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Boat Fire - Lessons to consider
"You" wrote in message ... In article om, "mmc" wrote: "Capt. JG" wrote in message ons... "cavelamb" wrote in message ... In situations like that you do the best you can. Just accept it and don't worry about the "what ifs". They will drive you nuts. Ya done good, John. Yup... that's all you can do. Tragic outcome. -- "j" ganz @@ www.sailnow.com One guy makes a mistake that costs him his life as well as some property damage and this is somehow more tragic than dozens lost off of Sierra Leone? I read the "poor poeple are perfectly happy" bull**** on the other thread. Apparently not if they'll go to those lengths to get a better life. Like those "perfectly happy" Cubans that die trying to make the passage to Florida. What are we really crying about here? The loss of dockage? As far as "I" am concerned, neither of these events could be classed, as Tragic. They both seem to be just plain Human Stupidity. We, the readers of these type stories, are so accustomed to our NEWS Reporting adding superlatives like "Tragic", etc, to our News, that when a truly "Tragic" Event occurs, and gets reported. There aren't any adjectives that can describe the event left to use.... In the fire case, the original vessel owner/skipper made a bunch of errors. The towboat skipper, also made a bunch of errors. which compounded the situation. The Fire Department, wasn't equipped properly to fight fire, on that dock, which was a Massive oversight, of their operational planning. The rest of the folks did the best they could with the cards they were dealt, and did what was needed to be done, to terminate the event. IN the Sierra Leone vessel sinking, it would seem the vessel skipper was a bit over optimistic, (Being very Politically Correct here) on the amount of overloading his vessel could handle, given the weather conditions, and seas he encountered. The passengers, were certainly being totally oblivious of that obvious fact, of the overloading of the vessel. The Government Authority seems to be oblivious to the danger of this type of transportation idiocy. So, who is to blame... All of the above... I haven't been in Sierra Leone but I have worked in Guinea where we rode ferries (mix of OLD actual vehicle ferries and landing craft) that were loaded to capacity with vehicles and then standing passengers packed like sardines in all the open spaces. So many people you couldn't get out of the vehicle. Was it unsafe, you betcha! Was there another way across the river? Yeah, swim. Deeper in the jungle the ferries became somewhat simpler, we did one that was a trio of big dugouts with heavy planks laid accross sideways. Again, if you need to get to the other side... Guinea, when I was there, was heads and tails over SL in every aspect and you might see a couple of soldiers hanging out at the landings but no "Government Authority" in sight. First world ideas and ideals are great but they don't fit everywhere. Not everyone can afford them. As for the guy that died horribly after filling his boat, have you ever made a mistake? Should you have died screaming because of your mistake? That's a little harsh, isn't it? Seems like Darwin Theory in action.... Survival of the fittest...... or of the Less Stupid.... Tragic, to me would seem to cover things that happen, that one, has NO control Over. Like Acts of God, etc.... but if one has even a second or third degree of decision making in any part of the event, you can't call it "Tragic".... |
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