@@ShipsandGames oh really? Can you explain the time he said that 900 people were on the Titanic? All he has to do is making a professional sounding voice and people give jack shit about what he's actually saying.
@@criollitoification I think the first version of SOLAS came a few years after the Titanic accident, but yes, I don't think wooden doors were an issue back then. Sorry for ruining the joke :)
I worked on cruise ships for six months. Every week, we had an emergency drill. Never (26 attempts) was the crew ever able to get the life raft over the side, let alone lower it down to the water. The passengers went down in lifeboats; those were launched nicely. The crew was lowered (theoretical) in life rafts. We had our own abandon ship plan! If there was ever a real emergency-we were going to put on our life jackets, go to the bar, and wait for the water to rise up to us.
@@oxenforde not sure when you worked or for what ship but when I was with rccl everyone was required to speak English. Also the "kitchen staff" was who mostly helped with the Costa ship that sank a few years ago. The captain of that ship left during the evacuation
Yeah, that complicated procedure is going to be massively fun at night in the middle of a raging gale or worse where even standing on deck is a major accomplishment. Sleep well cruise ship passengers.
We had the big 25-man rafts in the navy, but no davits for launching most of them - standard procedure, I shit you not, was to undo the straps holding it to the deck and just boot the fucker overboard, letting the hydrostat do its' thing. Great video, thanks for sharing.
I wonder if the navy procedures assume significantly higher physical capacity and training overall plus full obedience and compliance (also speed, like, to not stay on a vessel being bombarded hard) or is it fully on the lack of shits given.
there are some rafts that you just yeet off the ship that come with a shute for "controlled" "sliding" in. the videos are pretty funny of folk just tumbling down the cloth pipe but it does explain why that sort aren't used for passengers :V
Now I just have this mental image of some Yellow-shirt on a carrier doing his best kick-off impression and just before his foot makes contact, the catapult shuttle hits the canister and sends it off...
@@Kalvinjj Many years ago in the US Navy, there was a basic swim test for everyone just to graduate Boot Camp, they made us jump off an elevated platform (don't remember height exactly, but may 15 or 20 feet, seemed like a long way at the time) into a pool, tread water for 5 minutes, and swim some distance (50 yards maybe) and climb out of the pool. This was supposedly to simulate abandoning a ship, perhaps waiting for additional life rafts to deploy as the ships sinks, and then climbing into a life raft. To qualify for air crew or small boats the swim test was a little harder; and then to qualify for diver or other special career fields it included the equivalent of lifeguard training (WSI I think it used to be called) and an underwater swim where you could only come up for air twice. Never been on a civilian cruise, but I'm guessing they don't make you do any of this to "qualify."
Last time i was on a stena line ship (The one that moves between gothenburg and fredrikshamn), they had these big-ass life rafts alongside the 25 man ones on tilted rails above the passenger walkway on the floor i was on Cut one strap and a BIG liferaft (shell was 3-4 times bigger than 25 man one) rolls off the side of the ship, no training needed A friend who works there say they only train once every few months or when it's a new crew because it's so easy that they regularly have to fine passengers for doing it
Maybe, but anything shooting up like that with that much force is going to pose a danger to anyone on the surface still present near the ship (although honestly, that's not exactly a safe location to being with)
In most instances I've read about, only about half the lifeboats are in a position where they can be launched during a situation where the ship needs to be abandoned.
@@Dino14345 Yup, and in the case of a fire the downwind section of the ship is inaccessible. Although lists can have many causes, usually wind and swell causing downflooding on one side first, but yea, either way, ships rarely sink on an even keel.
Honestly the Titanic is a but funny when you think about it, the bad rap it gets for “not having enough lifeboats” (obviously a discussion for another time). Like, name a ship that successfully deployed all of its lifeboats maybe minus half for a flipped collapsible. In most other instances the ship is sinking too quick or has a list too severe for that to happen.
Incredible video! I am a cruise ship inspector in the US, and I will be sure to share this with our local trainees. Could you do a video regarding structural fire protection cruise ships.
I've just came back from a cruise with the Quantum of the Seas, and we passed by a freefall lifeboat out at sea yesterday. The captain stopped the vessel and sent out a boat to investigate, and they found out that it was abandoned and the crew was from a ship that sunk two weeks ago. They're reportedly all safe
@@i.i.iiii.i.i you were probably close though, he probably just habitually referred to the people in the lifeboat as, 'the crew' without realizing how confusing that makes things when there's now arguably three different 'crews' to be referring to
One fact everyone misses is that the passenger capacity of any life raft or boat is based around weights of 75 kg per person (165 lbs), rising to 82.5 kg (181 lbs) for ships built after 2012. I worked on cruise ships for 13 years. Given the shape of a lot of our passengers, and the age of most of the ships out there, this could lead to some fun times in the case of a real emergency
Reminds me also of how lifts/elevators in Asia are rated for a lower weight/mass capacity than in Western countries for the same no. of passengers e.g. 885-900kg instead of 1000kg for a 13-person lift, probably since Asians are typically smaller-sized/lighter. Was also on-board a 20-person lift when holidaying in Osaka when its overload buzzer sounded after the 14th person, a tall but not fat Caucasian, entered the lift. He looked a bit sheepish afterwards
These aren't meant for the passengers. Sure, passengers can use them, but generally speaking, it'll be the crew that makes use of the rafts since they'll be trained in their use and deployment.
@@Tank50us There should be enough life boats for everyone, including the crew. These rafts are a joke, in real rough seas you don't want to be in there. If you're lucky enough to make it inside in the first place.
@@Tank50us The crew are needed for the life boats, for which they are absolutely required. I spent a while looking up a lifeboat manual just to see how hard it would be ... Pretty hard. They got keys and startup procedures
@@tsm688 But not all crew will necessarily be accommodated in a lifeboat, like on Sage Cruises the safety video explains that some crew are evacuated into a liferaft via the MES. th-cam.com/video/-Hf8K5cIaxo/w-d-xo.html
Great video! But there is also a different type of raft with a slide or shute connected to it so that you can slide down to the raft. Almost all of the ferries in the Baltic Sea have this system.
When I served in the Navy (and I expect things are the same) the majority of the crew would be using inflatable rafts. Many ships only carry one or two actual lifeboats, including the "Captain's Gig" which is for his use. Older ships also carried 'life floats, which were not enclosed.
the good thing with the rafts, is, unlike life boats they are easier to launch from awkward positions, and might even do so automatically in a sudden sinking... in that way they are better than lifeboats, which need a procedure to launch... however, they are also much worse in bad sea conditions than a boat...
Clearly, it requires one or more well-trained crew members to successfully launch a life raft. In the probable confusion of a sinking ship, that ain't gonna happen.
TBH they seem rather over engineered. Like instead of this complex crane hoisting mechanism, just have one of those long inflatable slides they use on airplanes and a rope with pulley to start the rafts down it.
@@HoshizakiYoshimasa But what are the actual changes that the crew member would be next to you on that specific raft. To guide the procedure. There could be so many other things to happening that keeps crew busy.
Theoretically a few really determined people capable of reading instructions could do it. The proper lifeboats, now, those aren't going anywhere unless a crew with the key is around. That struck me as really worrisome.
Even though cruise ships only need 75% life boat capacity, is that standard practice? I would imagine a lot of cruise lines would like to be able to say they have 100% or more capacity even if they aren’t legally required to.
I’d imagine it’d be smarter to do that to prevent lawsuits, but I’d highly doubt that companies would have enough for everybody. I’m pretty sure would always find ways to cut cost.
@@Dorito8052 Here is a example. Take the largest cruise ships in the world, the Oasis class. At double capacity they can have around 6600 guests on board. The ship carries 9 lifeboats on each side. These can hold 370 people each. She also carries dozens and dozens of rapid inflatable rafts for the remaining crew, which can be up to 2200 people So yes, it is very possible to get everyone off a sinking mega cruise ship.
I don't think a cruise line wants to pursue a marketing strategy where they remind people of the chance that a ship sinks, so I don't see there being any benefits for them to equip more lifeboats than legally required
75% of people go into lifeboats. The remaining get life rafts. Everyone get a chance to be rescued as long as the get into one of those. The title is a little click baity.
@@claudiodiaz9752 And they're more likely to put the more vulnerable (women, children, those with medical conditions, etc) into the rigid boats, and save the rafts for the less vulnerable and the crew.
While I worked on oasis the rescue vessels(because they are too big to be called life boats lmao) where mostly for guest and the crew to man them. The rest of crew would then use the M.E.S slide system. Watching your video was basically exactly whats included in the crew training videos we always have to watch and practice.
Is it true that when sinking, big ships will drag nearby objects with them in the water ? If its so, how could you know how far you should go from the ship ?
It depends on several factors, one of which being the speed in which the ship sinks. If it sinks slowly, and floods as it goes down, at roughly the same rate, there won't be much suction if at all. On the other hand, if the ship in question sinks rapidly, and creates a 'void' as it goes down, it'll pull quite a bit down with it. It also depends on the size of the ship as well. Larger vessels, like for example a warship, will create the aforementioned void if they sink rapidly (like from being blown in half ala HMS Hood), however a smaller ship or boat, for example a tug, will likely have little, if any suction.
off topic - i remember talks about water in bermuda triangle where some shit happens to the air or underwater eruptions of gas or something,basically bubbling up water making it it less dense so ships just fell under
As long as all water around you is pulled down equally, this shouldn't be a problem. Water level will just be a bit below sea level. What is problematic, if this happens unevenly and water flows into the boat from the side.
It didn't look easy. The auto-release after the ship sunk looks easy. The managed launch by crew members who have the presence of mind to properly secure the red and green lines, somehow connect the entry of raft with the deck, then steer the loaded raft away from the ship and armor the release shortly before the raft reaches the surface looked complicated.
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Interestingly I was watching Deepwater Horizon yesterday and in the movie they do a Liferaft release using that method. It did seem a bit improvised in the movie, but I'm glad to learn it is actually the official way to deploy those rafts. Fantastic video as always!
I worked on a day cruise boat that was surveyed to carry 400 odd (we only ever took maybe 250) passengers. It carried 2 life rafts... that could accommodate 153 people each.
what if the ship starts sinking faster? these steps seem like they take a lot of time. i know the hydro-release would automatically release them when they hit the water, but at that point arent people close enough to get in also in danger of getting sucked down by the effects from the ship?
Big ships normally take hours to sink, unless a torpedo or limpet mine explodes under the keel. There are few bulkheads in a cruise ship once the ship breaks in half.
You have identified one of the biggest issues with travelling on sea. It is unpredictable and you can never be completely safe. Ship sinks fast, gets a bad list, capsizes or rough seas. Shit can happen and getting thousands of elderly, untrained and frightened passengers safely onto the lifeboats is an incredible feat. Liferafts will be worse. If you need to abandon ship into lifeboats and liferafts, you will most likely have many fatalities. Abandoning ship is not a decision taken likely, and will probably be too late. Ships are not supposed to sink. Bulkheads and watertight doors should keep a ship afloat. However things happen, look at the Helge Ingstad incident. A warship that sank after accidentally crashing into a tanker. Theoretically it should have stayed afloat. However a poorly designed hollow driveshaft allowed water to pass between watertight compartments. Have a listen at the radio recordings from the collision. Its almost as stupid as the lighthouse skit.
@@ph11p3540 Even torpedoed ships in ww2 sometimes took hours to sink. Especially if the ship doesn’t entirely flood and there’s air pockets in compartments. Sometimes the U-boat or submarine would have to surface and use its deck gun to finish the ship off
@@notmenotme614 USS William D. Porter is an excellent example of this, in addition to being a huge floating collection of miserable luck. She had a kamikaze miss, but still remain intact enough to detonate directly under her, snapping her keel. Despite the damage, she held together long enough for the crew to abandon ship (after hours of intense damage control in an attempt to save the ship) with zero casualties.
Why Don't Ships Have Enough Lifeboats? Answers question within 28 seconds then video turns into a detailed intrusctional video on how to release life rafts from a cruiseship? LoL didn't expect that
@@CasualNavigation to be fair, though, I don't think you actually answered the question of the video's title. You did answer HOW they are able to, but not WHY they allegedly do.
This reminds me of the time when my family and I went on a Carnival cruise ship and had to do the safety drill. On the first day of the cruise, they run everyone through the procedure of what they do if the ship is going down. I'll never forget that they made it a point to actually have the announcer say, "Remember, folks, that smoking and drinking during the safety drill is strictly forbidden" over the intercom.
I imagine some folks have been on enough cruises to think they know the drill, like the air safety speech at the beginning of every flight, and are eager to just tune out
I used to wonder where the life boats were on aircraft carriers. If you look at the edge of the flight deck, it is lined with hundreds of those white life raft canisters.
Just imagine that the ship is going down in the middle of the ocean under rough inclement weather condition. Liferaft are useless then. Just see what happened when the Estonia sunk or Concordia. The damn thing was still hanging on the line when the ship capsized. Launching a liferaft takes forever. I worked on cruise ships for 12 years. Each week when we had the drills, I was standing at my designated liferaft station, looked at the galley utility fella who was assigned to launch the thing(and clearly had no clue what was going on) thinking that if the ship goes down, I am really in trouble. Liferafts look good on the evacuation plan but I would not trust them at all.
It’s really difficult on cruise ships when there are so many non-mariner type passengers and even employees on board. They’re excellent for ships and crews that are dedicated mariners like cargo the oil platform supply ships or coast guard vessels. I did a summer job with the coast guard and we had training with them where we had to be really quick with launching and getting ourselves into the life raft, although admittedly we worked in our dry suits all the time so they would have been more effective than a civilian passenger in their regular clothing
@@CasualNavigation if I'm on a sinking cruise liner at least I know where to run and at least save myself and few other cleaver people than trying to get on a lifeboat while getting crushed underfoot panic passengers.
Liferafts on the Estonia actually were pretty easy to launch. Some of them were stuck but most people who got on the upper deck managed to get into safety.
Awesome! I wasn't expecting a video this morning, but I'm sure glad to have one! I thought the part about the larger davit-launch rafts was really interesting. I'm not sure I have seen many of those - I will have to keep my eyes out for them in the future :D
I do know though that the Davot lanched Life Rafts are going out of fashion on Cruise ships and large passanger vessels. this is due to it being really slow to deploy (Passengers Vessels are required by SOLAS to be able to fully evacuate within 30 min) Most modern Passanger Vessels are being fitted with evacuation slides. work similar allowing survivors to embark the survival rafts completely dry
I cannot help but think that there are so many steps to do when releasing such life drafts, and in the panic of a emergency many things could go wrong, as they often do.
I am a student of the maritime school of Turkku Finland. This vide is basekly a bit of a cut down version of the one we got to see when we where doing our basic safty training. To adres some of the komments about crew not being competent I like to qote one of my teatchers "Evryone who works att sea need the basic safty training" whitch includs lanching of boat rafts and boats. Then the crew that actualy operate the ship like the brige crew, enginers and the deck departments have another cors in life raft and boat operatins. Safty is held to the higest standards and it is alwais recomend to watching the safty video in your cabin and to participate in abandon ship drills so evryone knows what to do in case of a emergancy.
Me: sees a cruise ship, counts lifeboats, considers size... "Hm, guess that's enough. It's not the steamer age any more... no?" Casual: "75%." Me: "Ohhh the collapsibles. Of course!"
You are doing absolutely wonderful work. I am clearing my 2nd mates exam and some of your videos shows the 3d explanation of the topics which makes it too easy to understand. Thanks and keep the good work. If possible please make video on the launching procedure of lifeboat including onload-off load release of hooks and recovering of lifeboat using recovery strop, hanging off pendant, fall prevention device. These are very common questions asked in 2nd mates orals in India and your explanation will help thousands of candidates to understand it better. Thanks
Umm no. The international maritime law requires all passenger ships to have enough lifeboats for all passengers. However while the law does require enough lifeboats for all passengers it doesn't cover life boat design. Inflatable life rafts have been used as a loop hole while saving space on cruise ships for decades. Under international maritime law life rafts are considered life boats as long as they include certain items when deployed. First is emergency rations, second is drinking water or method of generating drinking water, third signaling and locating equipment. And lastly first aid kits.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 I’d say around 15 feet across, the one we used was shaped like an octagon. You can absolutely you can stand in the center but the ceiling at the edges is low. The school I went to was Commercial Diving Academy in jax,FL.
Would have been interesting to see the newer life raft system with the descending tubes. They usually are not stored in the round containers, but big, box-like structures with rolling doors on the side. When deployed, they swing down and outwards, releasing 4 huge square life-rafts which then are entered using sliding tubes. The Oasis class cruise ships have several of those. They also have 18 mega-lifeboats, seating 370 persons each, for a total of 6660 lifeboat seats. Full passenger capacity on Oasis class ships is around 6300, so there is more than enough space. Of course, there is also around 2000 crew, but they are covered with the big life rafts. Allegedly, the lifeboats on Oasis of the Seas even had toilets, but for later ships those were removed, which should add some more capacity as well.
There's something very calming and soothing about a sophisticated erudite English voice. Precisely the kind of voice you need directing you to your life raft as your ship is sinking in the middle of the ocean.
Really cool of you to collaborate with another youtuber on this! Happy to find more of good stuff to watch. This was a very interesting video, I've heard in passing about the not enough lifeboats thing, but for some reason never thought of that there'd be rafts as well.
I inspect liferafts on boats. Many people install the hydrostatic release upside down. Just remember "sunny side up". The yellow part goes up. If won't go off correctly upside down.
There's a video on youtube of the _Stellar Banner_ a huge ore carrier, sinking in about one minute. I don't think there would be time for any of that procedure.
Meh….what you say is true, if the vessel was subject to violent forces that ripped it apart, 1 minute is not enough time. That being said, the stellar Banner purposely grounded itself to prevent from sinking… in the video you are witnessing the end stages of what actually, is precisely what professional mariners should have done. It was a situation beyond their control - if you watch the video, look at the back of the ship where there appears to be a vertical rack - that was where the lifeboat should have been and it was gone, because the crew already got off on it.
The Stellar Banner was scuttled 3 months after it ran aground. In those 3 months it was offloaded, refloated, and only sunk after analysis showed that towing it back to port would be too risky. The scuttling was engineered to sink it as quickly and in as few pieces as possible. Ships can and do sink quickly, but I think that’s not an accurate example to weigh life rafts against.
I wonder if loading at deck level is really worth all of the extra complexity involved. The bottom of the raft, i would assume, is not rigid like. I think it to be more of a super heavy duty tarp. Would it be a decent trade off to have a shute system that would work much like the hydrostatic release. For instance tie off your housing lines and the inflation line, pull a lever and allow it to slide down the shute to about 6 or so feet about the water. Have the raft hooked with a carabiner to a rail, climb down the ladder and undo the carabiner and be free of the ship. Its just an idea to simplify things with a little comprimise on evacuee conveinence
"climb down the ladder" Is only an option for very well trained and disciplined personal. If a group climb down one ladder everyone depends on everyone. If someone above you falls down you got a problem. Even worse is when someone just stops. This blocks the ladder completly.
Some people have trouble walking, let alone climbing. The longer the ladder, the tougher it'll be to get people with physical differences down the ladder. And that's aside from the fact that children sometimes go on cruises with their parents. idk about you, but I ain't trusting a three-year-old to not lose their grip or panic. Also, there are infants. Also, people could be drunk. Also, someone could be on a sleep aid at the time. Also, also, also... There's a lot more to 'people' than just physically-fit, able-bodied adults. While it can be easy to forget about disabilities and limb differences if you don't have any, it matters to millions of people around the world. Please keep us in mind.
As a firefighter it took me 6 months to get comfortable climbing and working from a 60 ft ladder truck mounted ladder. If you think 1 in 10 could make that climb in that situation you are mistaken. Most would freeze up even if they would be able to try. One person freezes and no one above makes it down. I don't know anything about the chutes but would be curious of what percentage of normal folks would try unless it was obvious there was no other hope of survival. Even then many could not do it. Most people simply cannot deal with that level of fear and still function. It is not a skill we are taught.
Fun fact: those passengers in that incident did start coordinating on their own without the crew. Pretty impressive how many survived, all things considered. With instructions nearby, I'm sure you could handle it.
After working a year and half on cruise ship, I noticed that 75% of nominal capacity is reachable if the ship is full of passengers with normal weight. But our ship cruised from American ports and I prayed every day that no emergency ever occurs because there was no way we could fit everybody on the boats and rafts…
What is "normal weight" to you? Would an entire section of obese people in first class prevent an aircraft from taking off? Aren't there weight limits for everything that moves?
For those that may or may not know, the topics Presented on this channel are very accurate. Nothing clickbait about the title at all either - here’s why the ships don’t have enough (regulations allow for it) and here is how they have enough for all people on board (life rafts) Also, boats and rafts are the very last thing that should need to be used. The ships are built, quite literally if needed, to burn or flood only certain sections at a time, before fire and flooding is ceased (and before that, there are layers on layers or safeties built it to prevent that from happening)
Everything about that raft ... procedure looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Imagine all those steps with the panic of passengers while a ship is sinking.
Ive work on some French roller ships. The way life rafts are deployed is vastly different. The raft are located at the top of the ship. When needed, 1 person go up and drop the rafts one by one. They fall in the water where they then inflate. Under the raft, you can find access to chutes or slides, that allow you go from around 2-4 decks above the water (inside the ship), to an inflated platform on the water. Rafts fall just next to it, and crew will attach them to the platform and load the passengers. It’s a bit like on a plane, but with bigger slides. Then the fast rescue boat will detach the full raft, bring it to a life boat, and another raft will be dropped. Those rafts can accommodate 101 persons, or 50 persons, depending on the size. For a boat with a max capacity of 2000, you’ll have the room for 1500 persons on each sides in the life rafts, and 1000 on the life boats, so 500 on each sides. And those life rafts can really easily be launched. You just have to open an electric box, press 1 to launch the first life raft, 2 for the second one, etc. You have 2 separate electric systems, for redundancy, and if neither of them work, you also have a knife in the box, and to drop the rafts, you need to cut 1 red rope for each raft, clearly indicated. Even a passenger could do it
@@vpu2 well, yes. But you need a crew of 5 at each chute/slide. 1 for thé rafts above, 2 at chute to guide passengers (and count them), and 2 on the platform to take the raft, attach it, load the passengers. From what the video looks like, it’s probable that a smaller crew can operate the rafts.
@@vizender But would this be something the crew would absolutely nmbe necessary for? Or could the passengers do it? Meaning do they need a special code/key
@@vpu2 to operate the chutes, no. But access to the electrical box requires a square key. It can easily be bypassed however. Also, so that the operators of the chutes/slides can operate in coordination with the captain and the guy dropping the raft, you can find a closed box with different equipments (walkie talkie, megaphone…) which requires a unique key to open. But yeah, in great emergencies, it could be operated by passengers, albeit not effectively
Being British we don’t get too worried about such things. In an emergency we make tea and stay calm, and if the worst happens we go down singing “roll out the barrel” until nearing the final moments when the song changes to Mont Python’s “always look on the bright side of life”…
As a Refitter & our Shop/ Container placed on upper aft Deck ,while out @ Sea, we went thru some very bad Weather @ times & felt at ease with the planned evacuation of Ship , if needed. Possibility's of drowning were dismissed when your fed well 3 times a day.
i live on a medium sized sailboat, and have been on a few other boats, but have never seen one of these small life rafts. to get off the boat in emergency you either jump in with your life jackets, or go on the dinghy which is basically a small boat that is often inflatable with a partially or fully rigid bottom and a little outboard.
I have a question for those who have been on a cruise. Its my understanding that every passenger does a drill at the start of the trip that involves going to your lifeboat station. Do the passengers who are getting life rafts learn that at the drill or does the cruise try to act like everyone gets a boat?
It is part of the procedure that all passengers are assigned to a lifeboat. The “25%” that are assigned to life rafts would be crew members - who are explicitly trained on using the evacuation system. Passengers should very much expect to just “get in the boat”
I've been on cruises 3 or 4 times in my life, and that has never happened. You board the ship and they have instructions on how to evacuate on the door of your room, but no one actually reads those. So no drills, just pray to god you survive if something goes wrong.
It should be noted some cruise ships use a escape slide instead of a davit launch system. Basicly a big covered slide leads to a large 100+ person life raft. These systems are used on ferrys and warships
Holy crap, has anyone actually tried doing this under emergency conditions? It looks difficult enough in daylight and calm watets, I do not see this working well unless everything else is perfect These are not for saving lives, they are security theater and an insurance requirement
Are there opportunities for ordinary people to experience such procedure outside of an actual emergency? Without the threat of death looming overhead it would be quite enjoyable
actually yes their are. there are courses which all crew on commercial vessels. Depending on where you live your country might have a domestic version of these courses. Name of the Course is STCW Basic Safety, and STCW Survival Craft. they take you through training on how to proper and safely use all the items above.
I work with life rafts for aircraft, different tech here and there but some principals are the same. Largest raft I work on are 56 person rafts that have a max carry past 80 people
That is not true, if a passenger aircraft, regardless of civilian or military is going down, everyone eats dirt. There is no escaping and you better pray the pilots can manage a semisuccessful crash-landing. Aircraft evacuation is made so everyone on board can leave the airframe, when it's on the ground, in less than a minute.
we use a evacuation sock (don't know if that's the English term) it's a long tube that's goes along the ships hull from the evacuation deck and down to the raft. that way we don't need to load the raft several meters above the water level. removing the risk a free hanging life raft brings with it
A question for anyone, please: If a ship sinks in the middle of the ocean, once a rescue vessel arrives on scene and takes the survivors aboard, what happens to these large lifeboats? Do they tow them to port, which would be awkward, leave them there to be a hazard to other vessels or do they sink them? TIA.
Tbh it probably depends on who rescues you. If it's a warship, odds are they sink them because they have the immediate means to do so. If it's a civilian vessel, they probably just let them drift or just take them aboard if they can because that's just easier.
Fun fact: In the German navy we have rafts rated for 81 people. When deployed there is a kind of slide connecting the raft to the boat in which you literally slide down into the raft.
That's a lot of steps, in the middle of the night, on the atlantic with a 45 degree list. It should be noted that both sides of lifeboats and rafts being accessable isonly really the case if there is no or minimal list.
@@sadface It's even more misleading than that. Cruise lines, by LAW, are required to have 100% lifeboat capacity. It's the DESIGN of the boats where there aren't necessarily that many restrictions, meaning companies can use liferafts as a bit of a loophole to safe space, as if a liferaft meets certain requirements, it's counted as a lifeboat.
But you never answered the actual question of the video WHY they don’t have enough life boats. All you did was state that there WERENT enough rather than why.
I used to work on the Allure of the Seas for 3 years and our life rafts are no where near that complicated. It’s basically pull the handle and it’s deployed. The rafts inflate in the water and there is a slide that’s like a giant sock that you slide down to get into the raft. However these rafts are meant only for crew or if the ship is tipping on its side and one side of life rafts are unavailable.
Remember to check out saVRee's video if you would like to dive even deeper into this topic: th-cam.com/video/iv_P7WRHQPA/w-d-xo.html
Your channel is BS
Edit: I checked again and no it actually isn't.
@@AndyHappyGuy And you are too.
@@ShipsandGames oh really? Can you explain the time he said that 900 people were on the Titanic? All he has to do is making a professional sounding voice and people give jack shit about what he's actually saying.
@@AndyHappyGuy And can you please link me that video and that link?
@@ShipsandGames th-cam.com/video/NEkBSpmXxmg/w-d-xo.html
They should make a rule for all floating wooden doors to be able to accommodate at least 2 people
I see where what comes from....
They do. Jack just couldnt see a life as a married man.
I get the refence, but wooden doors are actually illegal according to SOLAS, so it wouldn't be of much help.
@@MrAnhape I respect your knowledge, but in this thread we focus on the funny side of life (or rather the lack of it. Life that is)
@@criollitoification I think the first version of SOLAS came a few years after the Titanic accident, but yes, I don't think wooden doors were an issue back then. Sorry for ruining the joke :)
I worked on cruise ships for six months. Every week, we had an emergency drill. Never (26 attempts) was the crew ever able to get the life raft over the side, let alone lower it down to the water. The passengers went down in lifeboats; those were launched nicely. The crew was lowered (theoretical) in life rafts. We had our own abandon ship plan! If there was ever a real emergency-we were going to put on our life jackets, go to the bar, and wait for the water to rise up to us.
What was the main problem with launching? Weight?
@@Dino14345 Untrained crews-comprised mostly of kitchen staff that didn’t speak a common language.
wouldn’t the sinking ship create a vortex so deep it would just suck you down, even with swimming vest, hence why the life boats keep their distance
You never had to do the m.e.s slide to get into the rafts😅 I worked on the oasis and got to watch them drill in those
@@oxenforde not sure when you worked or for what ship but when I was with rccl everyone was required to speak English. Also the "kitchen staff" was who mostly helped with the Costa ship that sank a few years ago. The captain of that ship left during the evacuation
Yeah, that complicated procedure is going to be massively fun at night in the middle of a raging gale or worse where even standing on deck is a major accomplishment. Sleep well cruise ship passengers.
while the panic land lovers are screaming at you!
yeah those 25% were meant to be a offering to Poseidon to stem his wrath!
especially if the ship is close enough to sinking that the bridge decided it's necessary to abandon ship
That's why you have trained professionals doing the difficult parts.
@@Jehty_ or not if things go wrong, which they often do one way or the other.
It all sounds more complicated than it is in practice. Also, the biggest issue for abandoning ship, is the timing of the captain making the decision.
We had the big 25-man rafts in the navy, but no davits for launching most of them - standard procedure, I shit you not, was to undo the straps holding it to the deck and just boot the fucker overboard, letting the hydrostat do its' thing. Great video, thanks for sharing.
I wonder if the navy procedures assume significantly higher physical capacity and training overall plus full obedience and compliance (also speed, like, to not stay on a vessel being bombarded hard) or is it fully on the lack of shits given.
there are some rafts that you just yeet off the ship that come with a shute for "controlled" "sliding" in.
the videos are pretty funny of folk just tumbling down the cloth pipe but it does explain why that sort aren't used for passengers :V
Now I just have this mental image of some Yellow-shirt on a carrier doing his best kick-off impression and just before his foot makes contact, the catapult shuttle hits the canister and sends it off...
@@Kalvinjj Many years ago in the US Navy, there was a basic swim test for everyone just to graduate Boot Camp, they made us jump off an elevated platform (don't remember height exactly, but may 15 or 20 feet, seemed like a long way at the time) into a pool, tread water for 5 minutes, and swim some distance (50 yards maybe) and climb out of the pool. This was supposedly to simulate abandoning a ship, perhaps waiting for additional life rafts to deploy as the ships sinks, and then climbing into a life raft. To qualify for air crew or small boats the swim test was a little harder; and then to qualify for diver or other special career fields it included the equivalent of lifeguard training (WSI I think it used to be called) and an underwater swim where you could only come up for air twice. Never been on a civilian cruise, but I'm guessing they don't make you do any of this to "qualify."
Last time i was on a stena line ship (The one that moves between gothenburg and fredrikshamn), they had these big-ass life rafts alongside the 25 man ones on tilted rails above the passenger walkway on the floor i was on
Cut one strap and a BIG liferaft (shell was 3-4 times bigger than 25 man one) rolls off the side of the ship, no training needed
A friend who works there say they only train once every few months or when it's a new crew because it's so easy that they regularly have to fine passengers for doing it
Didn’t know about the auto-deploying liferafts, that’s some really cool engineering trickery to save lives.
The hydrostatic release seem a bit rudimentary, but it is simple and reliable. KISS. Rather fascinating mechanism.
Hammar H20. Make sure to replace it every 2 years.
Indeed
Maybe, but anything shooting up like that with that much force is going to pose a danger to anyone on the surface still present near the ship (although honestly, that's not exactly a safe location to being with)
@@Luredreier I’ll take my chances if I am in the water.
In most instances I've read about, only about half the lifeboats are in a position where they can be launched during a situation where the ship needs to be abandoned.
It seems that usually a ship lists when she’s sinking (I’m guessing due to the free surface effect)
@@Dino14345 Yup, and in the case of a fire the downwind section of the ship is inaccessible. Although lists can have many causes, usually wind and swell causing downflooding on one side first, but yea, either way, ships rarely sink on an even keel.
@@svchineeljunk-riggedschoon4038 Like the Costa Concordia. It was also hard to lower lifeboats on the Titanic because of the severe port list.
And that is why passengers ships has 100% life rafts capacity on itch side.
Honestly the Titanic is a but funny when you think about it, the bad rap it gets for “not having enough lifeboats” (obviously a discussion for another time). Like, name a ship that successfully deployed all of its lifeboats maybe minus half for a flipped collapsible. In most other instances the ship is sinking too quick or has a list too severe for that to happen.
Incredible video! I am a cruise ship inspector in the US, and I will be sure to share this with our local trainees. Could you do a video regarding structural fire protection cruise ships.
What agency is that? Do they have the regulations and stuff on their website?
That sounds interesting. I am aiming to be making more like that now, with professional training information hidden within the videos.
@@CasualNavigation most of the regs are in Solas chapter II-2 Reg 9.
Only 75% on board???
Cant be true. If it is, Im appalled
@@jimdean294 what's appalling about it? They have plenty of life rafts tender boats.
I've just came back from a cruise with the Quantum of the Seas, and we passed by a freefall lifeboat out at sea yesterday. The captain stopped the vessel and sent out a boat to investigate, and they found out that it was abandoned and the crew was from a ship that sunk two weeks ago. They're reportedly all safe
Sorry, the lifeboat was abandoned but there were crew aboard? I'm confused.
@@ThePCguy17
The life boat was part of the crew.
@@i.i.iiii.i.i The life boat crew was from the crew of a different ship.
I see. That's only mildly confusing.
@@ThePCguy17
no, I mean that the empty life boat was a crew member itself lol
idk what he actually means 😅
@@i.i.iiii.i.i you were probably close though, he probably just habitually referred to the people in the lifeboat as, 'the crew' without realizing how confusing that makes things when there's now arguably three different 'crews' to be referring to
One fact everyone misses is that the passenger capacity of any life raft or boat is based around weights of 75 kg per person (165 lbs), rising to 82.5 kg (181 lbs) for ships built after 2012. I worked on cruise ships for 13 years. Given the shape of a lot of our passengers, and the age of most of the ships out there, this could lead to some fun times in the case of a real emergency
Fat swims though, also insulates
Reminds me also of how lifts/elevators in Asia are rated for a lower weight/mass capacity than in Western countries for the same no. of passengers e.g. 885-900kg instead of 1000kg for a 13-person lift, probably since Asians are typically smaller-sized/lighter. Was also on-board a 20-person lift when holidaying in Osaka when its overload buzzer sounded after the 14th person, a tall but not fat Caucasian, entered the lift. He looked a bit sheepish afterwards
Murrica! 😎💪🏿
@@crackwitz then they should get thrown overboard from the get-go 🤣
Given actual accounts of ships sinking. I find these emergency plans woefully optimistic...
These aren't meant for the passengers. Sure, passengers can use them, but generally speaking, it'll be the crew that makes use of the rafts since they'll be trained in their use and deployment.
@@Tank50us There should be enough life boats for everyone, including the crew. These rafts are a joke, in real rough seas you don't want to be in there. If you're lucky enough to make it inside in the first place.
@@Tank50us The crew are needed for the life boats, for which they are absolutely required. I spent a while looking up a lifeboat manual just to see how hard it would be ... Pretty hard. They got keys and startup procedures
@@Tank50us Plus the crew have the survival suits (or failing that at least TPAs) and training for them, the passengers don't.
@@tsm688 But not all crew will necessarily be accommodated in a lifeboat, like on Sage Cruises the safety video explains that some crew are evacuated into a liferaft via the MES. th-cam.com/video/-Hf8K5cIaxo/w-d-xo.html
Great video! But there is also a different type of raft with a slide or shute connected to it so that you can slide down to the raft. Almost all of the ferries in the Baltic Sea have this system.
En tienny et tääl on enemmä suomalaisia
Are you talking about Marine Evacuation Systems? They would be good to mention in this video, but aren't required on most cruise ships.
I would love to cover MES too. Ideally I'll be able to witness one being tested to make that video
@@Punkhunter25 Yes! Got a brainfart so i forgot the name of it. 😅
MES are great, however I think people can get injured if they don't enter it/them properly... :/
When I served in the Navy (and I expect things are the same) the majority of the crew would be using inflatable rafts. Many ships only carry one or two actual lifeboats, including the "Captain's Gig" which is for his use. Older ships also carried 'life floats, which were not enclosed.
"and I expect things are the same" Not realy. On Navy ships are much less 80 years olds with rollators.
the good thing with the rafts, is, unlike life boats they are easier to launch from awkward positions, and might even do so automatically in a sudden sinking... in that way they are better than lifeboats, which need a procedure to launch...
however, they are also much worse in bad sea conditions than a boat...
@@criollitoification 20-30feet of swell, no veil can do much, you are in a cold wet tumble drier (minus the dry part)
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 We usually call that a washing machine.
May be one of the reasons why they have both. Don't put all your eggs in the same basket.
Clearly, it requires one or more well-trained crew members to successfully launch a life raft. In the probable confusion of a sinking ship, that ain't gonna happen.
It also requires there to be well trained crew members and not just minimum wage workers.
TBH they seem rather over engineered. Like instead of this complex crane hoisting mechanism, just have one of those long inflatable slides they use on airplanes and a rope with pulley to start the rafts down it.
@@darthvaderbutwayshittier7054 some of the guest services staff on cruises get paid minimum. But the actual ship crew isn't. Stop with the lies
@@HoshizakiYoshimasa But what are the actual changes that the crew member would be next to you on that specific raft. To guide the procedure. There could be so many other things to happening that keeps crew busy.
Theoretically a few really determined people capable of reading instructions could do it. The proper lifeboats, now, those aren't going anywhere unless a crew with the key is around. That struck me as really worrisome.
Even though cruise ships only need 75% life boat capacity, is that standard practice? I would imagine a lot of cruise lines would like to be able to say they have 100% or more capacity even if they aren’t legally required to.
I’d imagine it’d be smarter to do that to prevent lawsuits, but I’d highly doubt that companies would have enough for everybody. I’m pretty sure would always find ways to cut cost.
@@Dorito8052
Here is a example. Take the largest cruise ships in the world, the Oasis class. At double capacity they can have around 6600 guests on board. The ship carries 9 lifeboats on each side. These can hold 370 people each. She also carries dozens and dozens of rapid inflatable rafts for the remaining crew, which can be up to 2200 people
So yes, it is very possible to get everyone off a sinking mega cruise ship.
I don't think a cruise line wants to pursue a marketing strategy where they remind people of the chance that a ship sinks, so I don't see there being any benefits for them to equip more lifeboats than legally required
75% of people go into lifeboats. The remaining get life rafts. Everyone get a chance to be rescued as long as the get into one of those. The title is a little click baity.
@@claudiodiaz9752 And they're more likely to put the more vulnerable (women, children, those with medical conditions, etc) into the rigid boats, and save the rafts for the less vulnerable and the crew.
While I worked on oasis the rescue vessels(because they are too big to be called life boats lmao) where mostly for guest and the crew to man them. The rest of crew would then use the M.E.S slide system. Watching your video was basically exactly whats included in the crew training videos we always have to watch and practice.
Is it true that when sinking, big ships will drag nearby objects with them in the water ? If its so, how could you know how far you should go from the ship ?
It depends on several factors, one of which being the speed in which the ship sinks. If it sinks slowly, and floods as it goes down, at roughly the same rate, there won't be much suction if at all. On the other hand, if the ship in question sinks rapidly, and creates a 'void' as it goes down, it'll pull quite a bit down with it. It also depends on the size of the ship as well. Larger vessels, like for example a warship, will create the aforementioned void if they sink rapidly (like from being blown in half ala HMS Hood), however a smaller ship or boat, for example a tug, will likely have little, if any suction.
@@Tank50us thanks for the detailed answer :)
off topic - i remember talks about water in bermuda triangle where some shit happens to the air or underwater eruptions of gas or something,basically bubbling up water making it it less dense so ships just fell under
As long as all water around you is pulled down equally, this shouldn't be a problem. Water level will just be a bit below sea level. What is problematic, if this happens unevenly and water flows into the boat from the side.
Wasn’t this concept disproven? Last I heard the only “dragging down” a big ship would do is air escaping it and aerating the water above it.
You make it look so easy, imagine doing this in a massive storm 😂
at night
It didn't look easy. The auto-release after the ship sunk looks easy. The managed launch by crew members who have the presence of mind to properly secure the red and green lines, somehow connect the entry of raft with the deck, then steer the loaded raft away from the ship and armor the release shortly before the raft reaches the surface looked complicated.
Interestingly I was watching Deepwater Horizon yesterday and in the movie they do a Liferaft release using that method. It did seem a bit improvised in the movie, but I'm glad to learn it is actually the official way to deploy those rafts.
Fantastic video as always!
that life raft procedure sounds aaaaawfully hypothetical, even in the most calm and controlled situation/weather/dark hahaha
I worked on a day cruise boat that was surveyed to carry 400 odd (we only ever took maybe 250) passengers. It carried 2 life rafts... that could accommodate 153 people each.
what if the ship starts sinking faster? these steps seem like they take a lot of time. i know the hydro-release would automatically release them when they hit the water, but at that point arent people close enough to get in also in danger of getting sucked down by the effects from the ship?
Big ships normally take hours to sink, unless a torpedo or limpet mine explodes under the keel. There are few bulkheads in a cruise ship once the ship breaks in half.
You have identified one of the biggest issues with travelling on sea.
It is unpredictable and you can never be completely safe. Ship sinks fast, gets a bad list, capsizes or rough seas. Shit can happen and getting thousands of elderly, untrained and frightened passengers safely onto the lifeboats is an incredible feat.
Liferafts will be worse.
If you need to abandon ship into lifeboats and liferafts, you will most likely have many fatalities. Abandoning ship is not a decision taken likely, and will probably be too late. Ships are not supposed to sink. Bulkheads and watertight doors should keep a ship afloat.
However things happen, look at the Helge Ingstad incident. A warship that sank after accidentally crashing into a tanker. Theoretically it should have stayed afloat. However a poorly designed hollow driveshaft allowed water to pass between watertight compartments. Have a listen at the radio recordings from the collision. Its almost as stupid as the lighthouse skit.
@@LOTRsuck well, ships usually don't sunk, you're better at them than in a bus where the driver can sleep mid corner
@@ph11p3540 Even torpedoed ships in ww2 sometimes took hours to sink. Especially if the ship doesn’t entirely flood and there’s air pockets in compartments. Sometimes the U-boat or submarine would have to surface and use its deck gun to finish the ship off
@@notmenotme614 USS William D. Porter is an excellent example of this, in addition to being a huge floating collection of miserable luck. She had a kamikaze miss, but still remain intact enough to detonate directly under her, snapping her keel. Despite the damage, she held together long enough for the crew to abandon ship (after hours of intense damage control in an attempt to save the ship) with zero casualties.
Why Don't Ships Have Enough Lifeboats?
Answers question within 28 seconds then video turns into a detailed intrusctional video on how to release life rafts from a cruiseship? LoL didn't expect that
Im trying to integrate these genuine instructional videos more often now.
@@CasualNavigation to be fair, though, I don't think you actually answered the question of the video's title. You did answer HOW they are able to, but not WHY they allegedly do.
On cargo ships, we do the boat drill and life raft launching drill (uninflated) every weekend when at seas. It was a nice informative video.
This reminds me of the time when my family and I went on a Carnival cruise ship and had to do the safety drill. On the first day of the cruise, they run everyone through the procedure of what they do if the ship is going down. I'll never forget that they made it a point to actually have the announcer say, "Remember, folks, that smoking and drinking during the safety drill is strictly forbidden" over the intercom.
I imagine some folks have been on enough cruises to think they know the drill, like the air safety speech at the beginning of every flight, and are eager to just tune out
You can thank one particular Italian incident for the day-one muster drill policy.
No eating popcorn while watching the comedy of errors
Watched this while on a sinking ship, very helpful!
I used to wonder where the life boats were on aircraft carriers. If you look at the edge of the flight deck, it is lined with hundreds of those white life raft canisters.
Just imagine that the ship is going down in the middle of the ocean under rough inclement weather condition. Liferaft are useless then. Just see what happened when the Estonia sunk or Concordia. The damn thing was still hanging on the line when the ship capsized. Launching a liferaft takes forever. I worked on cruise ships for 12 years. Each week when we had the drills, I was standing at my designated liferaft station, looked at the galley utility fella who was assigned to launch the thing(and clearly had no clue what was going on) thinking that if the ship goes down, I am really in trouble. Liferafts look good on the evacuation plan but I would not trust them at all.
It’s really difficult on cruise ships when there are so many non-mariner type passengers and even employees on board. They’re excellent for ships and crews that are dedicated mariners like cargo the oil platform supply ships or coast guard vessels. I did a summer job with the coast guard and we had training with them where we had to be really quick with launching and getting ourselves into the life raft, although admittedly we worked in our dry suits all the time so they would have been more effective than a civilian passenger in their regular clothing
If this video helps even one person have more of an idea what to do, I'd be beyond happy.
@@CasualNavigation if I'm on a sinking cruise liner at least I know where to run and at least save myself and few other cleaver people than trying to get on a lifeboat while getting crushed underfoot panic passengers.
@@AshrakAhmed Important safety tip; Never, ever, ever get onboard a rubber vessel with cleaver people.
Liferafts on the Estonia actually were pretty easy to launch. Some of them were stuck but most people who got on the upper deck managed to get into safety.
The problem is when the crew are not ready or aware of the situation like the costa concordia
Life rafts have always fascinated me. How the supplies and design are deliberately chosen. Loved talking a look at those at Boating stores
Awesome! I wasn't expecting a video this morning, but I'm sure glad to have one! I thought the part about the larger davit-launch rafts was really interesting. I'm not sure I have seen many of those - I will have to keep my eyes out for them in the future :D
Thanks. saVRee and I finished them this week, so we thought it would be a nice pre-holiday surprise for everyone.
I do know though that the Davot lanched Life Rafts are going out of fashion on Cruise ships and large passanger vessels. this is due to it being really slow to deploy (Passengers Vessels are required by SOLAS to be able to fully evacuate within 30 min) Most modern Passanger Vessels are being fitted with evacuation slides. work similar allowing survivors to embark the survival rafts completely dry
Nice to see I’m finally getting notifications within a reasonable time. Great video as always!
Thanks Potato Fury
I cannot help but think that there are so many steps to do when releasing such life drafts, and in the panic of a emergency many things could go wrong, as they often do.
That and the Concordia disaster pointed that many of the crew didn’t know how to launch the lifeboats
I am a student of the maritime school of Turkku Finland.
This vide is basekly a bit of a cut down version of the one we got to see when we where doing our basic safty training.
To adres some of the komments about crew not being competent I like to qote one of my teatchers "Evryone who works att sea need the basic safty training" whitch includs lanching of boat rafts and boats.
Then the crew that actualy operate the ship like the brige crew, enginers and the deck departments have another cors in life raft and boat operatins. Safty is held to the higest standards and it is alwais recomend to watching the safty video in your cabin and to participate in abandon ship drills so evryone knows what to do in case of a emergancy.
Me: sees a cruise ship, counts lifeboats, considers size... "Hm, guess that's enough. It's not the steamer age any more... no?"
Casual: "75%."
Me: "Ohhh the collapsibles. Of course!"
You are doing absolutely wonderful work. I am clearing my 2nd mates exam and some of your videos shows the 3d explanation of the topics which makes it too easy to understand.
Thanks and keep the good work.
If possible please make video on the launching procedure of lifeboat including onload-off load release of hooks and recovering of lifeboat using recovery strop, hanging off pendant, fall prevention device.
These are very common questions asked in 2nd mates orals in India and your explanation will help thousands of candidates to understand it better.
Thanks
Umm no. The international maritime law requires all passenger ships to have enough lifeboats for all passengers. However while the law does require enough lifeboats for all passengers it doesn't cover life boat design. Inflatable life rafts have been used as a loop hole while saving space on cruise ships for decades.
Under international maritime law life rafts are considered life boats as long as they include certain items when deployed. First is emergency rations, second is drinking water or method of generating drinking water, third signaling and locating equipment. And lastly first aid kits.
You have no idea how much I like your videos and explanations. 🙂
At dive school we used a 25person life raft for offshore survival. It felt like you were in a medium size living room on the sea.
Oh dang, they actually that big? Can you stand up inside 'em, or is it sitting-size only?
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 I’d say around 15 feet across, the one we used was shaped like an octagon. You can absolutely you can stand in the center but the ceiling at the edges is low. The school I went to was Commercial Diving Academy in jax,FL.
Beautiful video. I especially appreciate that you answered the question immediately and expanded on it in an interesting way!
Would have been interesting to see the newer life raft system with the descending tubes. They usually are not stored in the round containers, but big, box-like structures with rolling doors on the side. When deployed, they swing down and outwards, releasing 4 huge square life-rafts which then are entered using sliding tubes. The Oasis class cruise ships have several of those.
They also have 18 mega-lifeboats, seating 370 persons each, for a total of 6660 lifeboat seats. Full passenger capacity on Oasis class ships is around 6300, so there is more than enough space. Of course, there is also around 2000 crew, but they are covered with the big life rafts. Allegedly, the lifeboats on Oasis of the Seas even had toilets, but for later ships those were removed, which should add some more capacity as well.
There's something very calming and soothing about a sophisticated erudite English voice. Precisely the kind of voice you need directing you to your life raft as your ship is sinking in the middle of the ocean.
Super interesting video! But I really hope that I won't have to use this skill one day.
Thanks Nhat
With so many ships listing and capsizing these release rafts are a life saver
as an American, thank you for including imperial measurements
Really cool of you to collaborate with another youtuber on this! Happy to find more of good stuff to watch.
This was a very interesting video, I've heard in passing about the not enough lifeboats thing, but for some reason never thought of that there'd be rafts as well.
In oiltankers and other merchant ships. Life boat has over 100% capacity on each lifeboats.
I inspect liferafts on boats. Many people install the hydrostatic release upside down. Just remember "sunny side up". The yellow part goes up. If won't go off correctly upside down.
There's a video on youtube of the _Stellar Banner_ a huge ore carrier, sinking in about one minute. I don't think there would be time for any of that procedure.
That is when the hydrostatic release should activate so the rafts will launch themselves.
Meh….what you say is true, if the vessel was subject to violent forces that ripped it apart, 1 minute is not enough time.
That being said, the stellar Banner purposely grounded itself to prevent from sinking… in the video you are witnessing the end stages of what actually, is precisely what professional mariners should have done. It was a situation beyond their control - if you watch the video, look at the back of the ship where there appears to be a vertical rack - that was where the lifeboat should have been and it was gone, because the crew already got off on it.
Maybe we should have all passengers in automatically ejectable escape pods which are programmed to eject once any severe jolt is sensed.
The Stellar Banner was scuttled 3 months after it ran aground. In those 3 months it was offloaded, refloated, and only sunk after analysis showed that towing it back to port would be too risky. The scuttling was engineered to sink it as quickly and in as few pieces as possible. Ships can and do sink quickly, but I think that’s not an accurate example to weigh life rafts against.
Appreciated the KG to lb conversion. Mahalo ;)
I wonder if loading at deck level is really worth all of the extra complexity involved. The bottom of the raft, i would assume, is not rigid like. I think it to be more of a super heavy duty tarp. Would it be a decent trade off to have a shute system that would work much like the hydrostatic release. For instance tie off your housing lines and the inflation line, pull a lever and allow it to slide down the shute to about 6 or so feet about the water. Have the raft hooked with a carabiner to a rail, climb down the ladder and undo the carabiner and be free of the ship. Its just an idea to simplify things with a little comprimise on evacuee conveinence
the shute like rafts are definitely a real thing! tho no way you could use em with passengers
"climb down the ladder" you can make people walk the plank to a raft, but you can't make people climb down the ladder
"climb down the ladder" Is only an option for very well trained and disciplined personal. If a group climb down one ladder everyone depends on everyone. If someone above you falls down you got a problem. Even worse is when someone just stops. This blocks the ladder completly.
Some people have trouble walking, let alone climbing. The longer the ladder, the tougher it'll be to get people with physical differences down the ladder. And that's aside from the fact that children sometimes go on cruises with their parents. idk about you, but I ain't trusting a three-year-old to not lose their grip or panic. Also, there are infants. Also, people could be drunk. Also, someone could be on a sleep aid at the time. Also, also, also... There's a lot more to 'people' than just physically-fit, able-bodied adults. While it can be easy to forget about disabilities and limb differences if you don't have any, it matters to millions of people around the world. Please keep us in mind.
As a firefighter it took me 6 months to get comfortable climbing and working from a 60 ft ladder truck mounted ladder. If you think 1 in 10 could make that climb in that situation you are mistaken. Most would freeze up even if they would be able to try. One person freezes and no one above makes it down. I don't know anything about the chutes but would be curious of what percentage of normal folks would try unless it was obvious there was no other hope of survival. Even then many could not do it. Most people simply cannot deal with that level of fear and still function. It is not a skill we are taught.
Loved the clever engineering on the offload hooks!
This needs to be shown to all passengers. The Italian crew would have been long gone. I think I would be dead if I had to use one on my own.
Fun fact: those passengers in that incident did start coordinating on their own without the crew. Pretty impressive how many survived, all things considered. With instructions nearby, I'm sure you could handle it.
Honestly it's quite ingenious that even after a ship sinks it will leave a marker to exactly where it sank from in the form of a life-saving raft
After working a year and half on cruise ship, I noticed that 75% of nominal capacity is reachable if the ship is full of passengers with normal weight. But our ship cruised from American ports and I prayed every day that no emergency ever occurs because there was no way we could fit everybody on the boats and rafts…
What is "normal weight" to you? Would an entire section of obese people in first class prevent an aircraft from taking off?
Aren't there weight limits for everything that moves?
@@SGobuck Nor morblidy obese.
We took sightseeing cruise with my mom at Norway fjords. We stayed near one of these liferafts near evacuation point.
This has apparently worked out well enough as since the Titanic there haven't be too many sinking ships that didn't get the passengers off.
I maintained the life boats and life rafts onboard this I worked on, I'll stick to my fast rescue boat thank you!
MTS Oceanos and the and the Andrea Doria does have enough life boats for everyone but not all of them were used
Thanks for saying both measurements of weight
For those that may or may not know, the topics
Presented on this channel are very accurate. Nothing clickbait about the title at all either - here’s why the ships don’t have enough (regulations allow for it) and here is how they have enough for all people on board (life rafts)
Also, boats and rafts are the very last thing that should need to be used. The ships are built, quite literally if needed, to burn or flood only certain sections at a time, before fire and flooding is ceased (and before that, there are layers on layers or safeties built it to prevent that from happening)
whoa, that's a TON of stuff to remember and tasks to execute properly in an emergency! I don't envy that job at all
Everything about that raft ...
procedure looks like a disaster waiting to happen.
Imagine all those steps with the panic of passengers while a ship is sinking.
Ive work on some French roller ships. The way life rafts are deployed is vastly different. The raft are located at the top of the ship. When needed, 1 person go up and drop the rafts one by one. They fall in the water where they then inflate.
Under the raft, you can find access to chutes or slides, that allow you go from around 2-4 decks above the water (inside the ship), to an inflated platform on the water. Rafts fall just next to it, and crew will attach them to the platform and load the passengers. It’s a bit like on a plane, but with bigger slides. Then the fast rescue boat will detach the full raft, bring it to a life boat, and another raft will be dropped.
Those rafts can accommodate 101 persons, or 50 persons, depending on the size.
For a boat with a max capacity of 2000, you’ll have the room for 1500 persons on each sides in the life rafts, and 1000 on the life boats, so 500 on each sides.
And those life rafts can really easily be launched.
You just have to open an electric box, press 1 to launch the first life raft, 2 for the second one, etc.
You have 2 separate electric systems, for redundancy, and if neither of them work, you also have a knife in the box, and to drop the rafts, you need to cut 1 red rope for each raft, clearly indicated. Even a passenger could do it
Wow this seems a lot more simpler than all of the steps that this video showed for life rafts
@@vpu2 well, yes. But you need a crew of 5 at each chute/slide. 1 for thé rafts above, 2 at chute to guide passengers (and count them), and 2 on the platform to take the raft, attach it, load the passengers.
From what the video looks like, it’s probable that a smaller crew can operate the rafts.
@@vizender But would this be something the crew would absolutely nmbe necessary for? Or could the passengers do it? Meaning do they need a special code/key
@@vpu2 to operate the chutes, no. But access to the electrical box requires a square key. It can easily be bypassed however.
Also, so that the operators of the chutes/slides can operate in coordination with the captain and the guy dropping the raft, you can find a closed box with different equipments (walkie talkie, megaphone…) which requires a unique key to open.
But yeah, in great emergencies, it could be operated by passengers, albeit not effectively
Being British we don’t get too worried about such things. In an emergency we make tea and stay calm, and if the worst happens we go down singing “roll out the barrel” until nearing the final moments when the song changes to Mont Python’s “always look on the bright side of life”…
As a Refitter & our Shop/ Container placed on upper aft Deck ,while out @ Sea, we went thru some very bad Weather @ times & felt at ease with the planned evacuation of Ship , if needed. Possibility's of drowning were dismissed when your fed well 3 times a day.
Freefall life boats are a nasty experience, and flipping over a lift raft then boarding it with a survival suit is horrible as well.
i live on a medium sized sailboat, and have been on a few other boats, but have never seen one of these small life rafts. to get off the boat in emergency you either jump in with your life jackets, or go on the dinghy which is basically a small boat that is often inflatable with a partially or fully rigid bottom and a little outboard.
That unloading process sure does look slow =0
The newer British Columbia ferries have only inflatable rafts; no lifeboats. Access is with inflatable slides, similar to those used on aircraft.
I have a question for those who have been on a cruise. Its my understanding that every passenger does a drill at the start of the trip that involves going to your lifeboat station. Do the passengers who are getting life rafts learn that at the drill or does the cruise try to act like everyone gets a boat?
It is part of the procedure that all passengers are assigned to a lifeboat. The “25%” that are assigned to life rafts would be crew members - who are explicitly trained on using the evacuation system. Passengers should very much expect to just “get in the boat”
@@illogicalrex3750 Good to know. Now I know what to expect when I go out on my trip
I've been on cruises 3 or 4 times in my life, and that has never happened. You board the ship and they have instructions on how to evacuate on the door of your room, but no one actually reads those. So no drills, just pray to god you survive if something goes wrong.
It should be noted some cruise ships use a escape slide instead of a davit launch system. Basicly a big covered slide leads to a large 100+ person life raft. These systems are used on ferrys and warships
oh this is so much better !
5:31 ..i would have thought that each life boad would also have a gps locator becon and a hand powered reverse osmosis desalination
The raft has a little rainwater collector, and I think as the rafts typically couple to a full-size lifeboat they don't need a GPS locator.
GPS does not receive anything, only transmits.
Going to book mark this video so I can go back to it when / if I’m ever in a ship that’s sinking.
Holy crap, has anyone actually tried doing this under emergency conditions? It looks difficult enough in daylight and calm watets, I do not see this working well unless everything else is perfect
These are not for saving lives, they are security theater and an insurance requirement
It barely ever happens
@@darthvaderbutwayshittier7054 ok you would be one of the people who helped allow titanic to have less boats . Doofus
I’ve only ever been on a ferry twice in my life, and a look around a battle ship in Plymouth... but I love your channel it’s great, very interesting
Are there opportunities for ordinary people to experience such procedure outside of an actual emergency? Without the threat of death looming overhead it would be quite enjoyable
actually yes their are. there are courses which all crew on commercial vessels. Depending on where you live your country might have a domestic version of these courses.
Name of the Course is STCW Basic Safety, and STCW Survival Craft. they take you through training on how to proper and safely use all the items above.
I work with life rafts for aircraft, different tech here and there but some principals are the same.
Largest raft I work on are 56 person rafts that have a max carry past 80 people
Compare that capacity to the regulations for aircraft. Aircraft MUST HAVE 150% capacity.
That is not true, if a passenger aircraft, regardless of civilian or military is going down, everyone eats dirt. There is no escaping and you better pray the pilots can manage a semisuccessful crash-landing.
Aircraft evacuation is made so everyone on board can leave the airframe, when it's on the ground, in less than a minute.
@@andresmartinezramos7513 I think he's talking about emergency landing at sea.
Ship Designers: "some of you may die but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"
How do the people that release the lifeboats or liferafts evacuate the ship?
The davit brake can be controlled by a line inside the raft, so they can lower themselves. They just can't winch themselves back up.
@@CasualNavigation thx :D
we use a evacuation sock (don't know if that's the English term) it's a long tube that's goes along the ships hull from the evacuation deck and down to the raft. that way we don't need to load the raft several meters above the water level. removing the risk a free hanging life raft brings with it
A question for anyone, please: If a ship sinks in the middle of the ocean, once a rescue vessel arrives on scene and takes the survivors aboard, what happens to these large lifeboats? Do they tow them to port, which would be awkward, leave them there to be a hazard to other vessels or do they sink them?
TIA.
Tbh it probably depends on who rescues you. If it's a warship, odds are they sink them because they have the immediate means to do so. If it's a civilian vessel, they probably just let them drift or just take them aboard if they can because that's just easier.
Fun fact: In the German navy we have rafts rated for 81 people. When deployed there is a kind of slide connecting the raft to the boat in which you literally slide down into the raft.
New vid let’s go
That's a lot of steps, in the middle of the night, on the atlantic with a 45 degree list.
It should be noted that both sides of lifeboats and rafts being accessable isonly really the case if there is no or minimal list.
This sounds way too complicated for an emergency situation
Great video.
Maybe, you could make a video about the Hook Release Mechanism for life boats, which is not as simple, as most ppl. would expect.
Well that was confusing. I came to understand why they don’t have enough lifeboats and instead got told how to use one 🤔
They don’t have enough lifeBOATS. They do have enough liferafts.
@@joestevenson5568 yeah I got that, I watched the same video as you. It’s just the title is super misleading.
@@sadface It's even more misleading than that. Cruise lines, by LAW, are required to have 100% lifeboat capacity. It's the DESIGN of the boats where there aren't necessarily that many restrictions, meaning companies can use liferafts as a bit of a loophole to safe space, as if a liferaft meets certain requirements, it's counted as a lifeboat.
A little on the tricky side with the title there Casual Nav- I like it. 😉
Pair of arm bands mate, for every passenger. Sorted.
But you never answered the actual question of the video WHY they don’t have enough life boats. All you did was state that there WERENT enough rather than why.
A surprisingly interesting video but the moral is they almost always have a significant surplus of life vessels, assuming you can get into them.
I'd love to see some videos about the RNLI boats that can be thrown around and still not sink
You made a nice video. Thank you for uploading.
I love life rafts!! 🥰
I used to work on the Allure of the Seas for 3 years and our life rafts are no where near that complicated. It’s basically pull the handle and it’s deployed. The rafts inflate in the water and there is a slide that’s like a giant sock that you slide down to get into the raft. However these rafts are meant only for crew or if the ship is tipping on its side and one side of life rafts are unavailable.
i find ships really cool but dont really want to dive deep into them (im more of a plane guy), so this is a great medium! thanks for the vids :D