QUOTE: "I am sure Ed will come on and say that there are strict safety standards on the cross channel routes and that public safety won't be compromised..."
I hold no brief whatsoever for P&O, not my favourite company by any means, but the above statement is correct. Every aspect of cross channel operations is minutely scrutinised by the MCA and there is no question of P&O being permitted to reduce manning levels below those required to evacuate passengers in an emergency - nor would any of their seagoing officers or marine managers countenance a criminal proposal of this nature.
The reference to lifeboats is a trifle misleading. There has been a move away from these in recent years, with the great majority of passengers and crew designated to leave the ship via the MES (Marine Evacuation System) chutes and liferafts. Indeed, the two principal P&O Dover-Calais ferries, "Pride of Kent" and "Pride of Canterbury," were the first ferries to be certificated to rely entirely on MES equipment and consequently do not have lifeboats. The same will apply to the two new superferries they have ordered.
This has not been without its drawbacks as the "Pride of Canterbury" suffered failures of two of her Marin Ark MES systems during a deployment conducted for the MCA in Dover earlier this year, the day after she suffered major damage when she struck a wreck off the Goodwins. This was found to be due to external corrosion due to weather and addressed by the company and the manufacturers. See link below for the MAIB investigation report:
http://tinyurl.com/6bkh2b
P&O had another unfortunate occurrence several years ago when the "Pride of Aquitaine," soon to return as LD Lines "Norman Spirit", deployed an MES system during an exercise in Dover. Shoreside volunteers acted as passengers and one lady became trapped in the vertical chute and suffocated.
Lifeboats have their own drawbacks. Once away from the ship, a lifeboat is a much superior survival craft to a liferaft. However, launching and recovering these large and heavy boats leaves no room for error or malfunction and crewmembers have been injured and killed on many occasions during drills in recent years, particularly since the introduction of release gear which enables the final stages of the launching operation to be controlled from inside the boat.
