Cruise Town, Ep. 5: We Almost Lost Yanni

The Prisendam lists and is adrift in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska in October 1980. Passengers and crew evacuated the vessel after a fire crippled the Holland America cruise ship. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard) — The Prisendam adrift in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska in October 1980. Passengers and crew evacuated the vessel after a fire crippled the Holland America cruise ship. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

No discussion of cruise ships would be complete without talking about maritime disasters.

Yes, it’s morbid, but it’s hard not to think about what could go wrong when 5,000 people are trapped on a boat at sea — everything from ship-wide intestinal distress to people falling overboard. There was even a murder on a cruise ship in 2017 in the waters near Juneau.

The good news is, there are tons of safety measures in place.

In this episode, we talk to the people who have thought about how to prepare for the worst things that could happen — like if international superstar musician Yanni was stranded on a sinking ship, for example. (Yeah, that happened.)

The Disney Wonder cruise ship – and its yellow lifeboats – stopped in Juneau on a regular basis in the summer 2019. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
Disney had to get approval from international maritime authorities to paint their lifeboats aboard the cruise ship Disney Wonder to look like Donald Duck’s feet. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
Tops of lifeboats for the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth are painted a color called international safety orange. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
One of the many muster or assembly stations located on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth. Passengers are supposed to assemble at these areas during a muster drill or a real emergency. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
Fire screen doors – like these on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth – are designed to stay closed to contain a fire, but they can be opened quickly to avoid trapping people. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
Firefighting resources are located all around the ship, sometimes hidden in plain sight in a dining room aboard the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
The Prisendam lists and is adrift in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska in October 1980. Passengers and crew evacuated the vessel after a fire crippled the Holland America cruise ship. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)
Another ship takes the cruise ship Prisendam under tow after a fire crippled the vessel in October 1980. Headed to a potential port in the Pacific Northwest for repairs, it later sank. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)
U.S. Coast Guard H-3 helicopter hoists a survivor aboard during the Prisendam rescue in October 1980. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)
A helicopter prepares to rescue survivors from a life raft during the Prisendam rescue in October 1980. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard
An unidentified member of the U.S. Coast Guard assists a Prisendam survivor after the vessel’s fire in the Gulf of Alaska in October 1980. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)
Rear Admiral Richard Knapp was in charge of the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska during the search and rescue of the Prisendam passengers and crew. His final report highlighted the actions of the Air Force pararescue jumpers and provided the impetus for creation of a new rescue swimmer position within the Coast Guard. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)
Paul Webb, who served aboard the U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender Woodrush during the Prisendam fire, goes through an archived file of documents preserved from the original search and rescue operation. On the computer screen in front of him is a picture of another cruise ship that encountered trouble in Southeast Alaska, the sternwheeler Empress of the North, which grounded on a rock near Juneau in 2007. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
One of the last messages received from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter during the Prisendam search and rescue in the Gulf of Alaska in October 1980. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
A list of passengers evacuated to Sitka, Alaska during the search and rescue of the Prisendam in October 1980. Is that really Yanni at number 36? (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)