In the wake of the tragedy on board the Costa Concordia, I feel the need to return to my dear blog of which I have slightly abandoned, and will take on one of my favourite roles, the devil's advocate. While I am in no way dismissing many of the rumours that navigational error was to blame for this incident (several of us entertainers know that cruise ships are ridiculously safe, almost to a fault with all of those cameras!) we need to look at the other side of the coin, or from another perspective, that of the lowly crew member.
When you join a ship for your first time, and I will preface this by saying I had the pleasure of working for two US and one Norwegian based cruise line so every line is different, you as a crew member are put through approximately 5-7 days of safety training within 2 hours of boarding the ship. I remember pulling myself out of bed to attend countless seminars, video sessions and personal tests teaching me about safety at sea, and how when you're out on the water, all you have is you and your fellow crew members to keep things calm and orderly. Some of the best first aid and safety training I've received was at sea.
On all of my ships, boat drill was always held before we even left the dock in our home port, and from that first cheerful announcement by the Cruise Director informing everyone to get their life jackets and start heading to their muster stations for the 20 minute drill, all you can hear are complaints from the passengers.
"I've done a drill on another ship. Do I have to do this again?"
"What happens if I don't go? Can I just not go?"
"Do I have to wear my life jacket?"
"When will this be over?"
Funny thing is, 9 out of 10 passengers cannot properly place their life jacket on the first time they try, and if after the drill you were to ask a passenger what muster station they should go to in an emergency, they can't answer you. (It's on their stateroom key, and the door of their stateroom.) Some show up with a cigarette or an alcoholic beverage in their hand, and when you instruct them they can't have them, they lash out saying they're "on vacation" and "I paid for this cruise and this drink!" Guess what, when the ship hits a rock and starts to tilt, the last thing you're going to worry about is your bar tab, because that too is going down with the ship.
Yes, the safety information is a dark reminder that even a luxury cruise liner is no match for a strong wind, a rogue wave or a pirate attack, (seriously, ask my friend Annabelle who cruised near Somalia.) But the crew are well trained, and even though english may not be their strong suit, in an emergency or not, they are instructed that passengers come first, and getting them to safety is the first priority.
A crew member can only do as they are instructed, and as they are trained. When I worked for NCL, not only did I have to jump from deck 4 into the waters below in a life jacket, (no, the ship was not moving) we all had to put on full fire gear including respirator and enter a smoke filled room searching for "passengers" which were puzzle pieces in a room you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. Until we found all the pieces, we had to keep going to understand the severity of a real fire at sea. We are all taught how to use fire extinguishers and keep a large crowd under control, launch a lifeboat and life raft, but most importantly we are told that we only do so when the abandon ship signal is sounded. If that signal does not sound, we are to keep passengers calm (which is hard to do at the buffet when the shrimp runs low let alone during an emergency) and to follow instructions. I couldn't stand safety training, but no matter what, I knew I was prepared in the event that alarm went off.
I am so happy to say that in almost 8 years of travel and working at sea, the only time the emergency signal sounded was during a scheduled boat drill, and one night by mistake when an officer inadvertently hit the wrong button. (That was not a nice way to wake up.) While we are on the ship to entertain, host, serve or clean up after passengers, we know our #1 job is to be safety leaders. The main issue is that the passenger forgets that vital role, and I can only imagine what the situation was like on that cold Friday January 13th night in Italy with almost double the number of passengers to crew members were screaming orders at the crew.
Yes, there wasn't a drill the night before, and yes, mistakes were clearly made, but over 4,000 lives were saved because someone must have been doing something right. Be it a passenger or a crew member, someone decided to help put on life jackets and maintain order among chaos.
I pray the rumours are not true, that the lost are found, and those who survived really stop to look at how lucky they are. May everyone find order among the chaos, and the ability to appreciate that so many people from so many countries around the world were able to help, save and rescue each other.
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