Guest poster;
(Tom Hawks)
In the video you can see the cruise ship staff clinging to their computers and desk in vain as the storm that sent powerful waves into the cruise ship. The passengers were terrified as they tried clinging to each other for safety. One passenger is thrown back and forth along the floor in the wake of the flying furniture. Other guests are flung towards the ship's pillars. Below deck heavy equipment was tossed around, narrowly missing members of the crew.
The ship, carrying 1,732 passengers and 671 crew, was returning to Auckland from the islands of Vanuatu at the end of an eight-night cruise. Passengers were just sitting down to dinner when the storm struck, making them all feel like rag dolls as they were tossed around like extras in a disaster movie, One passenger, Elizabeth Basher, suffered a fractured knee during the storm, and told reporters at the time,
(Tom Hawks)
Newly released Footage has emerged from when the Australian P&O Pacific Sun cruise liner was hit by a freak storm in 2008. The film shows passengers and crew members being tossed around when their cruise ship lurched wildly in 25ft swells and 50-knot winds.
In the video you can see the cruise ship staff clinging to their computers and desk in vain as the storm that sent powerful waves into the cruise ship. The passengers were terrified as they tried clinging to each other for safety. One passenger is thrown back and forth along the floor in the wake of the flying furniture. Other guests are flung towards the ship's pillars. Below deck heavy equipment was tossed around, narrowly missing members of the crew.
The ship, carrying 1,732 passengers and 671 crew, was returning to Auckland from the islands of Vanuatu at the end of an eight-night cruise. Passengers were just sitting down to dinner when the storm struck, making them all feel like rag dolls as they were tossed around like extras in a disaster movie, One passenger, Elizabeth Basher, suffered a fractured knee during the storm, and told reporters at the time,
"We were getting a pre-dinner drink at the bar, moved to a safe place to be on the carpet to get some traction, and suddenly it happened, and we were just thrown across towards a plate-glass window.The incident occurred just after dark, as many of the passengers were sitting down to dinner when huge waves caught the ship side-on as it manoeuvred, causing it to pitch violently. "Other passengers suffered like in juries with cuts, gashes, broken ribs, limbs, broken collar bone, and even a fractured pelvis on one passenger. In all 42 people were hurt as the P&O ship, Pacific Sun, ran into an intense storm with waves as high as seven meters almost 400 miles north of New Zealand in July 2008.
About Me: I am a born again Christian who enjoys talking religion and politics. I have always believed that it is the Christian's obligation to understand the workings of our government as well as they do the precepts of God. Jesus tells us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves". (Mark 10:16) So it is with this understanding that I approach life. I was born in the Midwest, and while I may have grown up in Northern Minnesota, I have earned my degree in knowledge and understanding from the many regions of America and Europe that I have either lived in or visited as an adult.
Ben there.
was on a freighter returning to the US from Yokahama to Seattle many years ago. Our course took the Great circle route across the North Pacific and we hit some strong pacific storms as we swung far north to just south of the Aleutians Islands.
The weather was too rough to stand bow watch on the bow so I was standing watch on the flying bridge. It was a useless watch as the cold rain made it impossible to look forward in the night, so I just sheltered in against an I beam with my back to the weather and held on and fumed over the 3rd mate ordering me to stand watch outside in these conditions.
The noisy 3rd mate inside the Wheel House decided to check up on me and opened the port sliding doors to look out and make sure I was looking forward. Just then the ship took a 30 degree roll and he fell out the door onto the deck of the flying bridge.
I heard a terrified scream and looked down to see the man sliding across the deck toward the edge.. He kept from going overboard when he hit the coaming at the bottom of the hand rail. The shop rolled the other way and he slid back toward the wheel house on his belly. He was able to grab the base of wheel house and held on for another port roll and then when the ship rolled starboard he was able to get back in the wheel house.
LOL!
I and the helmsmen told the rest of the crew about it and the mate never lived it down as he was very unpopular to begin with.
BTW, he stopped making us stand watch when the conditions were so rough.
Wow, amazing story. Thanks for sharing with everyone here. Was anyone seriously injured in the incident?