Hungarian tourist boat collides with river cruise.

[JosephT]

Well the weather is warming up in the northern hemisphere, which means boats of all types are gearing up for action. And some are bumping into each other.

From the article it appears the cruise boat hit the stern of the smaller tour boat. For a cruise ship of that size I'm a bit surprised they're not running a surface radar to help avoid collisions.

Tourist Boats Crash In Hungary's Danube River; At Least 7 Dead, 21 Missing https://www.npr.org/2019/05/30/728229142/tourist-boats-crash-in-hungarys-danube-river-at-least-7-dead

 

[jehardiman]

I hate to bring this up, but it is one of my soapboxes that all professional Naval Architects should address...
Several years ago we discussed the same thing...operator mistakes in 1st-2nd world countries in which a few people die get much more press than 3rd world incidents where many more die due to lack of basic competence. See this post:
Costa Concordia, 80 deg list, really scary !! https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/costa-concordia-80-deg-list-really-scary.41331/page-7#post-522021

Yet not one note in these forums about this:
30 Dead and 200 Missing in Congo After Boat Sinks https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/world/africa/congo-boat-sinking.html

 

[JosephT]

Thanks for sharing that other story. Not all news feeds are the same to be sure. I do recall posting about an overloaded ferry in India. I wonder if that skipper was ever prosecuted.

Ferry in India sinks: When will they learn? https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/ferry-in-india-sinks-when-will-they-learn.42899/#post-550387

There have been discussions to be sure, yet many of these incidents do receive less press. As a whole, you will surely find more stories in industrialized countries where there are more media organizations available. Sadly, media organizations focus so much on making money and they're looking for sensational news to achieve that. If a story will not make money...why print it? That is sad especially when people have perished.

There's also the aspect of law enforcement. By comparison, industrialized countries take people to court and use the justice system. That is NOT always the case in 3rd world countries where gross neglect is often overlooked (with a little bribery money in many cases). The case from the Congo involved a ferry boat (likely overloaded) venturing out in bad weather (another problem). So the real problem in 3rd world is enforcement of vessel safety rules. Yet somehow enforcement is never a headline story. The irony in that is astounding. All we read about is a few hundred drown here or there, but very little attention paid to what the real problem is.

 

[Rurudyne]

Thanks for sharing that other story. Not all news feeds are the same to be sure. I do recall posting about an overloaded ferry in India. I wonder if that skipper was ever prosecuted.

Ferry in India sinks: When will they learn? https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/ferry-in-india-sinks-when-will-they-learn.42899/#post-550387

There have been discussions to be sure, yet many of these incidents do receive less press. As a whole, you will surely find more stories in industrialized countries where there are more media organizations available. Sadly, media organizations focus so much on making money and they're looking for sensational news to achieve that. If a story will not make money...why print it? That is sad especially when people have perished.

There's also the aspect of law enforcement. By comparison, industrialized countries take people to court and use the justice system. That is NOT always the case in 3rd world countries where gross neglect is often overlooked (with a little bribery money in many cases). The case from the Congo involved a ferry boat (likely overloaded) venturing out in bad weather (another problem). So the real problem in 3rd world is enforcement of vessel safety rules. Yet somehow enforcement is never a headline story. The irony in that is astounding. All we read about is a few hundred drown here or there, but very little attention paid to what the real problem is.

Even in the 1st and 2nd world mass transportation, if on land in the form of busses and trains or on water in the form of ferries demonstrate the simple fact that some folks just have a much higher tolerance for the close proximity than do others.

And attitudes work both ways, I would not be surprised in the least if some Indians, on reading David Crocket's opinion on when the neighbors were getting too close, would conclude that early Americans were just plain antisocial.

 

[philSweet]

On a related note, I'm in the middle of the Cornelius Vanderbilt biography by Stiles published in 2009. Much of the first 150 pages is about the competitive boat driving, racing, and paint-swapping that was a frequent part of New York's daily steamship commute for more than fifty years. There were regular bouts of dangerous brinksmanship with fully loaded commuter ferries that went on sometimes for years between competing boats and captains. And Cornelius was in the thick of it, from being a captain, to being a fleet owner, to being a director of multiple competing corporations who puppetmastered these shenanigans.

https://www.amazon.com/First-Tycoon...argid=aud-643330155750:pla-454067128052&psc=1

 

[Rurudyne]

I guess if it looked like your boat was racing to get there first it meant you were getting your money's worth compared to the guy that was taking his own sweet time crossing. NYC always was in a hurry.