten a perfect score on their most recent CDC inspections:
Island Princess Princess Cruises 12/12/2005 100
Caribbean Princess Princess Cruises 11/09/2006 100
Crown Princess Princess Cruises 09/26/2006 100
Aurora P & O Cruises 09/26/2006 100
Jewel Of The Seas Royal Caribbean International 09/23/2006 100
Navigator Of The Seas Royal Caribbean International 07/08/2006 100
Carnival Miracle Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. 06/18/2006 100
Tahitian Princess Princess Cruises 06/13/2006 100
Norwegian Sun Norwegian Cruise Lines 05/30/2006 100
Millennium Celebrity Cruises 04/12/2006 100
Costa Mediterranea Costa Cruises 04/09/2006 100
Seven Seas Mariner Radisson Seven Seas Cruises 04/03/2006 100
Golden Princess Princess Cruises 03/26/2006 100
Serenade Of The Seas Royal Caribbean International 02/26/2006 100
Norwegian Jewel Norwegian Cruise Lines 01/22/2006 100
NCL's Norwegian Crown run aground off Bermuda--Hull damage unknown
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Norwegian Cruise Line's vessel the Norwegian Crown ran aground off the coast of Bermuda yesterday on the short trip between St. George and Hamilton. It took three tugs and a high tide before it could be extricated from the reef.
It was 0830 when the vessel ran aground. The next high tide was scheduled for 1840. It wasn't until 1900 last night, 10 1/2 hours later, that it was freed. Crowds of spectators gathered on the beach at Spanish Point to watch the effort to free the ship. A look at photos of its waterline shows that it was hard aground, with the bow tilted upward and the stern depressed downward.
The ship had 1150 passengers and 500 crew aboard and was apparently under pilotage at the time of the grounding.
At this point, it will take an underwater survey with a dive team to see if the vessel can continue its voyage. If it has suffered substantial hull damage, it may be necessary for the ship to proceed straight to a shipyard and drydock for hull repairs. Coral reefs can be very hard on steel hulls, and only audiogaging will tell if the steel has been worn to the point where it needs to be replaced.
Cruise ticket venue provisions--why Miami or Seattle?
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Shipowners owe a duty of reasonable care to passengers. Consequently, passengers who are injured aboard ships may bring suit the same as if they had been injured in a store ashore.
However, suits must generally be brought within one year and most passenger tickets have provisions requiring suit to be brought in either Miami, Florida or Seattle, Washington. Why those two ports? Because thats where the major cruise lines are located. So if you live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and decide to take a cruise, if you get hurt you are going to need to go to Miami to get any relief.
Will Bob Ney and/or DeLay be indicted on SunCruz related charges in late April?
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
One has to wonder. Ney waived the 5 year statute of limitations against him, but the waiver expires in late April, 2006. Everyone has known from the start that Ney openly helped Adam Kidan buy SunCruz. He went on the floor of the House on October 26, 2000 and said that Kidan had:
... a renowned reputation for honesty and integrity. ... [He] is most well known for his successful enterprise, Dial-a-Mattress, but he is also well known as a solid individual and a respected member of his community. ... I believe that every individual who visits a gaming vessel in Florida, should know that they are gaming in an establishment that represents the community well, and gives every individual a fair shot. I hope that all casinos owners and operators share in this philosophy. I look forward to the positive changes Mr. Kidan is more than capable of brining to the gaming industry and I hope that others will follow his lead when he brings positive changes to SunCruz.
Well, that didn't turn out to be so. Kidan and Abramoff, his partner, pled guilty to bank fraud charges in January. Now, people are wondering when the next shoe will drop. It may be in April.
Tony Rudy, DeLay's former Chief of Staff who recently pled guilty to keep his wife, Lisa (Liberty Consulting) from being prosecuted, flew on SunCruz's jet (Why did SunCruz need a jet? It didn't. It was vanity, it was influence, it was putting on the dog.) across the country on some type of junket, and then Rudy signed as a reference on Abramoff's $60 million loan.
It is all very complicated, but whenever gambling is involved, people get caught up in the excitement of it all and lose their heads.
It's too bad that mathematicians and accountants never become reporters though, because the real scandal behind all this hasn't even been whispered yet. I'll whisper it---do the math. Do all the math and it will all become abundantly clear.
Keep your eyes open in late April though.
Lynch Death on Suncruz Boat Investigated by Coast Guard
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
While the local news media reported the death of Desmond Lynch, the owner of Lynch's Irish Pub in Jacksonville Beach, as a suicide, the United States Coast Guard opened both civil and criminal investigations on the cause of death.
Continue reading "Lynch Death on Suncruz Boat Investigated by Coast Guard"
Failure to De-Water during Fire-Fighting Sinks Ferry
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Those who have been in and around ships know that the failure to de-water a ship during fire-fighting is the number one cause of ships sinking after they catch fire. Such appears to be the case in the sinking of the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 on February 3, 2006.
As reported by the BBC:
Rani Kamal, the surviving third officer on the ship, told the Arabic news channel al-Arabiya that "the ferry sank because of firefighting operations"."Water flooded the garage [car deck]... and it pooled on one side. Then the water increased and increased until the ship listed sharply," he said.
According to the UK expert, in the kind of rough weather the al-Salam Boccaccio '98 experienced before it went down it would only take two or three inches (5-8cm) of water on the deck to set off a Free Surface Effect.
The Free Surface Effect is a phenomenon whereby a small amount of water inside the vessel starts slopping from side to side, making the ship rock.
Did Press Screw up Limitation on Liability in Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 sinking?
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
The Egyptian Ferry Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 sank in the early morning hours of Friday, February 3, 2006 and it appears that over 1000 people are dead.
The media is widely reporting that the limitation on liability for passenger deaths will be about US$26,000 per person. However, that figure may be wrong.
Egypt is a signatory to the "Athens Convention Relating to the Carriage of Passengers and Their Luggage by Sea 1974." Saudi Arabia is not. That convention sets the limitation at 46,666 SDR's per passenger. With the SDR currently trading at about 1.44 US$/SDR that gives a limitation of $67,200 or a total liability of $67 million if no more passengers are recovered. The United States is not a signatory to the Convention.
What can account for the difference? There are a number of possibilities. The shipping company may be arguing that the law of Saudi Arabia, and not the Athens Convention governs the limitation issue. The shipping company may have misled the press. The shipping company may be trying to misleed the passengers, their families, and even their lawyers.
American passengers need to beware though. When they book a Royal Caribbean cruise departing from a Mediterranean port, they will likely be subject to the Athens Convention, or the limitation of liability of the country from which the ship departs.
Cruise Line Not Liable for Jet Ski Accident
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
T.& B.M took a cruise aboard a cruise ship and stopped at one of the cruise ship's private
islands. There they rented a Sea Doo, were instructed by the cruise line on how to use it, and went out in the lagoon to look at sea life. While they were stopped, another jet ski ran over them. Prior to renting the jet ski, they had signed a "waiver and release of liability". The cruise line was not liable and the driver of the other jet ski had no insurance.
Congressional Hearings on George Smith IV Disappearance Unnecessary
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
George Smith IV vanished from the Brilliance of the Seas last July off Turkey. In reaction to press reports on the disappearance, Congress has held hearings on cruise ship safety, even on cruise ships which are operated outside of the United States. This is not an isolated incident, but neither is it a national problem.
The number one cause of passengers disappearing at sea is suicide. The number two cause is falls overboard caused by alcohol and drug consumption. Passengers who have been drinking sometimes want to recreate the "I'm King of the World" scene from the movie "Titanic" and fall over the side. Some may think that the ship can turn around and find them if they fall overboard. That is only a faint hope.
However, passengers, particularly young female passengers, need to be aware that if the socialize with the crews of most cruise ships, they could be putting themselves in danger. The officers are well-trained and professional, but the crews are more likely to be transient, poorly paid, poorly educated, and more prone to violence than the officers are.
What happened to George Smith IV? My money is on a suicide. Yes, I know it was his honeymoon. Yes, I know his wife was beautiful and that he had his entire future to look forward to. Who knows what goes on inside a man's mind.
Re-Arranging the Chairs on the Titanic (or was it the Queen Mary)
Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents
Iin a recent deposition of the President of a trucking company which had become insolvent said "there was nothing we could do at that point. It would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Queen Mary." I thought about it a minute and asked him "Don't you mean the Titanic?" He responded "why not the Queen Mary?" "Because it hasn't sunk yet" I said. "Oh, yeah. I guess you're right."
The Queen Mary still sits embedded in concrete alongside a dock in Long Beach, California. She's not sinking anytime soon.