Generally, cruise companies provide a safe environment for people working on cruise ships. However, there are some places where crew needs to be extra aware and take special precautions when entering, working or passing thru these areas. Here is the list of most dangerous places for the crew members onboard cruise ship. We hope that after reading this article you will be more aware of the seriousness and the dangers on a cruise ship.
Watertight doors
Number one most dangerous place on the cruise ship are defiantly the watertight doors. These Doors are mounted on board a cruise vessel in the crew corridor. Many Crew members have lost their lives trying to pass this doors while they were closing from the bridge. Most of the time Crew members try to pass watertight doors when they are closing because they are late on duty and want to save time but instead they lose their lives. Here are just a few tragic accidents that happened on the major cruise lines, there are lot more.
In 2001 onboard Princess Cruises ship Royal Princess there was an accident involving the third engineer. He was seriously injured when a watertight door closed and crushed his arm. He opened the watertight door and freed himself and needed to pass four watertight doors to finally call the control room and raise the alarm.
On January 27, 2005, onboard Celebrity Cruises ship Celebrity Millennium, a crew member was crushed to death when he got caught by a closing watertight door as the cruise ship was leaving the port of St. Thomas.
In 2008 onboard Princess Cruises ship Rubi Princess the launching ceremony had to be called off because worker died when trying to pass through a watertight door.
Lifeboats
However strange it may sound Lifeboats are the second most dangerous palaces onboard cruise ships. There are numerous cases of an accident during the boat drill lowering of the lifeboats when lines snap and lifeboat falls in the water with the crew inside. Here are some unfortunate accident involving lifeboats.
On. 10 February 2013 onboard Thomason Majesty General Emergency and Life Boat Drill were conducted for all crew. During the hoisting of lifeboat no.9 the forward wire snapped causing the lifeboat to swivel 45 degrees on the aft hook. Shortly the lifeboat fell 20 meters to the sea Three were 8 crew members in the boat when this tragic accident happened. One crew man was thrown from the boat, two crew members escape from the upturned lifeboat and 5 crew members were dead at the scene.
On July 28, 2015, NCL Pride Of America was docked in Hilo. During a maintenance work, two crew members were injured after lifeboat ropes gave way and the boat fell from 15 meters.
On May 30, 2012 onboard Carnival cruise ship Carnival Dream, 4 crew were injured while the wire of one of the lifeboats snapped during hoisting.
On September 8, 2004 seven crew members were seriously injured on RCCL Empress Of The Seas, in a lifeboat incident. The cruise ship was docked in King’s Wharf Bermuda and crew was performing regular lifeboat drill when a lifeboat plunged 18 meters into the sea. One crew member suffered a near drowning and other hurt his spine.
Revolving doors between dining room and main galley
One more dangerous area on the cruise ship are the revolving doors between the main galley and Dining Room. There are many cases when crew mostly waiters and assistant waiters are injured while passing this doors and there are also death cases. In a rush hour especially for dinner, waiters pass this door as many as 40 times per night not knowing of the danger of automatic revolving doors. There are no reported cases involving deaths or injury by the media involving the revolving doors however we know that there is at least dozen of cases.
Slippery floor
Crew members are provided with safety shoes onboard and even they are heavy and out of fashion most of the time they do their job providing safe walking. The danger is when crew walks throughout the ship in their personal footwear (especially slippers). Some cruise lines implemented washing sinks in crew mess in order for the crew to wash hands before eating. Among others, this was implemented on Carnival Conquest class ships and was a good idea until the water was spilled all over and there were many accidents by the crew on a slippery floor. There are no reported incidents by cruise lines or news media, however, we know that there were serious injuries on this locations.
Deep Fryer in the Main galley
There are several reported accidents onboard cruise ships in the main galley by overheated deep fryers as a main source of fire. Cooks are specially trained for the extinguishing of this type of fire. If not handled right the fire can be spreader, however, most of the cruise lines have special extinguishers just upon this galley equipment.
There are other dangerous places on a cruise ship for the crew, however, this are the main ones. In this list, the engine room is not included for a simple reason because this is a restricted area for crew and only authorized personnel can enter. Fire in the engine room is one of the most common and most dangerous hazards on a cruise ship. Engine room has special fire extinguishing CO2 system.
