It has been a month for the reason that public discovered that the fire-resistant panels used through the building of the brand new Explora I cruise ship, owned by MSC Cruises and operated by Europa Journeys, failed security certification. The Monetary Occasions (“FT”), which broke the story, reported {that a} whole of round forty-five cruise ships had included the faulty panels of their building.
Since then, I’ve been attempting to find out which cruise ships have the Paroc panels which failed security certification final month. The cruise trade has remained mum, refusing to tell journalists (or the pubic) of this fundamental security info. Final week, we reported on the marine underwriters’ pleas for info from the trade: Insurers of Dozens of Cruise Ships With Potentially Dangerous Fire Panels Seek Transparency: “We Demand Names of All Ships Equipped With Paroc Panels.”
Resulting from this lack of transparency by the cruise trade (together with the producers/suppliers, shipowners, cruise operators, commerce group, certification societies and governmental companies), nobody is aware of precisely what merchandise failed and why.
Yesterday, I situated a listing of cruise ship titled “Examples of latest Paroc Marine References” which lists the vessel the place Paroc marine merchandise had been put in by 2017. The FT article refers to Paroc fire-resistant “panels” which failed security certification. The Paroc literature references numerous fire-resistant “wall panels, ceiling panels and flooring panels.” Paroc primarily advertises that its merchandise embrace a variety of “marine wired mats” and marine hearth slabs” which may be lined with aluminum foil or various kinds of glass fiber dealing with. We have no idea precisely which of those particular fire-resistant merchandise failed security certification. (Paroc additionally make hearth insulation for air ducts and pipes).
The record mentions one-hundred and eighty-three (183) vessels with Paroc fire-resistant merchandise put in, together with cruise ships, passenger and automobile ferries, oil and LNG carriers, container and cargo ships, roll on / roll off (“ro ro”) carriers, tug boats and no less than one “missile boat.” There are fifty-nine (59) cruise ships listed, excluding ferries and cruise ferries, which I highlighted here.
The record mentions twenty-six (26) cruise ships owned by Carnival Company, together with 9 cruise ships operated by Carnival Cruise Line: Carnival Vista, Carnival Miracle, Carnival Valor, Carnival Victory, Carnival Spirit, Carnival Pleasure, Carnival Legend, Carnival Conquest and Carnival Glory; 4 cruise ships operated by Princess Cruises: Crown Princess, Star Princess, Crown Princess, and Royal Princess; 4 cruise ships operated by Holland American Line: Zaandam, Koningsdam, Amsterdam, and Westerdam; 5 cruise ships operated by Costa Cruises: Costa Atlantica, Costa Mediterranea, Costa Diadema and two unnamed ships; two cruise ships operated by AIDA Cruises: AIDAvita and AIDAaura; one ship operated by Peninsular Oriental (P&O) Cruises: Britannia; and one cruise ship operated by Seabourn Cruise Line: Seabourn Encore.
The record consists of sixteen (16) cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.: ten (10) cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean: Journey of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Oasis of the Seas, Attract of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas, and Liberty of the Seas; and 4 ships operated by Mein Schiff, a three way partnership between Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. and German transport and journey big TUI AG: Mein Schiff 3, Mein Schiff 4, Mein Schiff 5 and Mein Schiff 6; and two cruise ships operated by Silver Seas Cruises: Silver Shadow and Silver Mirage.
There are 5 cruise ships on the record owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings: three operated by Norwegian Cruise Line: Norwegian Sky, Norwegian Solar and Norwegian Escape and two cruise ships operated by Seven Seas Cruises: Seven Seas Explorer and Seven Seas Voyager.
The record accommodates three cruise ships owned and operated by Viking Cruises: Viking Star, Viking Sea and Viking Sky.
The record additionally consists of the next 9 cruise ships with Paroc merchandise put in:
- MSC Meraviglia (MSC Cruises)
- Midnattsol (Hurtigruten)
- Birka Paradise (Rederi AB Gotland)
- Genting Dream (Resorts World Cruises)
- The World (Residences at Sea)
- Trollfjord (Trollfjord Cruises)
- Le Lyrial (Ponant Cruises)
- Olympic Spirit (Mada Cruises)
- Viking Grace (Viking Line)
A few feedback about this record ready by Paroc: It’s not present (i.e., by 2023). It reveals the vessels the place Paroc hearth set up merchandise had been put in from the years 2000 by 2017. The record fails to say the names of a number of cruise ships mentioned by FT in its articles Luxury Cruise Liner’s Launch Delayed As Dozens of Ships Face Potential Safety Hazard printed on July eighth (which talked about that 45 cruise ships had been outfitted with the defective hearth panels) and Cruise Liner Supplier Halts Sales of Deficient Fire-Resistant Panels printed on July twenty first. The Explora I, for instance, was talked about in a number of of those articles. Two ships within the MSC Cruises fleet had been additionally talked about. One is the MSC Euribia (picture above), which was beforehand delivered by shipyard Chantiers de L’Atlantique and is at the moment at sea with friends. The opposite cruise ship stays unidentified in FT’s unique reporting. It might be the MSC Meraviglia which is on this record.
Additionally lacking from the record are two Royal Caribbean cruise ships, Explorer of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas. that are listed by Paroc on its website.
As beforehand acknowledged, one other challenge to remember is that the preliminary FT article didn’t point out the exact Paroc fire-resistant merchandise which failed security certification or the precise nature of the failures. The record of 59 cruise ships with Paroc merchandise doesn’t essentially imply that the merchandise, whether or not they embrace panels, slabs or wired mats, failed certification. As a result of lack of transparency, the cruise trade is content material to let this uncertainty live on whereas as many as fifty-nine cruise ships are crusing with tens of hundreds of passengers who don’t have any cause to be assured of their security if a fireplace breaks out on the excessive seas.
Have a remark or query? Please depart one under or join the discussion on our Facebook page.
Picture Credit score: Paroc marine product MSC Euribia By ND44 – CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia.
