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October 19: I have been told that due to the immense popularity of the Regal Empress, Imperial Majesty Cruises is considering fully upgrading her in compliance with the 2010 SOLAS regulations. In order to obtain confirmation of this possibility, I contacted Mr Arthur Pollack, President of Imperial Majesty Cruises who replied as follows …

“The possibility always exists but is in no way confirmed. We are exploring the options (possibility, feasibility and expenses).”

October 25: Having received further information from Manolis Alifierakis, I have decided to conclude this campaign until I receive a request from Senator Leonidas (Lou) Raptakis and Mr. Manolis Alifierakis in Greece that the campaign will recommence.

However, should IMC decide to retain and upgrade the Regal Empress, we will certainly applaud their decision. Mr, Arthur Pollack has a shown great love for classic liners in the past and he, as President of IMC, has operated one of our old favourites in the past, this being the SS OceanBreeze, ex Southern Cross.

Reuben Goossens

Maritime Historian

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Originally posted by Aussie1:
Compliance to SOLAS 2010 would be vastly expensive and involve removal of all the wood panelling from the ship, the very thing that gives her such charm and style. It is a pity that some sort of waver from SOLAS 2010 cannot be made for this ship, just like the Delta Queen has. If Regal Empress is safe to carry passengers today, she will be not less safe come 2010.

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Sprinklers are far more important.

[ 10-26-2005: Message edited by: cruisemole ]

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Originally posted by cruisemole:
No. Ships will still be full of combustible material - carpets, fabric, stores, passengers, etc.

Sprinklers are far more important.

[ 10-26-2005: Message edited by: cruisemole ]

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This is not a decision between the installation of sprinklers or flame resistant materials. Reducing the material which can burn is UTMOST important - no fire detection system or automatic fire extinguishing system can compensate that. Finally everything burns somewhen - what can be done tough is to reduce the amount of (easily)
combustible material as much as possible ( tough it can never be eliminated - the stuff people bring aboard is already enough to cause problems) Actually wood is not that bad in this respect (certain features of wood are actually better during a fire than other materials - but this is less relevant on a ship) What it is more urgent is the removal of materials like PVC which produce toxic fumes. This and the installation of a proper ventilation system might be difficult on an old ship.

Training of the crew is of course very important - especially on a ship which can not be evacuated that easily a well trained crew is crucial.
But it is never one factor alone - you can not compensate a lack in one ambit by another measure.

Concerning the wood it is less the inflammabillity (it is usually not that easy to set wood on fire) than the increased fire load which would concern me. (it neverthless will burn)
Genererally it is not only (but also) the wood on old ships which is a problem. There are other material which are more hazardous - and often installations like sprinkler, proper ventilations systems, fire doors and fire insulations can not be incorproated subsequently.

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Originally posted by Aussie1:
As important, maybe even more so than the amount of combustable material, is how well run a ship is in terms of safety management. How many of say P&O's wood filled postwar liners caught fire in the way the, in theory, safer Ectasy did a few years ago when her stern burned? Eliminate whatever risks you can but no ship can be made totally fireproof so safety management is and will remain of the upmost importance.

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[ 10-27-2005: Message edited by: Ernst ]

In the '50's the Nieuw Amsterdam caught fire whene she was home at the Wilhelminakade Rotterdam. Here wel trained crew together with the Rotterdam fire department became worst. And shiftly put out the fire. A wel trained crew is the answer to fire safety.

Photos of how a fire will destroy an older passenger ship can be found on the Australian ss Maritime website. ( mv Oranje section in old passenger ships )

I was in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, on the old Princess Cruises ship mv Sun Princess ex P&O's Spirit of London when the Angelina Lauro ex Oranje, caught fire in March 1979.

The fire started about 4.30 in the afternoon and dispite attampts to get it under control the ship was completely alight by midnight when we sailed for San Juan with about 400 of the Angelina Lauro passengers on board as well as our own passengers which numbered about 730.

The Captain, John Young, who called the Sun Princess the Greyhound of the Carribean when making his broadcasts about arrival in port said we were just within our safety certificate limits with the number of passengers and crew on board !

He made this broadcast coming into St Thomas every cruise when we would overtake about four of the other cruise ships due in the about the same time as us due to the speed of the Sun Princess and take the berth nearest the town. ( Speed - 23.5 knots with everything on max power ! )

We provided a self service buffet dinner in the main lounge when we sailed at midnight for the Angelia Laura passengers and a continental breakfast for them the next morning before they disembarked when we arrived in San Juan.

We also provided blankets used on the alaska cruises for them to sleep in the lounge chairs that night.

A number of our passengers also bought them drinks from the ships bars.

As a lot of the Anglina passengers were in shorts and tops having been on the beach all day and had lost the rest of their clothes in the fire.

A large number of our passengers provided them with warm clothing for their flights back to the US mainland, and were not upset with the disruptions to our normal entertainments programme for the last night at sea.

Representatives from Costa Cruises were at San Juan to meet them when we arrived and I think they provided about $200 each for them to buy essentials.

Many of our passengers and those from the Angelina Laura complimented us on being able to cater for these unexpected 400 extra passengers.

I was the Maitre d'Hotel on Sun Princess at the time.

A lot appears about the other Princess cruise ships being the Love Boat.

However the Sun Princess was the first Love Boat and on the first night at sea showed a film in the cinema titled ' The Original Love Boat ' which was made before the TV series and filmed on Sun Princess.

The film was made from a book ' The Love Boats '
which was written by ex Princess Cruises Cruise Director Jeraldine Saunders who was from California and was published in 1974.

I have a soft cover version of the book autographed by Jeraldine but it is not for sale !

Bob

[ 12-03-2005: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]

See All Pics Here

[ 12-04-2005: Message edited by: CGT ]

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