In 1980, the MS Prinsendam went down in a very remote span of the Gulf of Alaska when an engine room fire broke out. There was some bumbling by the crew as far as getting an SOS out and, while eventually help did come, the ship was unsavable. It capsized and sank. A total loss, but no one died. Then of course there’s the Costa Concordia earlier this year, but that seems a special case for a whole list of reasons.Since 1980, safety standards for cruise ships went way up, via the updated international Safety of Life at Sea agreement. The new regulations are mainly fire-based and cruisecritic.com lays them out as such: “two means of [escape] from all atrium levels; low-level lighting systems; installation of smoke detectors, sprinklers, fire detectors and fire alarm systems in all accommodations and service areas; and fireproof enclosures around all stairways.”So there’s that. The deadline for every cruise ship in the world to hit these standards was 2010. But, SOLAS or not, there’ve been at least two major shipboard fires in the past 15 years, the last being the Star Princess catching fire in 2006. One person died and several went to the hospital for smoke inhalation-related health issues. The ship survived.So, what about more palpably scary things like icebergs and giant waves?Read the rest over at Motherboard.
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