‘Stranded at Sea’: Exploring Passengers’ Reactions During Incidents at Sea

Abstract

Tragic incidents such as the grounding of the Costa Concordia highlight the pressing need to critically review, update, and ultimately improve the safety and security of cruises. Although such disasters are relatively rare, the increasing size and technological complexity characterising today’s cruise vessels, in conjunction with the passengers’ demographic diversity, pose an array of new safety-related challenges. Other incident types such as power failures and the resulting vessel immobility (e.g. the Carnival Triumph Incident) have indicated another safety vulnerability and the accompanying stresses of survival at sea; even on board a ‘luxurious lifeboat’. Following a collision, fire, or a power-shortage, it may often take a long time before passengers are evacuated. This paper aims at shedding light on this aspect of an emergency at sea, focusing on passengers and how they perceive, interpret and cope with a prolonged incident at sea. Following a content analysis of 28 press reports and online secondary data covering the Carnival Triumph, Costa Allegra, Carnival Dream, Azamara Quest, Carnival Legend and Costa Romantica incidents, 137 codes related to passengers’ first-hand recollections were extracted and analysed. The resulting model, consisting of factors potentially affecting passengers’ personal experience and reactions to incidents at sea, could serve as a relevant input for future safety procedures, emergency plans and crew training.