Cruise ship safety !

The popularity of taking a leisurely cruise on a luxury cruise ship took a hit in January when news flashed on television screens showing the Costa Concordia laying on her side, half sunken after hitting a rock off Giglio island in the Mediterranean.    There was a confused evacuation of the 4,200 passengers and crew and reports that some of the crew had no idea how to lower the lifeboats.   Thirty-two people died in this shipwreck.

The Mediterranean is one of the most heavily populated areas on this planet.  It's coastline is virtually wall to wall cities, and as a consequence cruise ships simply sail from port to port to give passengers a taste of different cultures.   Things are very different, here in the Pacific ocean cruise industry.

The Pacific is a very big ocean with a limited number of island communities, and not all of them are able to offer a safe harbour to berth a big ship.   As a consequence, cruise ships visiting places like the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia anchor offshore - and the passengers are ferried to and from the island - using the ships " lifeboats ".

Even that terminology has changed.   They are no longer referred to as lifeboats.   They are now the " ships' tenders " and they have come a long way from the open boat days, when rescued passengers were required to man the oars.   Today's rescue craft are fully enclosed and equipped with twin screw diesel engines - and offer a full range of safety equipment and creature comforts.

It must be comforting to people with images of the Costa Concordia still in their minds to witness the skill and familiarity with which Australian cruise ship crews handle these tenders when they are required to ferry people ashore.     There can be no doubt that this task has been performed with such regularity that it would be second nature in an emergency.

Plans are now underway to raise and tow the Costa Concordia to a ship breakers yard where she will be dismantled for scrap.   This will cost in the vicinity of three hundred million dollars, and it will probably attract heavy attention on news channels as the work proceeds.

The cruise industry - here and in other parts of the world - will be pleased when that incident fades from view.  It is a jarring note that emphasis a risk that does not exist in the Pacific ocean cruise industry, because crews here lower safety equipment on a regular basis.   It is simply part of the ship's  routine.