Just in! Patrick Kuhn’s rant about Carnival being guilty of placing profits over people:
(Carnival Corp (CCL) Costa Concordia) Sister company? How about calling it what it is: a subsidiary company. The layman shouldn't be too quick to accept the manufactured "It's all the Captain's fault" story, either. Now Carnival wants to focus on the positive "out of respect" for those who perished aboard one of their vessels? Who are they trying to fool? Are they waiting for the next big international crisis, hoping it will distract potential customers long enough that everyone stops asking the really hard questions, like, "What's the root cause of this disaster?"
Here's my opinion on the matter: The problems afflicting Carnival Cruise Lines run far, far, far deeper than a captain abandoning his ship before passengers, and people who work in the maritime industry know that better than the hired mouthpieces and spin doctors working for Carnival Cruise Lines, directly and indirectly (they simply repeat what they're told to repeat, to the point they believe their own story, or they find another job).
Let's make no mistake about it: The vessels owned and operated by Carnival Cruise Lines in the United States are spectacular, they really are. Should you choose to set sail aboard one, you'll be impressed by their size, the atmosphere, the crew-members' nifty uniforms--all of which adds to the illusion of absolute safety at sea. But what most passengers don't realize is the ships they board are foreign-flagged for a lot of reasons--taxes, labor law evasion, Jones Act evasion, liability evasion, which is especially helpful when something catastrophic occurs and lots of people burn to death or drown.
You see, Micky Arison might be a multi-billionaire living the very, very good life in Boca Raton, Florida, but don't ever expect to see Carnival Cruise Lines offering "good paying jobs" aboard their vessels. No, they offer "fun" jobs, and the crewmembers they recruit primarily from third-world countries might agree, provided their definition of "fun" is toiling 12 to 16 hours per day, every single day, for the duration of their contract, for wages far less than the American minimum wage--which explains why competent, professional sailors won't go anywhere near cruise ships.
Salty, seasoned, veteran sailors know better than anyone cruise ships, generally, are catastrophes waiting to happen, and for the most part it comes down to numbers. 3,200 crewmembers aboard a ship that carries 4,000 passengers?
Yeah. That's an expensive ratio. The only way to keep it all exceptionally profitable for owners and executives is start the hiring process with one simple requirement: Don't apply if you're looking for a good-paying job. Apply only if you're willing to work yourself half to death for near-nothing, and no, it won't really be all that much fun, either, especially if you work below decks, far from passenger scrutiny.
Where do you recruit? Third world countries, of course, for a number of reasons: Pay-expectations are substantially less from a person who grew up on a thimble of rice per day. Secondly, when you're paid near-nothing, you're trapped, you can't simply quit, like an American can and will as soon as the ship bumps the dock, because airfare for the no-notice flight half way around the world represents two or three months' of your pitiful, legalized-slavery income. What does pay have to do with passenger's safety? Everything. Absolutely everything. Professional, seasoned sailors who with the professional background to keep passengers alive in a worst-case scenario?
Yeah. Good luck finding them. If they're aboard, they're few and far between, whereas people--good, kind-hearted, but otherwise incompetent sailors, if you can even call them sailors, most of whom never in their wildest dreams expected to battle a three-deck fire--are plentiful.
And if you think the US Coast Guard tails cruise ships 500 miles out to sea, think again, the real world doesn't work that way. In fact, the real world is covered by 330 million square miles of water, so if the ship is ablaze or sinking, passengers can--and already did (on the Concordia) -- are dependent on the crew for survival.
The crewmembers’ passengers interact with above decks--well, at least they all speak some English. The crewmembers who work below decks, the ones who are pouring onto the weather decks from all directions--they speak a dozen or more different languages, so they can't even communicate with each other, much less coordinate a mass-casualty effort effectively.
Combined with screaming, horrified passengers, they just add to the ensuing chaos. But, hey, Carnival Corp’s Micky Arison is not interested in "professional" sailors, he's interested in cheap sailors. Dirt cheap, and they're not sticking around to die alone at sea aboard a doomed vessel. Heck no, they're grabbing a lifeboat for themselves the moment self-preservation takes over their senses, especially when they see the Captain being lowered over the side. Was he at fault?
Was the Captain 100% responsible for this ship hitting the rocks? To a limited degree, yes. But one has to understand that the Captain aboard almost all ships serves two purposes: He's an administrator, primarily. And he's the fall-guy.
When the ship pulls in and out of port, yes, he'll be on the Bridge, but another captain, called a pilot, who's attached to the port, not the ship, will bring the ship to its birth. But while out to sea--as was the case here--the Captain has little or nothing to do with safe navigation of the vessel.
Those responsibilities are delegated to the Chief Mate, the Second Mate, and the Third Mate (there may be multiple aboard "Gray Hulls" (military vessels) and cruise ships. The person standing closest to the wheel is the Helmsman--he's unlicensed and he takes orders from whatever mate is on watch.
Again, the only time he takes orders from the Captain is when the ship is maneuvering in and out of port, or when some knit-wit Captain aboard a cruise ship who earns less than an American truck driver wants to show passengers that "he's the boss," which always annoys everyone on the Bridge regardless of what they say aloud, or AFTER all hell has broken loose.
Anyway, it's the Bridge Team and the Engineers who are most directly responsible for safe navigation of the vessel, not the Captain per se. Step 1: PROTECT THE PASSENGERS BY RE-FLAGGING SHIPS OPERATING IN AMERICAN WATERS TO AMERICA AND CONFORM TO THE JONES ACT.
If nothing else, at the very, very least, (Carnival Corp) should fill key positions with American sailors. And America really does have some of the finest sailors in the world. Sailors Union of the Pacific offers the absolute best of the best unlicensed sailors--career sailors, where the average age is 56 years old (compared to the alternative "union," which amounts to little more than a head-hunter organization, although it's certainly a safer option that's what's taking place now), whereas licensed positions (officers) on the Bridge should be provided by Master's, Mates, and Pilots Association. Engineers: MEBA.
Carnival Cruise Lines remains guilty of placing profits over people at the risk of crewmembers and passengers alike.
Will Micky follow through? I am 99% certain he won't, because let's face it: Legalized slavery is exceptionally profitable, even when said profits materialize at the risk of trapped crewmembers, and especially American passengers who simply don't know any better. Again, that's my opinion on the matter.
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Order your copy of 'Carnival Cruise: The Definitive History of the Company and the men behind the doomed Costa Concordia,' by Kirby Sommers
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