Balmoral

• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  5 March 2009     00:0416604
  #1      
  just in case you thought that this poor beknighted cuise ship had got through its troubles, latest news, it has had to dock in somalia due to pirates threatening to board.
  
  i do not think that this was mentioned in the brochure.
  
  i think that its passengers would have been better off getting on that vessel led by captain ahab, who had a thing about a white wale.
  would have been less eventful.
• Guest 640

  • Registered: 21 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 7,819
  5 March 2009     08:0716612
  #2      
  Oh dear! the ship is always up to its funnel in it !
  
  I guess for the immediate times it appears jinxed by a Jonah like curse. I hope any pirates planning to board the vessel will have been fully inoculated with their ant-norovirus jabs, anti-gastric flu jabs, anti legionaires jabs and all else in between..probably okay to stop short of the anti black death jab, but you never know.
  
  Capt Ahab tours...like it!
  email: dover7@msn.com
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  5 March 2009     18:5816636
  #3      
  great one paul, trying to picture the pirates coming off on stretchers attached to drips, whilst the crew and passengers organise a whip round for .
  
  
  i am surprised that the line does not take it out of circulation and rename it.
  
  i am sure that this can be done.
  
  our past and present seamen will no doubt know how it is done.
• Guest 641

  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 2,335
  6 March 2009     17:2916713
  #4      
  That sounds like a Port of Call for Fred Olsen Lines to avoid, also with the state of the art technology that the pirates are known to use, you would have thought that they would have checked out their latest quarry, like Duh!
• Guest 673

  • Registered: 16 Jun 2008
  • Posts: 1,388
  7 March 2009     18:4316783
  #5      
  The poor old Balmoral has certainly had a hard time recently but it will all blow over and be forgotten. Nothing there out of the ordinary, it is just that three events happened in quick succession.
  
  First the norovirus, cruise ships get it all the time, the passengers bring it onboard. My mother-in-law had to move wards in the QEQM last year because her ward was being disinfected for norovirus.
  
  Then the heavy weather, part and parcel of going on a sea voyage, it ain't always a millpond.
  
  Finally the brush with pirates in the Gulf of Aden. There is an endless stream of ships passing through the area on their way to and from the Suez Canal/Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, Far East, Aussie etc. Somali pirates are an ever present threat and there are quite a number of warships ready to assist if sufficient notice can be given. Until the pirates make their move, they are indistinguishable from any of the other small fry in the area. All that happened to the Balmoral was that she spotted suspicious targets on the radar and hightailed it away.
  
  Most unlikely that pirates would have been interested in a cruise ship. Fast with high freeboard so difficult to get onboard, and countless passengers to get in the way. Why bother when you can seize a massive tanker such as the Sirius Star with moderate speed, low freeboard and getting on for a quarter of a mile of ship to choose your point to get onboard. A tiny crew equipped with fire hoses against your AK47's and RPG's, and no desire to attract gunfire when sitting on top of a third of a million tons of crude oil. Seize the ship, wait a few weeks and a light aeroplane will come over and drop three million dollars on the deck. Insurers and shipping company happy, forked out about one percent of the value of the ship and cargo. Crew happy, all alive and unharmed.
  
  Just to place this in context, I am writing this onboard the Maersk Dover and she took similar evasive action on her delivery voyage from Korea.