Cruise ship carrying 1,300 lost in red sea

[Spiffor]

And another catastrophe...

[Mordoch]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Eh. It could be that hypothermia claimed some of the older or younger victims, or some of those in poor circulatory health. But I don't think that any adults in normal condition would have died from hypothermia.

This is strictly based on your "feel" of things rather than anything concrete then. A few degrees lower temperature from your experience can make a difference, and its a matter of a much longer period of time causing hypothermia issues while a shorter period may not.

[Krill]

[q=KH]Good thing human beings are warm-blooded creatures, and do not attain thermal equilibrium with their surroundings.[/q]

yeah, it is a good thing. However, your last statement is not true under all circumstances. If one is in water for an extended period, say 10 hours plus, for example, being an endotherm is not going to keep you alive. the capillaries near the surface of your skin still have to dilate every so often to let oxygenated blood reach your cells in the dermis, and that loses heat. Your body cannot sustain a rate of metabolism fast enough to replace the lost heat from the body.

You have to sleep sometime as well, and you might end up sleeping with the fishes.


[q=KH]Eh. It could be that hypothermia claimed some of the older or younger victims, or some of those in poor circulatory health. But I don't think that any adults in normal condition would have died from hypothermia.[/q]

Being young or old, or having poorer circulation would just decrease the amount of time you could spend in the water before dying...

[Provost Harrison]

I pretty much agree with KH, I doubt it would be the temperature that would kill them, especially if they keep moving, which they wouldn't have much choice over. I would sincerely expect that exhaustion would get the better of them first, although if the response of the Egyptians is relatively quick they may be OK...

And then I forgot the unpleasant effect that prolonged contact with water can have too...

[Daz]

Another interesting fact:

The ship was initially built for around 500 passangers. After 20 or so years they decided its not enough and added 4 (four) decks to it to increase the capacity to over 1000!!!

Most of these "monsters" were decomissioned, but 3, uhm, sorry, 2 are still operative...

Great country, eh?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Daz
Another interesting fact:

The ship was initially built for around 500 passangers. After 20 or so years they decided its not enough and added 4 (four) decks to it to increase the capacity to over 1000!!!

Most of these "monsters" were decomissioned, but 3, uhm, sorry, 2 are still operative...

Great country, eh?

Every ferry tragedy in recent years, as far as I can recall, has featured a ship with way, way more passengers on it than it was designed to hold.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Daz
Another interesting fact:

The ship was initially built for around 500 passangers. After 20 or so years they decided its not enough and added 4 (four) decks to it to increase the capacity to over 1000!!!

Most of these "monsters" were decomissioned, but 3, uhm, sorry, 2 are still operative...

Great country, eh?

It's not surprising that over loading and modifications contributed to this disaster. It seems we hear about modified or overloaded ferries sinking in the third world every year or two.

[Daz]

Scary eh...