Adventure On The High Seas
One German and one Italian passenger were killed in an extreme-weather-related event as the Mediterranean cruise ship Louis Majesty of the Maltese-flagged, Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Line sailed off the coast of Spain. "We didn't know what was happening, if there were dead or injured, only that we were going back to Barcelona", said another Italian passenger.
Another passenger had had presence of mind to film screaming people fleeing as a wall of water crashed through a window, sweeping into a lounge area, knocking furniture over. "It was a monster wave ... it smashed all the windows. Everything happened so quickly", another passenger told Spanish public television. There were three giant waves, eight metres in height that swept over the ship.
Aside from the two passengers who died, fourteen others were injured, one woman in hospital in "very serious condition". The 200-metre-long ship was embarked on a 12-day cruise of the western Mediterranean with 1,350 passengers and 580 crew, when the freak waves overtook the ship, smashing windows in front of the ship in a public area.
An expert from the French national weather agency said the cruise ship was in heavy seas where eight-metre waves were to be expected. "The conditions were favourable to the formation of waves higher than normal". Experts say that these kinds of huge waves are generated by storm-related winds. "As wind increases in intensity, it is first going to create relatively small waves, and then bigger ones, which travel faster", said a French oceanographer.
But according to a spokesman authorized to speak on behalf of the cruise line, "This was a natural unforeseen and unpredictable phenomenon because we are talking about three big waves, higher than eight metres, striking the vessel. This is not an incident which we could have prevented. Therefore, there will be no investigation. All passengers are on their way back to their respective countries as we speak."
One might imagine that cruise enthusiasts who book onto such enterprises mostly do so for relaxed enjoyment, confident that the cruise line has their best interests at heart, safety uppermost, to ensure return and word-of-mouth business to result from their satisfaction. Those people might be inspired to look elsewhere for their relaxing vacation time away from home.
On the other hand, this cruise line might look into the feasibility of offering a new kind of travel cruise adventure; who knows, it might become wildly popular with the extreme-cruise crowd who might look forward to challenging nature on the high seas. And to live to tell the tale. Pity, those others who were unfortunately felled, but their untimely demise might just add the required frisson of danger so attractive to doughty adventurers.
The cruise line might think of advertising along the lines of: "Come with us and experience a new type of daring adventure on the high seas; you might even survive".
Irresistible.
Another passenger had had presence of mind to film screaming people fleeing as a wall of water crashed through a window, sweeping into a lounge area, knocking furniture over. "It was a monster wave ... it smashed all the windows. Everything happened so quickly", another passenger told Spanish public television. There were three giant waves, eight metres in height that swept over the ship.
Aside from the two passengers who died, fourteen others were injured, one woman in hospital in "very serious condition". The 200-metre-long ship was embarked on a 12-day cruise of the western Mediterranean with 1,350 passengers and 580 crew, when the freak waves overtook the ship, smashing windows in front of the ship in a public area.
An expert from the French national weather agency said the cruise ship was in heavy seas where eight-metre waves were to be expected. "The conditions were favourable to the formation of waves higher than normal". Experts say that these kinds of huge waves are generated by storm-related winds. "As wind increases in intensity, it is first going to create relatively small waves, and then bigger ones, which travel faster", said a French oceanographer.
But according to a spokesman authorized to speak on behalf of the cruise line, "This was a natural unforeseen and unpredictable phenomenon because we are talking about three big waves, higher than eight metres, striking the vessel. This is not an incident which we could have prevented. Therefore, there will be no investigation. All passengers are on their way back to their respective countries as we speak."
One might imagine that cruise enthusiasts who book onto such enterprises mostly do so for relaxed enjoyment, confident that the cruise line has their best interests at heart, safety uppermost, to ensure return and word-of-mouth business to result from their satisfaction. Those people might be inspired to look elsewhere for their relaxing vacation time away from home.
On the other hand, this cruise line might look into the feasibility of offering a new kind of travel cruise adventure; who knows, it might become wildly popular with the extreme-cruise crowd who might look forward to challenging nature on the high seas. And to live to tell the tale. Pity, those others who were unfortunately felled, but their untimely demise might just add the required frisson of danger so attractive to doughty adventurers.
The cruise line might think of advertising along the lines of: "Come with us and experience a new type of daring adventure on the high seas; you might even survive".
Irresistible.
posted by Pieface @ 7:28 PM
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