Cruise and Liner History – The Princess Victoria disaster – could it happen again?
59 years ago, on January 31,1953, the British ferry “Princess Victoria” foundered in severe weather off the Irish coast. She sank shortly after 1400 local time, taking 128 people with her.
One of those was the ship’s Radio Officer, David Broadfoot, who continued sending distress messages as the ship was capsizing. He even apologised for his poor sending to the Portpatrick Coast Radio Station as the vessel was on her beam ends……
Carnival Corp’s Costa Concordia went down in calm seas. Imagine if the recent tragedy had happened in rough waters, considering the chaos of Costa Line’s evacuation of 3,000 passengers.
The sinking of the Princess Victoria had many similarities with the Costa Concordia.
None of the officers or women and children were saved on the Princess Victoria.
A video of the MV Princess Victoria. The British Railways steamer sank in the North Channel on January 31, 1953.
MV Princess Victoria was a British Railways passenger car ferry operating between Scotland and Northern Ireland. She set sail from Scotland on 31st January 1953 in the midst of a violent storm. A short time later she started to take on water from the car deck stern doors causing her to list before she capsized.
The Princess Victoria was built in Dumbarton in 1947 and was operated as a passenger car ferry between Stranraer and the Northern Irish port of Larne.
A full blown gale was in progress when the Princess Victoria left her home port of Stranraer on the Scottish west coast on 31st January 1953. A short way into the voyage the stern doors on the car deck were breached by high seas, and despite attempts to secure the doors the seawater continued to penetrate them pouring into the car deck.
She listed badly and capsized, sinking with the loss of 133 lives.
Left: This is the collection of extraordinary Brit media flacks – Burson-Marsteller – who have been hired by Micky Arison to handle Costa Concordia debacle and downplay how passengers were treated. Pathetic, huh? Considering one of them is a Rupert Murdoch hack. ) Clarence Mitchell, a British press agent and flack, media manipulator, connected to Rupert Murdoch, is handling the mounting corporate nightmare and faces a big task. He apparently handles cover ups and other related media corporate cover-ups. Arison, who is hiding out in Miami, wants Brit Burson-Marsteller to keep press and public away from him. He’s more concerned with his Florida basketball team than his passengers. His “Costa/Carnival” employee told a young disabled Argentine man to “sue” the American company if they were dissatisfied with the “showboat” cruise.
