Greek Cruise Ship Aground

[seanz]

Reports say all is 'well' ;all passengers off , no injuries.
Anyone have any idea (apart from the obvious 'OOPS') how this can happen?Large ship,not too old,professional crew and they hit a rock/reef coming into port.

http://www.friendlyplanet.com/cruise-ships/images/louis-seadiamond-ship.jpg
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/tourists-evacuated-from-greek-cruiser/2007/04/06/1175366421720.html
Hundreds of German and US tourists were being evacuated from a Greek cruise ship that ran aground near the Aegean Sea island of Santorini with about 1,200 passengers aboard, authorities said yesterday.
The Greek-registered Sea Diamond was listing half a nautical mile from the island and a mass operation was under way to rescue passengers and crew.
"At least 600 people have been brought to the shore so far. It could take minutes or it could hours to complete the operation but no one is hurt so far," a coast guard official on the island said

The 22,412-tonne ship, which can carry 1355 people, suffered a hull breech when it ran aground about one minute away from the shore of the picturesque island, he said.
"The ship had about 1500 people aboard, including the crew. Most of the tourists were foreigners, Germans and Americans," said an official at Louis Cruise Lines, which runs the ship.
The Sea Diamond left the port of Piraeus on Monday for a five-day island cruise and was due back to Greece's main port today, officials said.
Local officials said a helicopter, military planes and fishing boats have rushed to the scene to help with the operation.
"For the time being there is no danger," the coast guard official said

more here:http://www.stuff.co.nz/4017939a12.html

Must have been a bit of a scene on board as they launched the life boats.

[carioca1232001]

Some years ago a similar tour ship ran aground at night while a major football game was being televised......it is suspected the crew were distracted and not paying due attention to navigating the vessel

If my memory is not failing me, many tourists perished.

[S/V Laura Ellen]

It would appear that the reef failed to yield right of way.

[Bruce Hooke]

I was on a large ferry that almost ran aground. The report was that it was due to a failure of the hydraulic link between the bridge and the rudder. Some VERY quick action with the anchors prevented us from going onto a ledge.

[The Bigfella]

If that's half a nautical mile .......

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/world/0604_cruiseship_a_lg.jpg

[paladin]

The underwater area around Santorini is constantly changing,,,,,and has been for 3500 years. It really changed when Moses was a pup...

[The Bigfella]

nice one Chuck

[Ken Hutchins]

The TV news this morning showed the bow disappearing beneath the water, 2 passengers unaccounted for.:(

[carioca1232001]

If that's half a nautical mile .......



Our newspaper this morning said 1,8 kilometres, which is slightly over 1 (landlubber) mile !

[Ken Hutchins]

It sank in 15 hours.
The Titanic sank in 2 hrs 40 min.

12 hrs 20 minutes improvement in sinking time in 100 years.:rolleyes:

[John Turpin]

http://img.breitbart.com/images/2007/4/6/D8OB66LG0/D8OB66LG0.jpg

[paladin]

oops...there goes one Capt's retirement....

[George Roberts]

At least the location was well chosen.

[paladin]

Yup...depending on water depth, gonna make a nice wreck diving site for local SCUBA crowds.......:D

[Gulfcoastbreeze]

1 minute from port..."HOW many times do I hafta tell ya...DON'T hit that reef that's one minute from the pier!" *smack*

[outofthenorm]

H'mmm. Maybe a solar flare knocked out their GPS. :D

By the way, that shot of the ship with her stern on the rocks is just a stone's throw (to the right) from a great little restaurant where I once spent 7 hours having lunch. Some of the finest seafood I ever had.

- Norm

[Gulfcoastbreeze]

H'mmm. Maybe a solar flare knocked out their GPS. :D

By the way, that shot of the ship with her stern on the rocks is just a stone's throw (to the right) from a great little restaurant where I once spent 7 hours having lunch. Some of the finest seafood I ever had.

- Norm


Great view, too, huh? Depending on who's passing by.

[Bob Adams]

The captain has been charged. Boy, they didn't waste any time!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/greece_cruise_ship

[Lance F. Gunderson]

The captain is blaming it on the currents in the area; is that a legit excuse do you think?

[outofthenorm]

The captain is blaming it on the currents in the area; is that a legit excuse do you think?

In a word, no. In a few more words, no, because it is his responsibility to watch, be aware and manage the risks. I'd say if he was close enough to a known hazard to be suddenly shifted into it by a current flow, he was too close to the hazard in the first place. His excuse is like jumping off a roof and then blaming the ground for killing you.

Norm

[rbgarr]

They were very close to port. Did they have a harbor pilot or are they not reqired at that port?

[JamesCaird]

Hi all-Interesting incident at Santorini. I had spent some time there in the past doing a number of things including soundings inside the caldera. Thera (Santorini) is what remains of a large (8 mile?) diameter volcano which erupted (some-including myself-think that it was the original Atlantis) blowing out the center of the island with the magma chaber collapsing and sinking. The inside walls of the island are sheer, rising almost vertically 3-900 feet above sea level. The bottom varies of course but is mostly in the region of 1000-1500 feet deep. Santorini is a popular cruise ship destination for good reason: spectacular approach, entrances and the sheer cliffs that await you as you disembark the launch to go ashore. The light there is famous-you see the place in ads for everything. But the ships don't even try to anchor it is so deep. That is why in the photos of this Sea Diamond sinking that she is drifting around inside the caldera. I would like to know if they even let the anchors go-sometimes creates its own problems! I will be interested to hear more about this accident, what she hit, why watertight integrity failed, etc. Stay tuned-it is likely the most highly witnessed sinking on modern times! Cheers/JC

[George.]

Usually, ships like that can make more than a couple of knots sideways, thanks to bow thrusters. That is how up to a half dozen may hover under engine in the crowded Santorini "harbour". I wonder how the current could make such a ship sideslip out of control onto a rock.

[carioca1232001]

A second incident like this in less than ten years would see a lot of Brazilians forfeit holidays in the Greek Islands, so this incident did not stir up much activity in our local press.

Plus our major TV channel has recently aired a gigantic 'soap opera' that revolved around the Greek Islands, which must have done immense good to tourism in those parts, specially when one considers that Brazilian 'soaps' are a potent export commodity, and viewed in the most remote corners of this planet.

Did anyone hear of of a crash at Toronto (Mc Phearson ?) airport some 24-36 months ago, of a wide-body aircraft belonging to a major-European carrier ?

[seanz]

They were very close to port. Did they have a harbor pilot or are they not reqired at that port?

I couldn't find a mention of a pilot.Are cruise ships sight-seeing at Santorini treated as ships coming into port?
T.V. news said that the captain was on his first cruise,along with five other officers the captain has been charged with various things including that modern wonder 'endangering the environment'.


"CNN quotes a prosecution official as saying that the captain admitted in an interview that he tried to free the ship from the reef before evacuating the passengers. "

[brian.cunningham]

"CNN quotes a prosecution official as saying that the captain admitted in an interview that he tried to free the ship from the reef before evacuating the passengers. "

So it was "high and dry" and the captain sunk it trying to get it off the reef??!!!:confused:

[George Roberts]

It is easy to be critical of the captain.

It is much harder to come up with the proper action.

[Bob (oh, THAT Bob)]

The inside walls of the island are sheer, rising almost vertically 3-900 feet above sea level. The bottom varies of course but is mostly in the region of 1000-1500 feet deep. ..... But the ships don't even try to anchor it is so deep.

Regrettable, I was wondering if a salvage of the ship intact was possible, not via lift, but patching the hole and pumping it full of floatables (I know, that's a LOT of ping-pong balls, but if it was possible, you would think it would be worth the cost of salvage, if they can do it quickly enough).

But I would guess that at that dept, any floating media would be compressed enough to be useless. If it wasn't an environmental hazard, perhaps media filled with a fluid that was at all lower density than salt water would be enough to raise it to a reasonable depth, then to be replaced/augmented by air-filled media.

She aint the Queen Mary, but she's still about half the tonnage of the Titanic. The peanut gallery here says it would take several naval salvage vessels with cables. (And my girlfriend keeps telling me that several is at least four or five, not two, but when I ask her for a precise definition she is silent, but insistent.:D - edit - online def: Being of a number more than two or three but not many. Crap. She's right.)

Any thoughts on intact salvage by anyone with real naval knowledge?

Where's Archimedes when you need him?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Some years ago a similar tour ship ran aground at night while a major football game was being televised......it is suspected the crew were distracted and not paying due attention to navigating the vessel

If my memory is not failing me, many tourists perished.

You are perhaps thinking of the Italian ferry MOBY PRINCE (built in Birkenhead as the KONIGIN JULIANA - a Harwich-Hook of Holland ferry) which collided with the anchored tanker AGIP ABRUZZO off Livorno in 1991; in the ensuing fireball 141 people died.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Regrettable, I was wondering if a salvage of the ship intact was possible, not via lift, but patching the hole and pumping it full of floatables (I know, that's a LOT of ping-pong balls, but if it was possible, you would think it would be worth the cost of salvage, if they can do it quickly enough).

But I would guess that at that dept, any floating media would be compressed enough to be useless. If it wasn't an environmental hazard, perhaps media filled with a fluid that was at all lower density than salt water would be enough to raise it to a reasonable depth, then to be replaced/augmented by air-filled media.

She aint the Queen Mary, but she's still about half the tonnage of the Titanic. The peanut gallery here says it would take several naval salvage vessels with cables. (And my girlfriend keeps telling me that several is at least four or five, not two, but when I ask her for a precise definition she is silent, but insistent.:D - edit - online def: Being of a number more than two or three but not many. Crap. She's right.)

Any thoughts on intact salvage by anyone with real naval knowledge?

Where's Archimedes when you need him?

Not worth salvaging - cost of repair would exceed market value - but Smits have a long established system for removing wrecks, first used on the LONDON VALOUR, where expanded polystyrene balls are blown into the compartments. Other options are to cut up on the spot using a diamond-encrusted wire cable (used by Smits on the KURSK and the TRICOLOR wrecks) and lift in sections, or, conceivably, use of compressed air, but that is tricky.

Wreck removal would only be an issue if the remains are a hazard and if the local authorties have power to compel it.

[carioca1232001]

You are perhaps thinking of the Italian ferry MOBY PRINCE (built in Birkenhead as the KONIGIN JULIANA - a Harwich-Hook of Holland ferry) which collided with the anchored tanker AGIP ABRUZZO off Livorno in 1991; in the ensuing fireball 141 people died.

The accident I was referring to involved a tour ship (or scheduled island ferry) in the Aegean Sea relatively recently, viz., the last five-to-seven years or so.

I brought the matter up with a Greek friend while we were touring the Pelloponésio region in 2004.

[Nicholas Carey]

Somebody has put up an album on Picasa of pictures taken onboard the cruise ship whilst abandoning ship:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sliderocity/CruiseShipPictures

http://lh5.google.com/image/sliderocity/Rh0Y8_1MHDI/AAAAAAAAADk/pInAJG3ymbw/n3214158_33736745_4979.jpg (http://picasaweb.google.com/sliderocity/CruiseShipPictures)

[Tom Robb]

If the wreck ended up 1000/1500" down, recovery would be quite an interesting operation wouldn't it? Merely getting to it would be problematic. The Kursk lay in about 600' of water didn't it, and had the considerable incentive or recovering bodies, explosive ordinance and the hot reactor too?

[seanz]

And now this, the charts are to blame?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4260639a12.html

[George.]

"A hydrographic survey showed the reef stretched for 131 metres from the shore. The (existing) nautical map showed the reef stretching only for 57 metres," Louis Cruise Lines shipping operations chief Giorgos Koubenas told reporters.


The skipper of a ship 200 meters long is passing within what he thinks is 70 meters of a reef? That is like taking a 40 foot sailboat within 15 feet of a reef and blaming your GPS for hitting it... :rolleyes:

[andrewe]

Chartering in Greece we were warned that the charts dated from 1900s and could be up to 1 mile off. So GPS might put you on the rocks, not too many lights either. We passed several nasty rocks with no marks. Of course you can´t sail at night on charter yachts-good reasons.
The previous accident was an inter- isle ferry that hit the rocks, at night, with considerable loss, and while I didn´t see the final result, the man on the bridge was in-experianced and many were watching the football game below. This was just outside the port.
Santorini must be very well known, not like the areas we were in. Blaming the charts is not good enough.
A

[Bruce Hooke]

The skipper of a ship 200 meters long is passing within what he thinks is 70 meters of a reef? That is like taking a 40 foot sailboat within 15 feet of a reef and blaming your GPS for hitting it... :rolleyes:

I'm not sure you can scale things in that way. Large ships routinely seem to use channels that are quite narrow relative to the size of the ship. Of course I don't know how tight the waters are that they were trying to navigate.

[Stiletto]

Bruce is right, the accuracy of the GPS isnt scaled down.

[George.]

I know the relationship of ship's length/safe distance is probably not linear, but at some point common sea-sense kicks in. I wasn't thinking about the GPS per se. I was thinking that he was passing within 1/3 of his ship's length of where he thought he had an unmarked reef. It's not like passing that close to the edge of a marked and dredged shipping channel, for instance.

I'll sail Dalia all out within 20 feet of a known channel marker with no problem, but I'll be damned if I pass within even 200 feet of an unseen submerged rock with much more than steerage way on.