I’m not sure what’s troubling about that. That’s essentially the way that many (all?) large ships like that are constructed in the first place, including warships.
Chopping construction into separate ‘blocks’ (and the sub-assemblies therein) makes them far more conveniently sized to work on. Potentially, different pieces can even contracted out to other shipyards halfway around the world. At the end, they’re all just slid into place and bolted/welded together.
If anything, I’d take it as a good sign that even after decades at sea, they were able to build a new section (even pre-build it, apparently, with the ship not in the yard yet) and slot it in that smoothly. It’s quite impressive even on a brand new ship, as all the tolerances must be very tight. If a waste pipe or hull plate is even a fraction of a millimeter out of alignment, the sections might not go together right.
I’ll be a minority and say I’d love to have been on that ship. And that though exciting, was pretty tame in some respects. Now if that ship lost power and couldn’t maintain course or steer, then well that would be bad.
I’ve worked on research ships in the past, and must say the best cruises were the ones where we were really in the thick of it. What it came to for me is that if I trusted the ship and trusted the crew, it was all good.
You don’t get any science done on that kind of cruise, but man what a ride. Makes you feel alive, and it’s what you did indeed sign up for (unlike people on a cruise ship).
I almost get the appeal of cruise ships. I think it’s being out in the middle of the open ocean in a tiny little cabin, with nothing to do and a bottle of rum to do it with.
But that place looks like a shopping mall on the inside. With all you can eat buffets. And you travel to the Bahamas and get a a day or two on the beach and then you go back to your floating mall. At the end of that I think I’d be praying for a big storm like that.
Using that method for initial construction doesn’t bother me, but taking something already constructed and altering it that way does. I agree it takes a lot of skill, but in my mind that makes it more prone to problems.
I’m pretty sure the captain was the one who saved the ship from capsizing. Also pretty sure that the shipping line ordered him to go into the storm. “Oh, no, you have to get to Manhattan in time otherwise we lose money”. Happened before. Anyone remembers the Titanic?
After watching the movie Sully, it’s easy to see how following someone else’s flawed instructions instead your own knowledge and experience can be disastrous. At what point does the captain get to decide it’s not worth the risk? If he refused, I’d hope the rest of the crew would’ve backed his decision.
Cruises aren’t very appealing to me. If you love Las Vegas, but wish it was smaller and surrounded by saltwater, then cruise ships will be a treat for you. But I don’t love Las Vegas that much.
This probably seemed like a big deal to the passengers, but this is always possible in a ship on the ocean. I doubt it seemed that dangerous to the crew.
