Ocean-going passenger ships used to be designed to take any kind of
weather that could be anticipated on the high seas. They were not
necessarily ice-berg proof but they could take any sort of weather
they might encounter. They routinely plied the north Atlantic in the
winter where experienced sailors will tell you the sea conditions
frequently exceed anything found in tropical hurricanes.

Today they are simply floating hotels designed for the maximum return
to the cruise line. I believe they are designed for waves to 40 ft.
Some of them draw 18-20 ft. (perhaps some even less) of water and have
90 ft. of freeboard. Think about losing power in a Force 12 storm.
How many minutes would it take for that floating hotel to flip right
over?

I predict that before too long one of them will go down in bad
weather and with enormous loss of life. This will probably occur
during what are known in the cruise-line business as "displacement
cruises" where the ship seasonally moves from Europe/Mediterraznean to
the Caribbean and vice versa. This will probably happen on a
westbound crossing which occur from late August through November
during the height of the hurricane season. Ever look at a seasonal
tracking map of Atlantic hurricanes? We usually only hear about the
ones that threaten our coastal areas. Thirty knots (and more) was
common in these passenger liners (the S.S. United States never
revealed it max speed for security reasons (under an agreement it
could be requisitioned by the govt. in case of war) but 40 knots was
often heard as its maximum speed. As an aside there used to be a
transAtlantic prize for the fastest crossing by a passenger ship. It
was known as the Blue Riband. The S.S. United States was, to this day
never defeated. The prize was claimed a few years ago by an eccentric
zillionaire who stripped everything out of a 140 or so ft. yacht known
as the Gentry Eagle and took two "paying" passengers aboard so he
could claim he had beaten the S.S. United States' speed record. I
think he died a couple of years ago in Hawaii. I believe his name was
Gentry. Solmeone in this NG will undoubtedly know the entire story.

Incidentally, there is not a hell of a lot the Coast Guard could do
for a cruise ship hundreds of miles off shore during a Category four
or five hurricane

The media in reporting this incident has shown how uninformed and
alarmist and sensationalist they really are. They have sought out the
most hysterical passengers they could find to interview--"I knew we
were going down." "I knew it was gioing to be another Titantic." In
contrast I enjoyed the one perfectly candid guy who slipped by the
editors and stated that he just kept playing in the casino until it
closed around 3 a.m. I think most of the seas they were encountering
were in the 35 ft. range. I've been on the QEII in 30 ft. seas when
one was hardly even aware that the boat was moving.

A few passengers got wet. Four had minor injuries. Hell, things like
this used to happen all the time and nobody made a big deal of it.
Not too many years ago the now scrapped superliner "France"
encountered an unexpected wave during a transAtlantic crossing. None
of the heavy tables were secured as they normally are in bad weather.
These heavy tables and some chairs went flying about and scores of
passengers had broken bones and contusions.. About 20 years ago the
Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) was coming out of New Zealand bound for
Australia when it encountered seas in excess of 25 meters--a few
broken bones, mostly to passengers who would leave their fingers in
the door jamb as they were going in or out of their cabins. The
motion would cause the door to slam shut on them and voila--broken
fingers. I don't believe for a minute that a single one of these
modern cruise ships could have survived such a blow.