OT: Crews on brand new cruise ships are apparently incompetent too

If a highly regulated business like airlines has so many incompetent operators, why would you think a business as loosely regulated as shipping would be any better? Most of maritime law was written when ships had sails.

For the younger ones its mostly for the f****ng.

That remains to be seen given that we don't yet know how much that evacuation has cost them in terms of the number that decide to cruise with a more competent operation now.

That's not true at all with the number of lifeboats etc they have to have.

The regulations are minimal at best and if your ship is flagged in a

More variety on a cruise.

That's bullshit.

Makes no difference to the number of lifeboats etc it has to have.

I don't know about the Viking ships but I don't think ships flying a Liberian or Mauritanian flag can even spell law. My brother in law went to a maritime college and towards the end of his like had captains papers although he never sailed higher than 2nd mate. Like everything else US shipping was outsourced. The MM&P union limited the members to 6 months of work a year to spread it around. The b.i.l. was killed by lightning while doing an Erie Canal re-enactment during his forced vacation.

When I was a kid I was interested in the merchant marine too, but as an engineering officer rather than deck. Fortunately I went in another direction. Even if you get work with a container ship you don't see much of the world except container yards. Take them off, load new ones, and back out to sea.

'The Mutiny of the Elsinore' is a Jack London novel that is seldom read. It's a little politically incorrect for today's tastes. The left would love to claim London's socialism but there is some baggage that goes along with it. 'The Iron Heel' is another good read that was prescient.

A bunch cut.

Looking Glass:

She hears him say "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl) "What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl) "But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea" It is, yes it is, He said, "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl) "What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl) "But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"

From:

We've traveled to Europe, mostly Italy. We'd rent a house for a week here, then a week there. We'd shop and eat where the locals go.

We were asked to go on a cruise that went to Italy and ended up in France. In 10 days you spent about 35 hours on shore and had to be back to the boat by 5 to move on. So while visiting one of the places with the finest food in the work you were on the cruise ship eating the equivalent of Applebees. Made no sense to me.

Ah. I'm a serial monogamist (although the final entry in the series has lasted 30 years).

Cindy Hamilton

Bingo!

I never knew what those words were, except for maybe the first two lines.

That's what I hear. I have a friend who with his wife takes one or two cruises a year. But I never say anthing bad about them.

I've not heard that in years. Nice to listen to, thanks.

It was a different world. I have Chrome Cast so I can watch YouTube on the 55" screen and sound system. Much better than on a laptop.

Why not just plug an old PC into your TV? All of my TVs have a PC hooked to them except the "Smart" one my wife bought and compared to a PC, it ain't all that smart. Couple that with a 2.4gz mouse and you sit in your laZboy and run it.