<p>I don’t think cruise ship safety is a big deal as long as the ship is registered in a place that has strong laws regarding maritime safety and follows international protocol. Among other things, given the popularity of cruises, the companies are going to be really afraid of lawsuits, among other things, because as with this incident it can create a backlash much larger then the incident. </p>
<p>Can accidents happen with a cruise ship? Sure, there are dangers at sea, even today, you can hit rogue waves, the ship could in theory hit another ship (in international sea lanes, despite laws to the contrary, a lot of the container ships are running on autopilot), but given the kind of navigation and safety equipment they have today, it isn’t likely, they don’t just have radar, there are also systems using gps that track ship movements and let them see where other ships are (again, this is big ships on the open seas), and as long as the ship maintains human watch, they will be fine. </p>
<p>When problems have happened with cruise ships, it tends to be small operators of ‘cruise to nowhere’ kind of things, gambling ships and the like. </p>
<p>In this case, the ultimate responsibility is the captain and his officers, though it also sounds like the crew may not have been well trained. Put it this way, the captain can claim anything he wants about an ‘unmarked rock’, but with modern navigation equipment and computer mapped routes, he could only have hit that rock by going off course deliberately, and it sure as heck isn’t nav error (GPS is accurate to within 1 meter these days). The fact that they tried to hide what happened, that they reported it as a ‘blackout’ and such, or they didn’t initiate emergency drills when the stuff hit the fan, tells me they figured since they were so close to land that they could make it and then be surprised about the grounding.Maybe because my background is in small boats (well, okay, compared to a cruise ship, a bluewater sailboat is a lifeboat practically), one thing you learn is how deceptive things are, how fast things can change and taking anything for granted is stupid. </p>
<p>On the other hand, when you get to be a captain on a ship like that you have a ton of training and hours experience with almost every part of the ship, many of them have been at sea most of their lives, and with that experience and the kind of equipment they have, there are few things as safe. When people fall overboard on ships, very little of it can be blamed on the cruise line, it is usually either people committing suicide or someone high on drugs or alcohol doing something they shouldn’t, or plain stupidity (one case, some young guy decided to prove to his sweetie how athletic he was, literally was doing chinups hanging off a ladder above the deck about 3 stories, and of course slipped and died…</p>
<p>Not so sure I would want to do a cruise like that, my speed would probably be on a sailing ship kind of thing, but to each their own:)</p>