Casualties involving mega cruise liners

Abstract

“Until 1975-1980, cruises offered shuffleboard, deck chairs, drinks with umbrellas and little else for a few hundred passengers. After 1980, they offered increasing amenities. As of 2010, city-sized ships have dozens of amenities.”

The cruise ship industry has changed dramatically over recent decades. This was mainly brought about by a massive increase in consumer demand and consequently a corresponding surge in the size of the vessels being launched. Larger ships can accommodate more passengers and provide additional onboard sources of revenue. Passenger cabins have been moved from the inside of the hull to the superstructure, ushering in the advent of balcony cabins. Cruise lines can charge passengers much more for balcony cabins than they can for inside staterooms, and the more there are available of such cabins, the more profitable a ship is. Cruise ships have gone from being an average of 500 feet long and capable of carrying around 600 passengers in the 1970s, to nowadays being an average of 1,000 feet long and capable of carrying upwards of 3,500 passengers. The largest ships can carry up to 6,000 passengers. The sheer size of these ‘mega cruise liners’, as they have become to be known, has opened up cruising to everyone and has paved the way for the possibility of having unimaginable luxuries available on board, which up to a few decades ago could only be experienced in five-star luxury hotels by wealthy customers. However, the advent of size has also brought about certain safety and security concerns and has at times been described as a double edged sword. Foremost, this thesis will, therefore, identify the different safety risks that are present in the industry. All of these risks have already been addressed to some extent or another via existing legislation, and thus an analysis of the current legal framework will be made. However, this thesis will go further, and its main aim will be to investigate whether such existing legislation is adequate, especially in the face of mega cruise liners. As part of this investigation, the Costa Concordia incident will be analysed, as it is a perfect showcase of the potential dangers associated with mega cruise liners. What is certain in the Costa Concordia case is that a grounding of the ship should not have resulted in such a significant loss of life. It will be queried whether the reason why such devastating chaos ensued in this case could have been due to the legislation in place having been poor and the standards insufficient; or because although the legislation was adequate, perhaps it was not correctly implemented by the ship’s owners and consequently not followed by the crew. The latter possibility would raise the question of whether the responsible authorities are effective in ensuring that standards are maintained. Moreover, what would have happened had the entire ship sunk? All these issues will be addressed, albeit without attempting to pass judgement. The issue of salvage with regards to mega cruise liners will also be discussed especially in the context of emergency situations. The current legal regime will then be examined in further detail, specifically from the viewpoint of size of ships, and based on the findings certain recommendations will be put forward. The thesis will also call attention to the lessons that can be learned from past incidents and ultimately it will be questioned whether new laws might be required to make the industry safer. The conclusion will consist of a holistic analysis of the entire findings of the thesis in which all the pieces are joined together, and will ultimately attempt to suggest a ‘way forward’. The end result will hopefully classify as an objective observance on the subject matter, rather than an attempt at producing a damning indictment or an exculpatory report.