Oceanos Sinking Raises Questions On Cruises' Safety

The recent images of the cruise ship Oceanos taking a nose dive into the storm-tossed Indian Ocean off South Africa made all of us shudder.

And if you are booked on an upcoming cruise, you may well be asking "Could it happen to me?"

It's not an unreasonable question. Just how safe is cruising?

As might be expected, the International Council of Cruise Lines, a trade association representing many of the world's major cruise lines, says cruising is quite safe.

The answer, however, is somewhat more complex. When choosing a cruise, travelers should be aware of two important safety factors:

-- The newest cruise ships generally are equipped with the most modern safety devices. Older cruise ships - and many of the vessels sailing from U.S. ports were built 20 or more years ago - are not required to adhere to all the latest international safety requirements.

-- Cruise ships that sail regularly from U.S. ports - about 100 vessels - must undergo frequent and stringent U.S. Coast Guard inspections. While most of the world's cruise fleet (about 250 ships) is inspected regularly, the standards applied elsewhere may not be as strict as those the Coast Guard requires.

In addition, it's important to note that sailing on a new ship which has passed thorough inspections doesn't necessarily assure a safe voyage. Human nature plays its own important role. No one can predict how a ship's crew and its officers will react if disaster does strike. A faltering crew could put any rescue operation in jeopardy.

"It's the people who make a difference," says a marine safety expert who did not want to be identified.

In testimony before Congress last year and again in May, the International Council of Cruise Lines argued that "cruising today is, as it should be, the safest mode of transportation."

This conclusion is based largely on the performance record of its 17 member lines, which operate more than 70 large cruise ships.

From 1970 through 1989, the ships carried almost 30 million passengers, and no one died as the result of a collision, fire or other disaster. During the same period, only two deaths are reported to have occurred on other non-member cruise ships sailing from the United States.

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About four million Americans a year take a cruise, making up about 80 percent of the international cruise market.

Epirotiki Lines, which operated the Oceanos, is a member of the organization as are such famous cruise lines as Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Cruise Line, Royal Viking Line, Premier, Princess and Royal Caribbean.

Nevertheless, the plight of the Oceanos, in which all passengers and crew survived its Aug. 4 sinking, is a reminder that problems at sea can and do continue to happen - and often with life-threatening potential.

In May, two cruise ships, the Island Princess (Princess Cruises) and the Regent Sea (Regency Cruises), collided in Alaskan waters.

No major injuries were reported, but the Island Princess had to cancel the remainder of its voyage because of damage to several cabins.

In 1989, a Russian cruise ship, the Maxim Gorky, struck an ice floe north of the Arctic Circle and sank. All 900 passengers and crew were rescued, but some passengers suffered broken bones and hypothermia.

The United States is a major port nation, with about 100 large passenger ships sailing from U.S. ports on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts and from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Coast Guard is responsible for port checks, and it inspects ships that depart regularly from this country as often as every three months.

Coast Guard inspectors look for a wide variety of potential problems ranging from a vessel's structural soundness to whether passageways are wide enough to permit rapid evacuation of all passengers.

Fires are a recurring menace at sea. Among the Coast Guard's major concerns are fire safety procedures on cruise ships, and crews typically are put through stringent fire and abandon-ship drills.