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January 15th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
At its launch in 2006, it was one of the largest ships in the industry, built
to carry 3,700 passengers, but has since been dwarfed by other vessels
taking as many as 6,000 passengers, notably Royal Caribbean International’s
ships Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.
The move towards such large ships has inevitably raised questions over their
manoeuvrability, as well as the safety issues involved in the possible
evacuation of enough people to rival the population of a small town.
With the latest technological innovations, many of the larger ships are more
manoeuvrable than you might imagine and, in the case of Allure and Oasis,
they are equipped with lifeboats that can each hold nearly 400 people. Their
overwhelming bulk has made ships such as the Costa Concordia seem more of an
average-sized vessel.
The main question on everyone’s lips now is how did this accident happen?
After all, the port of Civitavecchia, from where Costa Concordia had earlier
departed, is the port for Rome, one of the most popular cruise stops in the
Mediterranean, so these were hardly uncharted waters.
Peter Wild, a cruise industry analyst from GP Wild Associates, speculated that
in instances like this there could be three causes of collision: human
error; equipment failure, notably of the power system or steering; or a very
unusual combination of winds and sea currents.
Whatever the cause, this shows that, 100 years on from Titanic, such disasters
can, and still do, happen. Though the fact that they are so few and far
between bears testament to the strict safety procedures in force.
No one could accuse the cruise industry of being complacent when it comes to
such issues.
Lifeboats line the decks of every ship, and passenger and crew safety drills
are run regularly on each sailing covering eventualities such as sinking,
engine room fire or a person overboard.
The capsizing of Costa Concordia has tragically resulted in loss of life, but
so far, numbers have thankfully been relatively low when you consider that
more than 4,000 passengers and crew were on board and most of them escaped
unscathed.
Whether the cruise industry will do the same is another matter.
The fact that Costa is an Italian-based cruise line that relatively few
Britons use — there were only 24 on this sailing — is sure to lessen the
impact in the UK market. But the detailed news coverage
of the Costa accident and its aftermath is the last thing the cruise industry
needs at a time when it is already facing economic challenges in its main
markets of America and the UK.
The explosive growth of the cruise industry over the past decade has been well
documented, with unprecedented increases in the number of cruise ships and
the number of customers, with around 1.7 million Britons taking a cruise
last year.
As a result, there are more cruise ships to fill than ever before and
competition between the companies is fierce, with the Mediterranean being
one of the main battlegrounds.
Cruise lines cannot afford to let this accident scupper the market.
While regular cruisers are unlikely to be put off by what has happened to
Costa Concordia, the fear is that those who have never holidayed on a ship
before may be deterred.
The “new-to-cruise” market is so vital to the cruise lines, they cannot afford
to let this happen.
The Passenger Shipping Association [PSA], which represents all the major
cruise lines, stressed that it would do whatever it takes to reassure the
public.
“Taking a cruise is a very safe and secure holiday and incidents like this so
rarely happen, it’s unheard of,” said Bill Gibbons, the director of the PSA.
According to Mr Wild, the fallout from this accident may not be as bad as
people fear.
“If there is a serious incident, but with relatively low loss of life, the
impact tends to be quite short-term,” he said.
“Of course it will influence some, but people are very good at assessing
personal risk. Even after [the] Titanic people still travelled on ships.”
Sara Macefield is a specialist writer on the cruise industry.
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