Make it Count

Bravo Carnival!  With some trepidation, I went into this cruise, but with an open mind.  Look for a future post on the ship itself and our cruise experience with Carnival.  Their “Fun Ship” the Miracle worked her magic on us while we cruised onboard for a week in April. We had a fabulous time, completely unwinding, leaving the stresses of work behind.
 
While we were all aware our cruise would coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic prior to taking this cruise, a fact I reminded the family once we had booked the cruise.  Once onboard and into full cruise mode, though, that fact became more of a distant memory as the cruise wore on.  In fact, we forgot about April 15^th completely, though for me, who was more thorough immersed in all the Titanic anniversary hype, it did take some time to get out of this mode.  Yet instantly, I would get brought right back to Titanic on our return a week later as we sailed up the Hudson.

For one who has been thoroughly immersed in Titanic mania for more years than I care to mention, there were constant little reminders staring me in the face right at the beginning of the cruise; ones I chose to keep to myself to avoid boring my family who are well versed in my ship obsession and others I’d reveal as I saw fit.   

“New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra was bouncing around in my cranium during the sailaway.  It wasn’t playing on the ship's tannoy, as would be the case on QE2, but only in my head.  There’s this whole mystique of sailing out of Manhattan that truly is something to be experienced. 

This would be the first time we’d actually done this.  We sailed into Manhattan on QE2 back in January of 2008 and now we would be doing a round trip out of the Manhattan cruise ship piers.  Mental note; Miracle was tied up to Pier 88, same pier that the Normandie burned, rolled over and died in during WW2.  Granted it was the opposite side, I think, but it is still the same historic pier.

This is the only way to sail in and out of New York City, as countless other liners have done in the past, including the Carpathia, and all of the great Cunarder’s and other famous liners such as the S.S. United States.  For instance, our QM2 trip last year from Brooklyn was completely anti-climatic and just not the same.  Why, why, why did I wait too long to experience a classic Transatlantic Crossing on QE2, which in our case, included the glorious Manhattan arrival.  Geesh!  I am sounding like a Cunard marketing brochure.

 Of course, any trip to these piers brings back the memories of QE2’s final call and subsequent departure in tandem with Queen Mary 2.  Bittersweet memories for sure.  Look, there's the Miracle next to my beloved ship back in 2008. 

The mandatory lifeboat drill was our first priority after getting to our cabin and exploring the ship for some time.  Yes, we did have enough lifeboats! There would be no need for Rose to count them.  SOLAS regulations, a direct result of Titanic have taken care of that for us.  I swear I caught a glimpse of Thomas Andrews watching over us on deck during the drill.  Yes, we also had a very detailed drill thank you to the latest disaster, Costa Concordia and that showboating Italian captain.  Very impressed!  They took a head count.  It was here I learned we also have an Italian captain, instantly posting this fact to Facebook.  I missed the bit about not using phones or cameras during the drill….oops, my bad.  Friends responded “nice knowing you.” 

Everyone took this drill seriously, really.  Although the girl with the green hair in front of me seemed a bit distracted and disinterested, she too was texting away like mad, probably trying to get her last bit in before we got out of cell phone range.  One takeaway here I’ve never heard mentioned before was the request to always wear shoes throughout the ship to avoid stepping on glass.  Was this in response to Concordia or just practical? Doesn’t much matter as it makes total sense. 

Standing on the boat deck (beautiful real teak decks mind you), listening to a crew member talking while another one stood on a chair demonstrating how to don the life vest, my mind wandered to the scene in Cameron’s Titanic on the boat deck.  You know the scene where you hear the steam venting from the boilers and seeing all the chaos.  One of the officers then asks the women and children to step forward and the noise diminishes for both dramatic and practical effect in the movie.  True Titanic fanatics appreciate this clever device, knowing that the sound of the steam venting of the boilers, needing to be vented since the ship was stopped, was truly deafening and added to the chaos.  Here we were all lined up just like the movie.  The only distracting noise was from the longshoremen on the pier below with their forklifts loading up the ship.   No need for warning shots to be fired by ships officers, though, and the tuxedo clad quartet was nowhere to be found.  They’d have really stuck out too since I think I saw only one tux the entire cruise.  Thanks have to go out to another Facebook friend who warned I would be mistaken for the wait staff if I brought my tux on this cruise.  Sadly, I would not be doing my James Bond impersonation in the Casino this time, but I digress.

My mind further wandered here as they show off all the safety features of the vest.  Yeah, I know how the vest goes on, the whistle (Rose reference again…’Come back!”) and how the strobe thingie works. 

My eyes catch a detail off in the distance of the structure of the pier; look at those exposed rivets of the original frame.  Rivets= Titanic = old! This is one old pier with a lot of history.  I bet most of the passengers on this cruise have no idea how old these piers are and their history.  Seeing the rivets, reminds me of Fenway Park and my Massachusetts roots.  I offer one of my useless facts to my kids; “Did you know that Fenway Park opened the same day Titanic sailed from Southampton in 1912?”  Rolled eyes were the response from mildly amused offspring and spouse.   “You know you are full of useless information, dad!”  Tough crowd I say.

As we sail down the Hudson, I make out the remnants of Pier 54, the pier that Cunard’s Carpathia docked at, delivering the survivors she rescued from Titanic.  Dutifully noted in my brain, but at this point we were all standing on the forward observation deck over the bridge and looking down the Hudson at  the Freedom Tower….oops, 1 World Trade Center, easily the highest structure now on the Manhattan skyline.  There was an eerie sense of quiet as we neared Battery Park.  Lots of New Yorkers on board, mostly solemnly admiring the view.  Lots of picture taking; sounds of beeps from the point and shoot cameras and shutter sounds from the DSLR cameras like my Nikon.  I filled a 4GB graphics card alone here, but came prepared with my backup card in pocket. 

Battery Park and the Winter Garden appeared as an ever present reminder of 9/11, like an open wound.  Seeing the tower proudly rising offers consolation, but every time I pass by this site, memories of that day flood back to the surface.  1 World Trade Center is looking proud and defiant now.  I wish there were two of them.  I guess one is like giving them the middle finger. 

Our first reminder of Titanic occurred on our way to dinner on the first formal night.  That dreaded backdrop of grand staircase and clock appeared again amongst the sea of ships staff photographers angling for our business.  I thought it was tacky on QE2, was aghast to see it still in use on QM2, yet not really too surprised to see it once again on the Miracle.  Despite this, we got our picture taken with this backdrop and we even purchased it.  Picture prices are reasonable and it was a good picture!  Shocking!  You don’t even have to buy the leather-bound holder if you don’t want to.  Cunarders know what I mean there.  Overheard in the gallery area, were complaints about how expensive the pictures were.  Really.  All I said was “they’re half price compared to some other lines.“  No one is twisting your arm to buy them either.

“Meet me at the clock!” then became an overused comic relief statement uttered too many times throughout the cruise.  Obviously, seeing the 3D version of Titanic right before our sailing was having some detrimental impact.  Kelly even did a Rose impression one early morning, goofing around, asking for Jack, while we were standing above the bridge, trying to talk with the 20 knot breeze in our face.  How come they could do that so easily in the movie? 

Actually, there was an area of the ship that had a split stair, that Kelly thought reminded her of the Titanic staircase, but a modern one.  While not prominently featured, it included a water fountain, and also a plaque from the builder, Kvaerner Masa-Yards, now part of the mega shipbuilding conglomerate STX Finland Cruise Oy, builders of the current largest cruise ships in the world for Royal Caribbean; Oasis and Allure of the Seas.  Ultimately, we never decided to meet here and “make it count."

“Make it count!” I’d toast at dinner with my kids, in reference to Jack’s toast in the movie.  Corny, yes, but we were really having a good time!  This is NOT Cunard.  At this point, I was calling this cruise the “anti-Cunard” cruise.  There was actually plenty of life on board here and the ship was still rockin’ after 11PM!  I did not get my feet run over by a octogenarian in a scooter either on this cruise!  No offence to Cunard loyalists, but different ships for different folks here.  Carnival caters better to families, plain and simple.  How many four person cabins will you find on Queen Victoria for instance?   We did not have to fight our way through a sea of scooters, wheelchairs, and walkers to get to our table in the main dining room either, a plus.

I did not make off with the men after dinner to the library to have a cigar and a brandy.  I never did find the equivalent to Queen Mary 2’s Churchill’s on board although the Frankie and Johnnie’s nightclub had that stale cigar/cigarette smell to it, along with some menacing looking ceiling fixtures.  Instead, the kids went off to their kids clubs and we either made our way to see evening’s show or the comedian in the “Punchliners” comedy club.  Is that a veiled reference to ocean liners in the name?  George Lopez is the creative consultant for this program and it appears to be very popular.  Absolutely no mention of Titanic was made by any of the comedians in any of their acts, although the adult shows dived right into much more entertaining steamy topics.  Dentures would have been hitting the floor if these guys were performing on a Cunarder.  That Catskills style comic, though, was somewhat of a bore compared to the Brooklyn born and raised comic who really hit it off with passengers, who all appeared to be from the tri-state area. Yeah, we like our friggin’ comics when they get down n’ dirty.   Lisa Lampanelli would have fit right in.  No topic was off limits, but he never touched on any Titanic humor.  I think he just ran out of time after dealing with “Princess” in the front row, who was apparently having an orgasm every time he looked at her.  You had to be there.  Let’s just say she was more than a handful and leave it at that.

While we at sea for the actual Titanic anniversary, nearing our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carnival thankfully did not run the Cameron movie on board, have a Titanic themed diner, or even mention the tsignificance of the day in the daily program.  For that I am grateful.  A very small mention might have been nice, but the ‘Funtimes” ain’t the Daily Programme on a Cunarder. 

"Funtimes" is focuses heavy on the shipboard activities and is completely lacking the typical items I’ve become accustomed to such as detailed information on the ships position, course, and other navigation facts of the day.  Different ships, different “guests”, and different priorities I guess.  Heck, we never got any towel animals on any Cunard cruise!

 So, that night while we slept in our perfectly posh obstructed view cabin (by 1912 standards – we even had our own bathroom!), others were observing more somber remembrances of the occasion off in the North Atlantic.  We slept soundly; knowing our lifeboat would have been easy to jump right into if the need arose.  Yeah, there it is right outside our french doors in the above picture. All kidding aside, this was a great cabin - an outer cabin for the price of an inside unit, with the ability to get some fresh air and take in the sounds of the seas rushing by.  

It wasn’t until seeing the archway of Pier 54, heading back to Pier 88 on April 20^th, was I reminded of the significance of that day in history and Titanic began bearing down on us again.  Carpathia would dock at this pier 100 years ago to the day with the Titanic survivors.  Sadly, there was no Bill Miller or Ted Skull narrating our arrival up the Hudson.  I could have filled in......

As we approached Pier 88, I could make out another ship.  It was the Fred Olsen Line’s Balmoral, fresh from her historic transatlantic crossing and rendezvous with the Azamara Journey at the approximate site of the sinking of Titanic.  Passing through customs, the agent made a comment, throwing me off guard a bit, saying I should be getting back on the Balmoral, which was heading back to Southampton.  He noticed my QE2 shirt, worn proudly that day.  I sighed, “Only if she were still sailing.”  Unsolicited, the customs agent then mentions he misses her dearly and all the people he met when she used to dock in Manhattan.  Wow!  Once again, bringing it full circle all back to QE2. 

Something Titanic Related Coming to NYC?

Message above was kindly forwarded to me from a coworker, who is from the Belfast area.  I wonder what this celebration of Belfast's maritime history and glimpse of the city's future will be?  Would it possibly be related to Titanic or Harland and Wolff?  The Titanic Quarter redevelopment was in full swing when QE2 visited Belfast for its one and only time in October of 2008. 

Interesting, on the Titanic Quarter's website timeline section, they specifically flag the 2008 visit from New York's "Lord" Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the 2012 opening of their signature Titanic project, no doubt in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the sinking. 

We saw glimpses of the new construction and the remnants of the Harland & Wolff yard, including the graving dock and associated pump house, and the drafting room building, all visible from QE2's berth in the harbor. 

The massive yellow Harland & Wolff cranes dominated the skyline, along with their equally massive building, which has been leased out in recent times to movie studios.

We did a non-Cunard sanctioned shore excursion, a harbor cruise highlighting the history of the harbor.  According to our guide, the boats captain, these cranes were used in the construction of the three Olympic Class ships.  They deserve a better location and some measures of preservation.

We caught a glimpse of the historic building, the "drawing room", of the shipyard, where Titanic and countless other ships were designed. (grey building on the right) with additional yellow Harland & Wolff shipyard cranes in the distance.

Newer waterfront construction was evident along the harborfront.  Not sure what this non-descript building is, but much more dynamic building plans are in the works for the entire site, aptly named the "Titanic Quarter."

This was our view of the yard as we approached.  Here we see the Sampson and Goliath famous twin gantry cranes in the distance.  It is not widely known, but Harland & Wolff were initially considered for the construction of Cunard's replacement of QE2, Queen Mary 2.  These cranes, with an 840 ton lifting capacity would have been used in her construction.  Ultimately, they were not competitive with other yards and lost out to Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint Nazaire, France, making Queen Mary 2 the first Queen not built in the UK.  One has to wonder if the British government could have stepped in and offered some sort of assistance, similar to what they did with the previous Queens, to make the deal to build the next Cunarder in the UK more financially attractive.  The contract surely would have reinvigorated the entire area and I suspect the ship would be even more endeared in the UK, perhaps reinvigorating some sense of national pride.  Sadly this was not to be. 

Fortunately, the shipyard has been experiencing a resurgence, with renewed focus on renewable energy technology of wind and wave power as well as their offshore oil platform renewal and rehabilitation programs.  For ship enthusiasts, though, this pales in comparison to a much smaller project, but with far more significance.  Harland & Wolff have undertaken the restoration of the SS Nomadic, the last surviving White Star ship, who's significance is directly related to Titanic. 

This little ship served as a tender to the Olympic and Titanic when the ship anchored in the port of Cherbourg, France.  During our trip to Belfast in 2008, we saw the ship out of the water awaiting restoration in a fenced in area not far from where she was originally constructed in 1911.  She had been rescued from the River Seine in Paris, where she had sat semi-neglected after her career as a floating restaurant ended with the closing of the restaurant.  Read more about SS Nomadic's restoration here.

From the Titanic Quarter website:  In an area steeped in history, Titanic Belfast (opening spring 2012) forms a central part of the development of Titanic Quarter. The state-of-the-art building, designed by leading international architects and designers, will include a ‘Titanic Experience' exhibition, an ‘immersive theatre' diving underwater to explore the wreck, a Titanic-themed banqueting suite and a community arts facility for local exhibitions, performances and conferences.

The project will also include the restoration of the Titanic and Olympic slipways, the Thompson Dock and Harland & Wolff's former Headquarters building.

Here is a rendering of the "signature" building scheduled to open in 2012, the Titanic Belfast.  As part of the development, the Harland & Wolf headquarters building (the drawing room) will be restored and integrated into the redevelopment of the site.  Now the question is what will be unveiled during the event on May 2nd in New York City? Stay tuned.

All development images courtesy of www.titanic-quarter.com

The Blue Peter Connection

Stephen Payne recently spoke to students at the Webb Institute, a noted Naval Architecture school I had once considered attending, about the design of the Queen Mary 2.  Below is a link to the video published by the school on YouTube.  It is a facinating recollection of the design process and Stephen's passion for ocean liners from an early age.  

Blue Peter is a name with little meaning to those on this side of the Atlantic or at least to me anyway. What is it? Sounds like it could be a bird. Maybe it’s some sort of exotic drink? I’ll take a Blue Peter….Or perhaps it’s some sort of medical condition afflicting only men. None of the above. It’s actually a children’s TV show from the UK and quite a famous one at that. It has the distinction of being longest running children's TV show in the world, having debuted way back in 1958!  Despite this, I had absolutely no clue what it was, even as Captain Ian McNaught mentioned it to my son Ryan during an impromptu conversation we had with him on the pier head in Newcastle back in October of 2008.


In probably my most memorable conversation we had with QE2's final Master, Captain McNaught rather skillfully wove into the conversation he was having with my son on the fate of QE2, a story about QM2's designer, Stephen Payne and Blue Peter as mentioned in the above video. Without mincing words, my son had told Captain McNaught that he was a bit mad at Cunard while at the same time very sad to see the ship being retired, especially since she was the last great liner of the UK. He had only got to sail on her once and like his father, could not get his head around the fact that this piece of maritime history and cultural icon was being lost to the UK. History was indeed repeating itself again as all this was sounding eerily similar to the retirement of Queen Mary back in the 1960’s.

 Ryan, unwittingly in the process of letting the captain know how he truly felt, gave me a sense of pride in that he was finally regurgitating all the things I had previously been telling him. But, I was also cringing as he was letting it all hang out, so to speak, and I did not know where this was all going. Was he going to spout off some of my thoughts about the crazy plans we were hearing at the time about removing the funnel or the fact that I really had no desire to go see her in Dubai, of all places? Please stay clear of how I felt about a piece of UK maritime heritage lost to an Arab country.  This conversation could have gotten a bit ugly and embarrassing.

Our trip around the UK was QE2’s final farewell lap and everywhere we went, her significance to the people and culture of the UK was readily apparent. People came out in droves to see the ship in every port. We had already been to Greenock, then on to Clydebank, and we had just sadly seen all that was left of her once proud her birthplace at the Titan Crane. Ryan had heard it all from me before and for the past week, had been bombarded with all these facts and the grim reality that the end was near was setting in. He even saw his dad getting a bit choked up at the “funeral service” at Liverpool Cathedral. Now, it was apparent that all of this had been absorbed. I don’t even need to call it brainwashing since he saw it all for himself. Ryan really did get the significance of the ship now. Especially now that the cruise was about to end, he was letting the Captain know his true feelings as only a nine year old could. Captain McNaught, though, handled this situation masterfully, and would turn things around and leave him with words of inspiration.

As any good company man would do, McNaught convincingly offered up the Cunard marketing spin that QE2’s time had come and she was going to be off to a much needed retirement. You know, that “do not fret, she was going off to a nice warm climate for her retirement, to be well cared for by her new owners” mantra that was also given out when they retired the previous Queens. He went on to point out that there’s her replacement, the Queen Mary 2, the world’s only remaining liner, for us to continue enjoying along with the newer ships, including the newly announced Queen Elizabeth. “So while it is sad, enjoy her while you can as there will never be another like her.” Those last words are particularly true. While Queen Mary 2 is a true liner, she was NOT proudly built in the UK on the Clyde.

In retrospect, I’m guessing that McNaught probably has said this response so many times before that it had become second nature and that he might even actually have convinced himself it was true. Now, I was listening intently since Ryan knew all about these two other ships from me and the company I had kept onboard. I think he also knew what ship McNaught would be captaining next, but Ryan asked him anyway, perhaps hoping to hear that he would eventually command Queen Mary 2, a fitting assignment both of us thought to command the current Cunard Flagship. We were also biased since our next cruise with Cunard was most likely going to be on Queen Mary 2. With a somewhat subdued voice, we were informed he would be sharing command of the Queen Victoria as his next assignment, but he went on to tell us a bit about his take on newest Cunarder in typical McNaught fashion.

Comparisons, McNaught style followed. In his discussion, pointing out just how special QE2 was, he dropped this gem. He was moving on, from the oldest to the newest of the Cunard fleet, going from the fastest to the slowest and then the piece de resistance, from the most beautiful to……and then he stopped. You fill in the blank. Clearly, his love for the ship was shining through. These last few cruises and all the retirement events were getting the best of him and it was obvious that this was going to be a difficult transition to his new assignment. (Since he’s not with Cunard or even at sea anymore, I don’t think I’ll be getting him in any trouble now mentioning this.)

After expressing to Ryan how lucky he had been to have experienced the ship, he went to commend him on his interest in ships and to inquire what career he was interested in possibly pursuing, pointing out that he obviously was interested in the sea and ships. Ryan mentioned he wanted to design another liner, as beautiful as QE2.  I think it was then that he mentioned that his son was following in his footsteps and inquired what I did. I mentioned that I was an Architect, but had also studied Naval Architecture and that was one reason why the ship was so dear to my heart as well. Now, I knew who Stephen Payne was, but Ryan was not quite up to speed on Queen Mary 2 facts (yet). McNaught then mentions to Ryan that a young boy had written in to a TV show and told them that he was going to design the next great liner to succeed QE2, which at the time, everyone said was going to be the LAST liner built. The boy was Stephen Payne and he followed his dream as he went on, remarkably, to design Queen Mary 2, to replace QE2, inferring to Ryan that he should pursue his dreams and never put any limitations on them.

After seeing Stephen Payne’s detailed explanation of the Blue Peter letter coming full circle, so nicely explained in the video, I am only further in awe of this remarkable achievement in fulfillment of his dream. This remarkable tale also further reinforces just how special QM2 is; taking me back to another special moment I had onboard QM2 last January. It was a sea day and I was standing in the photo gallery looking at a video playing on one of the monitors showing the ship’s christening by QEII. 

I was half paying attention to the video, while my main focus was the impressive wave action going on right outside the windows.  Moving along at a leisurely 22-23 knots through seas, with the ships bow pushing aside massive quantities of ocean, with the ever so slight ship movement was truly impressive.  There was the familiar creaking,  yet subdued from what we had come accustomed to on QE2, and the rush of water as the windows displayed the blue green sea.  With camera in hand, I was shooting out of the windows between the racks of photos for sail, despite the sign saying photography was prohibited.  I was shooting the sea, not the overpriced photos, and others were doing the same.  I was hoping to catch a big wave and the washer machine effect, but the seas were just not cooperating.  I could have stayed parked in this window seat for the remainder of the day.  It was then when it truly hit home that I was onboard a ship worthy of the title of Flagship and replacement for QE2.

It's been over three years now since my last QE2 cruise and over a year has past since our first Queen Mary 2 cruise, yet watching the Stephen Payne video brought back such vivid memories instantly.  Thank you Stephen Payne for fulfilling your dream and creating a worthy successor to QE2.  I hope to be around to see her replacement in thirty two odd years, or even more dreamily, when another true sistership built someday. Will Ryan go further in pursuit of a career in Naval Architecture? That remains to be seen.  If only I can get him away from his Xbox 360 and other distractions a 13 year old faces.

Costa Concordia - Threading the Needle

Full disclosure here:  I am a fan of cruising on Costa Cruise Lines.  We had three outstanding cruises over the years on board the Costa Victoria and Costa Magica.  I have followed the series of events as they unfolded with the Costa Concordia with dispair and utter disbelief at what appeared to have transpired.  My prayers go out to all affected by this tragedy.  Credit must be given to the crew of the ship for safely evacuating as many as they did is such a short time and also for the inhabitants of Isola del Giglio who helped comfort the dazed 4200 passengers and crew that made it ashore.

While there has been alot of anger and peculation on how the evacuation was handled,  I am sure that the procedure will be intensively studied to learn from this tragedy in the coming weeks.  The following are a series of images I posted on my Facebook account since the tragic accident occurred.

Marine AIS tracking, missing some data, but showing the overall course of the ship.

As reported here, with AIS data, it appears the ship attempted to navigate this treacherous passage!  There were conflicting reports from other AIS sites, including the one I use all the time Marine AIS (first screen capture above), but their data had a huge gap from the time the ship was making over 15 knots to the time it was essentially stopped off the shore where it settled.  I was a bit sceptical of the first site since it was in Turkish and required translation, but somehow they had access to missing data.  Or was it all fabricated.....conspiracy theorists rejoice!  Maybe in was a massive electronics blackout/power failure due to those pesky capacitors that some were adamant was the cause, in as much so as I was so adamant that this had to be operator error. So I attempted to test out the the hypothesis that the ship did attempt to make this passage.  Using the Marine AIS site satellite view, with uses Google Earth, I crudely roughed in the size of the ship.  Unfortunately the screen capture software I used did not allow me to draw the ship on an angle, but you get the picture above of just how close and utterly stupid a move like this would be.

As further pictures became available, the enormity of the damage became apparent.  This posting, clipping a news wire photograph, was my attempt to decipher how that boulder became lodged in the side of the ship.  It was clear that the ship caught on the top of an outcropping, probably causing the sideways movement as mentioned by the captain himself in his unbelievable interview after the incident.

Numerous discussions were taking place via Facebook and Cruisecritic regarding why the list to starboard and not to port, given the the enormity of the gash that was now clearly visible.  I postulated along with others that the ship might have been unstable and due to the free surface effect of the water in the ship, when the captain appeared to turn the ship into port, the starboard list was triggered that ultimately lead to the roll over.  I then began to wonder if there was damage, possibly even more severe than what we can see on the port side, buried beneath the water on the starboard side of the ship.  Surely, it would have been quite possible that the ship bumped the rocks on both sides while attempting passage.  With the ship 112 feet wide and the passage maybe 200 feet, it left little room for error, hence the title of this post.

Next, underwater photos of the damage began to surface on the Internet.  While it was hard to decipher what you are looking at, the railings can be seen and the damage looked much more significant than if the ship just rolled over and hit the shore/rocks at her final resting place, in my eyes anyway. This had to be unseen damage on the starboard side since the port side was out there in full view and obviously, the rails would not be underwater.

Later in the day, an interview with the captain found its way on to YouTube, with the captain unbelievably answering questions by himself, without a lawyer present.  He looks completely in shock and very nervous.  Here is another video with analysis of his body movements.  This was done before the person making the analysis knew that the captain had been arrested, which is very interesting.

Throughout the day, the initial death claims thankfully kept dropping as Costa began to account for the ships passengers and crew that understandably had gone off in many directions once they made landfall, making generating an accurate missing passenger list difficult.  The island was overwhelmed with approximately 4200 people quite unexpectedly in the dark of the night.  Logistics for Costa to get their passengers back to the mainland and safely home must have been a nightmare.  How do you plan for such an event?  I have to give the crew credit for safely evacuating that many people in such a short order, probably two hours, off the doomed ship. 

Sadly, there are reports that the Captain Franceso Schettino was derelict in his duties, perhaps leaving the ship early and not sending out a Mayday call.  Costa, shockingly, released the statement above, confirming that the ship was too close to shore and that Costa safety protocols had not been followed.  Clearly, Costa was throwing their captain under the bus...er..ship, with this statement.  For the cruise line to come out so quickly and so forcefully against the captain, I speculated that they must have compelling evidence against him, or they are risking further defamation of character lawsuits. 

So what's the Cunard connection here for me?  Besides my previous affection for Costa, these events have dragged Queen Mary into the discussion.  Comparisons have also been made of QE2's famous grounding off Martha's Vineyard.  Reporters, eagerly capitalized on Queen Mary's recent capacitor failure incident and to try to link it to this accident as written here for example.  Actually, the incident is over a year old, but only recently a fleet wide safety alert was issued alerting ship owners and operators of the issue. 

Seeing the ship all lit up as it was close to shore, coupled with various reports of passengers explaining that the power only went out after the loud bangs and violent ship movement led me to conclude that there was no mechanical failure.  Looking at the AIS telemetry, it was pretty damning that with either AIS track, the ship made a deliberate track towards the island and there was plenty of time to correct their course if it had been an inadvertent mistake in navigation.  As the ship came dangerously close to shore, surely the officer on watch would have to have been aware of the ships position, possible lights from the island directly in front of them and perhaps, one would hope, there were numerous alarms going off.  Perhaps this added to confusion on the bridge.  All this will come out in the days ahead. 

Late this evening, a poster on Cruisecritic posted yet another series of AIS tracking screen shots here, one of which is shown above, showing exactly what the Turkish site had initially posted.  Pretty damn convincing evidence if this is actual data, but not if if only a simulator.  Costa Concordia approached the passage at 8 knots!? Absolutely no margin for error and totally reckless and irresponsible on the captain's part to even attempt this.  Let's see if this is for real or not!

I am eagerly awaiting further pictures of where the ship attempted to squeeze through to definitively answer this question.  Surely the rock outcroppings will show damage, displacement, and the ship's paint.  Divers eventually found the rock outcropping that QE2 scrapped her way over, covered with red antifouling paint, matched to her hull.  That rock now bears the name "Queen's Bottom."  What will this area be renamed as, the Schettino Passage?

Queen Mary 2 in Manhattan

July 1st was a special day in New York City for ocean liner enthusiasts and fans of Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2.  Nowadays, the ship docks at the new cruise ship pier in Brooklyn, but this day, another Carnival owned ship, the Caribbean Princess, which uses the Brooklyn pier exclusively, was also scheduled to be in port.  Queen Mary 2 would be "forced"to dock once again at the Manhattan Cruise Ship terminal, the piers she was originally specifically designed for and the same piers used by her predecessors, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and most recently Queen Elizabeth 2.  For traditionalists, and many former QE2 passengers accustomed to the traditional Manhattan pier, this pier change was a very special treat.

Having made this trek up the Hudson on QE2 back in January of 2008, I can attest this is definitely the best way to arrive in New York City, treated to the beacon of the Statue of Liberty in the early morning on the portside and the entire Manhattan skyline on the starboard side.  This time I would be standing on the renovated Pier 86 in shorts and a polo shirt rather than standing beneath the bridge of QE2, all bundled up and trying to keep my finger on the camera shutter from frostbite.  The weather was picture perfect.  As QM2 appeared in the distance, the morning sun appeared and lit up the ship rather theatrically, highlighting the iconic funnel.  Although QM2 is demonstrably larger than QE2, the ship she replaced, she is every much a liner and a standout amongst the current batch of cruise ship resembling stacks of apartment flats.

In the early morning sun, it was apparent that the ship has suffered some hull damage, in the awkward area of the stern required for the pod propulsion units.  More than likely it was a bump to a pier.  Didn't she make headlines with a mishap at some port in Europe?  The ship is scheduled for drydocking this fall and it clear that she's due for some refurbishment;  antifouling paint is very worn and the hull is in need of repainting.

Queen Mary 2 docked at Pier 88, originally the French Line pier where the Normandie tragically caught on fire during its conversion to troop ship during WWII.  Attempts to extinguish the fire added water to the hull that eventually led to the ship rolling over in the pier and sinking.  With the ship a loss, it sat for much of the war in the pier, as a sad reminder of the war. Carnival Miracle would arrive and quickly dock on the opposite of QM2 at the pier and I was treated to a nice view of several tails; the French built Queen Mary 2, Finnish built Carnival Miracle, British built Concorde SST, and American built  U.S.S. Intrepid.

Before meeting up with ocean liner friends (some getting off QM2, others joining the ship this day for the traditional Fourth of July cruise), I planned to walk the entire waterfront from the Cruise Terminal down to Battery Park and take advantage of the picture perfect weather.  While I would end up seeing such maritime relics such as the Lightship Frying Pan and the fireboat John J. Harvey, my main goal was to get an up close view of the once glorious Cunard Line Pier 54 of the Chelsea Piers.  I've seen it from the water, having it's historic nature pointed out to us on the decks of QE2 and Circle Line excursion boats. 

On the rusted ironwork face, you can still make out both names, the original Cunard Line, and then the subsequent Cunard White Star name of the merger of the two lines which resulted in the completion of the original Queen Mary.

All that most visibly remains is the ironwork arch of the head house and the stone base, which looks like it was fashioned from Stony Creek Granite, from the Stony Creek Quarries of Connecticut that I previously visited through work.  Peering through the fence though, were bits and pieces of the terminal strewn about, including the art deco inspired stone pieces depicted above, a very sad sight.  One can only image what this pier was like in it's heyday.  Sadly this  historic structure, designed by the architects of Grand Central Station, did not escape the wrecking ball.  It was here that the Lusitania sailed for her final time and also where the Cunard Line's Carpathia offloaded survivors of the ill-fated Titanic.

Following lunch, fellow ocean liner enthusiasts and I debated where would the best spot be to see Queen Mary 2 depart.  We would end up taking the New York Watertaxi over to Weehawken, NJ, for the best view of the ships departing that afternoon.  Perched above the access road above the cliffs across from the Cruise Ship Terminal,  it was readily apparent that this was a good decision.

Queen Mary 2 departed on time in the afternoon sun, with short blasts from her original Queen Mary Tyfon horn, which sounded remarkably improved over the last time we heard it while onboard.  She looked ever the part of a classic ocean liner in profile against the Manhattan skyline.

Cunard Line has used several of my pictures in a recent blog post of Cunard President Peter Shanks.

Just above the bow of QM2, the Freedom Tower can be seen rising above the lower Manhattan skyline.  I'll no doubt be back next year, same date, same cruise, and hopefully in Manhattan again (please Cunard make this happen).  Who knows, maybe I'll be onboard.............