By now, you’ve likely heard at least one of the multiple news reports about the really bad storm Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas managed to sail into this weekend. I was not there, and I will not minimize or question most of what has been said. I will say that I have sailed through higher seas than those that were reported to have been experienced, but nowhere near the wind speeds the ship was reportedly battered with which were in excess of 100 mph.
Image of Anthem’s Sister Ship, Quantum of the Seas © 2014 – Marshall Jackson
When you combine high seas with winds like that, you’re going to get a bit of rocking. OK, things are going to be rolling…for real. Yes, I’ve seen the pictures. Yes, I’ve read the Tweets. Most importantly, I’ve read the article with the meteorologist questioning the wisdom of the Captain and Royal Caribbean.
None of us, most especially me, know what really happened. We don’t know what weather information the Captain had, and we certainly don’t know if anyone was “pressured” to sail for economic reasons. I have read a lot of hysterical bullsheet on the internet in the last couple of days about this cruise, most of which was written by people not involved with it.
I do not for one second believe that a licensed master mariner and a publicly traded company (which I happen to be a shareholder of) would conspire to put cruise guests and a billion dollar ship in some kind of danger on purpose. I have no idea if anything will come of calls for “investigations” and getting to the bottom of this event will yield any real information. Perhaps we will learn something we all needed to know. In the meantime, I will just wait and see what we learn. I will also keep planning my next cruise. You, however, should do what feels most comfortable for you whether anyone on the internet agrees or not.
-MJ, February 9, 2016
As with many types of accidents and incidents, I’m sure the investigation will reveal multiple factors, that when combined, resulted in a terrible cruise experience for thousands of people and a damaged ship.
To those who say how accurate weather forecasting is the National Weather Service (which does the best they can with available information) was predicting at 9PM that we would have 6-8 inches of snow beginning at 3am (six hours later) and continuing for about 12 hours. At 3PM we had bare ground and the storm had passed. Unfortunately severe storms are often extremely difficult to predict, both with respect to severity and location. Certainly the Master could have been reckless like the Costa Master, but more likely he was not trying to go where no man should go.
“Tonight it was announced that they will actually dock at 9 PM tomorrow evening and if they wanted, they could spend the night on the ship and leave Thursday morning. Yes, there was a lot to coordinate but in my mind, that should have been done before they announced the 6 AM arrival. Many people will again have to pay for change of flight fees. They could have told the passengers that they were working on an arrival time and would keep them informed with they have concrete information. Just my two cents worth.” Not an unreasonable expectation at all… Read more »
Yes, a storm was known before the cruise left Bayonne and it was known that there would be hurricane strength winds. From my understanding, the ship would have no problem going through 75 mph winds. From the captain’s interview on the ship yesterday, he mentioned that they were in 180 mph winds – that was not forecast. No one knew that it would develop this quickly and intensify this much to double the strength of winds that were forecast. I think also that RCI has done a poor job of keeping the passengers in the know as far as what… Read more »
First, the captain is in charge, responsible. Period. In the U.S. Navy that captain would have been possibly be charged with hazarding the ship – even if the captain at the time was asleep in his quarters. It’s called accountability, responsibility. Even if the captain was under any duress or pressure to sail that course from Royal Caribbean management. That does not relieve him/her from accountability. The law is that the captain is in charge, full stop. It’s not run by a committee. Ditto for flying aboard a commercial aircraft. Sadly this captain will probably not see a wrist slap.… Read more »
Actually, I couldn’t agree more with this statement….. “but it might be better to look at the facts as they become available and make up your mind after the facts have been reviewed.” And my mind is never made up….until it’s made up. And about the only thing that is for sure in my mind is that I am going on my next cruise.
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It’s pretty safe to say that many people know exactly what weather information the ship’s Master had available. Here’s a hint: all of it. This is just one weather fax image that would have been available as it was issued around 1pm EST Friday and clearly states “developing hurricane force” and “rapidly intensifying.” https://goo.gl/IIgbsv Like an airline captain, it’s the Master’s job to have all available information prior to departure. He stated on the ship’s video that it developed faster than he thought it would even though it was forecast to do so. Based on that interview it was pretty… Read more »