Moble Register: Cruise ship becomes shelter

[brooklynite]

The Mobile-based Holiday cruise ship will be taken out of the vacation business and spend the next six months as a floating shelter for those stranded by Hurricane Katrina, officials with Carnival Cruise Lines announced Saturday.

Carnival officials said affected guests were to be notified Saturday of canceled and modified sailings made necessary by the contract entered into with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

...snip...

In all, three Carnival ships will be used as shelters, with initial plans calling for the Holiday to remain in Mobile while it serves as a shelter, cruise line officials said.

The Ecstasy, normally homeported in Galveston, Texas, and the Sensation, normally homeported in New Orleans, will be pulled from service starting Monday. Initial plans call for both ships to be docked in Galveston.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1125825445122680.xml&coll=3
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Earlier this week, Carnival had announced they were resuming cruises this weekend. I wonder why they changed their minds...

[fasttense]

1. Good for them, nice to hear, I hope this is the start of all

American corporations helping the victims. That means the oil companies too!!

[Karenina]

15. If you think there is anything altruistic

about this plan, do think again. It is a spectacularly BAD IDEA and will result in more death.

[RummyTheDummy]

19. WTF are you talking about?

[Karenina]

22. Maybe you wanna Google

Cruise ships disease outbreaks.

That's just ONE reason. I could give ya a few more...

[napi21]

2. Yesterday, I read that the Feds were contracting with the cruise line

to use those ships for housing purposes, and they will be paid our of the FEMA fund appropriation.

[sam sarrha]

3. I bet thet was an F'n SWEET DEAL... Jesus, our tax money at work.

are the people going on the Fascist ship Lolly Pop going to be black.????..

this is too tooooo much..

We need to know how much Money this cost us and how much money is being diverted to Corporate coffers... and denied to people needing help

[kurtyboy]

4. You can bet that the contract is indeed at a premium

Good business decision by Carnival, because in an active Tropical season, they might see up to half of their future bookings lost--if the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, etc. are also affected.

That said, was it a good business decision by the government? I'll await what I hope to be a torrent of scorching audits and Congressional investigations into post-disaster corruption and profiteering, especially by Bush-friendly corporate interests.

[henslee]

9. Ships are being rented for 7 months. 6 for use. l month to clean up.

And they are paying a discount but still a substantial price.

[woodsprite]

5. Ya' know. With the attitude of this gov't

I'd be half afraid to get on a cruise ship. Call it tinfoil hat, but I don't trust them.

[JoFerret]

6. ...and cruise industry health record

being what it is....

[RummyTheDummy]

20. Actually lately it's been pretty good

I actually go on quite a few cruises.

[CountAllVotes]

7. the next coffin ships

and we thought the Irish famine was bad. You ain't seen nothing yet! These ships will become death ships never to return as those onboard are likely carrying diseases that are contagious but, psst, DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT OK?

:grr:

:kick:

[Ian David]

8. There were death ships of Jewish refugees during &after The Holocaust

Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself...


The Struma
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/Holocaust.html
February 24, 1943 The ship 'Struma' sailed from Romania to Palestine with 769 Romanian Jews on board. The British refused them entry into Palestine (a mistake they were to regret), so the ship then sailed to Turkey who likewise refused them to disembark. At sea for 74 days, hopelessly overcrowded and with no country willing to accept them, the 'Struma' was sunk by a torpedo from a Russian submarine just a few miles from Istanbul. All onboard perished except sole survivor, David Stolier.


The St. Louis
http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/st-louis.html

It was springtime in 1939. Germany was infested with antisemitic feelings, and oppression was prevalent everywhere. On May 13th, 1937, Jews boarded a luxury liner called St. Louis in Hamburg, Germany to travel to Havana, Cuba. Most of these passengers had sold all of their belongings to buy passage and visas that would legally entitle them to disembark in Cuba. They were soon to find, as did so many others, that "a passport stamped 'J' was a passport to nowhere

The passengers aboard the St. Louis were broken up into about 300 men, 500 women, and 150 children. Their compassionate captain, Gustav Schroeder, treated these people extremely well. The trip was a cruise, not a frantic escape. Everything seemed as if it had all fallen in place for the Jews, and their future looked bright. Then the ship tried to land.

When St. Louis reached Havana, Cuba, the Jews' visas and quotas were revoked. Cuban officials denied the Germans entry. The ship was ordered to leave harbor. Now the people did not feel as if they were on a cruise. They felt the panic of refugees without a place to go. As St. Louis set sail for Miami, the United States Coast Guard intercepted them and warned them to sail on. Captain Schroeder sailed St. Louis for two months, trying to find a port to land, but the ship and its passengers were refused entry by every haven in the Americas.

The international publicity of these events led to the ship being ordered back to Germany. Schroeder even considered scuttling the ship near England to save his passengers. Two days before the ship was to land, the passengers were accepted by Holland, France, Belgium, and England (each took a quarter of the passengers).

As much as one would wish it to be, there is not a happy ending to this tragedy. Just because the Jews were not in Germany, did not mean they were safe.

Four months later, the war began. Less than half of the passengers of St. Louis survived the Nazi death camps. In 1989, those who did survive, had a reunion to recall the trip.

More:
http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/st-louis.html

The Exodus 1947: Ship of the Forsaken

The Exodus 1947, originally known as the SS President Warfield, was a Haganah ship that sailed from Sete, France in July 1947 with survivors now known as DP's (Displaced Person's) of the Holocaust for Haifa. Although it was designed to carry less than 500 passengers, the ship subsequently transported more than 4,500 Jewish Holocaust refugees to Palestine. The British forces, who were ruling mandated Palestine, intercepted the boat on the 18th. There was a fierce battle where the passengers were clubbed, firehosed and teargassed into submission. They captured the passengers and deported them to Displaced Persons camps in Germany.

More:
http://www.jhsm.org/exodus/Intro2.html

See the movie:
http://www.jewishculture.org/film/exodus1947.htm

[Spinzonner]

10. There will b outbreaks of Cabin Fever before very long

I think this is a bad idea. It's too closed off an area for an extended stay and logictically much more difficult to support than land-based places.

And, of course, the history of mini-epidemics on some of these ships.

How are they going to to the maintenance and cleaning they typically do after cruises ?

[sam sarrha]

13. F'n Bird Flu.....!!!!!!!!!!!

[LibDemAlways]

14. I agree.

If some Carnival crew members are forced to stay aboard, there will be an in-port mutiny. These workers rely on the tips they receive weekly in exchange for putting in long hours as waiters and room stewards. Take away those "gratuities", and they are not going to be providing service with a smile.

I don't know who will be providing the food service, but you can bet it won't be the usual staff under the usual conditions.

Quarters are also very cramped and not intended for an extended stay. Plus, in port, the pools and shops will be closed and there won't be much to do. It's a recipe for people going stir crazy.

I can see this as a very temporary measure; but for six months? No.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. They will be ghost ships soon enough

What a convenient way to quarantine people when disease breaks out. Then they can just take the whole ship to sea and sink the damn thing and we will have mass graves at sea that no one will ever be able to find. Even Saddam never came up with an idea like that.

[Scooter24]

12. $257 Million.

I read that Carnival is getting around $257 million for the use of 3 ships. I'll see if I can find a link.

[iamjoy]

16. Cautiously Optimistic

I am going to hope for the best, but I am not so naive as to not have apprehensions.

I applaud Carnival Cruise Lines for offering its ships, I wonder if the monetary compensation is sufficient for all the lost cruise revenues. And the on board casinos too, a major revenue source. They could make up a bit if they aren't paying for entertainment, but still...

As for the crowded conditions, a couple of reasons why this is not as big a deal as it seems. The crueler logic is these people have pretty much lost everything, they don't have that much stuff, it will be uncomfortable, but that brings us to the second reason - do you imagine the other accomodations being made for these people are spacious and comfortable? They are putting people in the AstroDome, cots in a row. The cruise ship is comparitive luxury. Of course, those inside cabins are going to suck.

Days off for employees aren't a new issue. Cruise lines hire crew memebers for six month contracts. Quite often, the "lowest" level employees (servers, cabin stewards) do not get a day off during that time. The day your cruise ends, another begins. After one set of passengers disembarks, a new set for a new cruise is boarding within three hours. They clean the ship throughout the cruise and do little different between cruises. They will do less if they aren't worried about making it as nice because the passengers or guests aren't paying. This is not to say they will let the ship be trashed, but little decorative touches like towel animals, etc will probably not be there.

I do wonder how they will compensate those tip dependent employees. No way these people can afford it, tipping properly adds up to about $10 per passenger per day, the Katrina victims aren't going to have that. For those tipped crew members, it is probably about $100 per day they are losing in tips.

What a great idea it would be if some of the people made homeless and unemployed by Katrina could find jobs and a place to stay on the ship. Think about it, if a hotel maid lost her job because the hotel were destroyed, why not become a maid on the ship?

[Betsy Ross]

17. And when the next hurricane strikes? n/t

[LeighAnn]

18. Am anxious to see the socioeconomic mix of the passengers

I'll bet there will be a contrast in comparison with the guests at the Astrodome

[RummyTheDummy]

21. Being an experienced cruiser myself.....

And someone who has taken the time to learn the inner workings of modern cruise ships (beyond the umbrella drinks and casinos)I'm amazed at the amount of dumb, hysterical, and generally uninformed comments on this thread. I guess I shouldn't be.

[Skink]

23. I'm guessing the entire crews were signed off and sent to Miami

to board other ships while people at the end of their contract went home. The ships are technically in America now and they have to staff the ships with people with American work permits. A temp company must be doing the contracting.