Red Sea Incident

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wtf?

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:48 (eighteen years ago) link

... sounds like an indie band... "Red Sea Incident", I mean

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Egyptians be drowning!

― The Man in the Iron-On Mask (noodle vague), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Something something Moses something something Israelites something something ten plagues

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:53 (eighteen years ago) link

i was gonna make some off-colour 'crimson'-based menstruation-pun joke but... didn't.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:54 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.ilcancello.com/LOCANDINE%20E%20FILM/LOCANDINE/POSTER%20-%20BEHEMOTH%20THE%20SEA%20MONSTER.jpg

― melton mowbray (adr), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:58 (eighteen years ago) link

The monster is presumably saying "Where da titties at?"

― The Man in the Iron-On Mask (noodle vague), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:59 (eighteen years ago) link

not actually intended as a joke thread, but well, here we are.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 3 February 2006 11:59 (eighteen years ago) link

more of a 'speculate on if this is another uss vincennes' thing.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:00 (eighteen years ago) link

It's funny because it's not me.

― The Man in the Iron-On Mask (noodle vague), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Nah sorry, it is rather scary. (Still, no need to rule out sea monsters yet.)

― melton mowbray (adr), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:00 (eighteen years ago) link

The biggest thing since time began!

Yeah right, you wanna see some of the women that work here!

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:10 (eighteen years ago) link

So as many people may have drowned here as in New Orleans and this is a joke thread?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I was surprised too, but eh, what can you do?

― The Man in the Iron-On Mask (noodle vague), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:22 (eighteen years ago) link

I am not joking, Markelby.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:22 (eighteen years ago) link

It was old, had been in accidents before and sank. No mysterious mysteries.

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:27 (eighteen years ago) link

It's the 'vanishing' bit I find weird. Why not say explicitly it looks like it drowned? Are they trying to keep open the possibility that Scylla and Charybdis are back?

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Er, by drowned I mean sank

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 3 February 2006 12:33 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/0/31/635/848/0316358487.jpg

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!! (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:03 (eighteen years ago) link

It wasn't that old. Built in 1970.

The same firm that operates it crashed a passenger ferry into a cargo ship just outside the Suez canal last autumn, killing two and injuring dozens.

Wires are now saying hundreds of floating bodies have been found...

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Live coverage here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:11 (eighteen years ago) link

1,300 people? This is horrifying.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:12 (eighteen years ago) link

I take it back, coverage has ended.

I'm sure it'll be on later though.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah its always sad that more people die in things like this than in 9/11 and hardly anyone bats an eye. I keep thinking of the Ghopal battery acid disaster and getting angry.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link

You mean Bhopal? And it wasn't battery acid. Or maybe you do mean Ghopal battery acid disaster and I 've just never heard of it.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Seriously, who buys a ticket without first checking the ship's safety record?

― naus (Robert T), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

... errrrrrrrrrrr, almost everyone?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link

So this is just a case of caveat emptor?

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Seriously, who buys a ticket without first checking the train's safety record? After all, the same GNER engine was used in both the Hatfield and Selby crashes, so you can never be too sure.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link

more people died in 9/11, trayce.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, I at least agree that it's a good idea to check the safety record, though I have never done so myself.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link

No Nemo, It was more of a rhetorical question to try to bring attention to the fact a horrible tragedy has occurred and some of the people here are just laughing about it, as if it were their own fault that the ship sank. Those people had no way of knowing when they stepped onto the ship that it had been poorly maintained. They weren't exactly travelling in great weather, but there's a good chance a ship in better condition would have held up.

― naus (Robert T), Friday, 3 February 2006 13:48 (eighteen years ago) link

This is one of my worst fears. What an awful way to go...

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes, this is definitely the stuff of nightmares for me.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:06 (eighteen years ago) link

... which is why your screen name is the captain of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea?

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Wires are saying at least 100 people rescued from the Red Sea.

I had forgotten about Capt. Nemo. I originally picked the name because dawdling around on the Internet half-asleep made me think of "Little Nemo in Slumberland". Actually, the nightmare part for me is not drowning per se, but being trapped in a ship as it goes down and being unable to get out.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 3 February 2006 14:49 (eighteen years ago) link

The captain fled.

― StanM (StanM), Saturday, 4 February 2006 19:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Apparently the captain

1. Didn't turn the boat around for several hours as a fire raged below the decks.

2. Didn't give the abandon ship order until it was too late for most of the life rafts to be deployed.

3. Oversaw a firefighting effort that resulted in the crew dumping so much water into the ship that it sank. The ship's pumps were broken, so the thing basically got swamped as the crew pumped in sea water to try and put out the fire. The ship filled with water and capsized.

For shame.

― Super Cub (Debito), Saturday, 4 February 2006 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link

You mean Bhopal?

Yes I did - typo.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 4 February 2006 23:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Bizarro that people draw attention to the idea that we pay more attention to Western life than that of developing / 3rd world countries, but have nothing to add about the situation in developing / 3rd world countries beyond that. Ironic, even.

― paulhw (paulhw), Sunday, 5 February 2006 00:32 (eighteen years ago) link

"we pay more attention to Western life"

But 20 times the number of people who died in this accident die every year in America in car accidents. People in the West don't seem to get particularly upset about that either.

― slb, Sunday, 5 February 2006 00:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, this is basic Media Studies stuff, but obviously something becomes newsworthy as a result of a variety of effects: size, spectacle, uniqueness, resonance, visibility...etc.

fwiw, we don't get too upset about the much higher incidence of traffic deaths in the Third World, either.

― paulhw (paulhw), Sunday, 5 February 2006 00:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Ferry are always sinking in developing nations. Trains too. It just goes to show, if you ride a ferry, get a seat near the window so you can jump into te hwater and do the survival float until you are rescued.

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Sunday, 5 February 2006 07:08 (eighteen years ago) link

more people died in 9/11, trayce.

no they didn't. not even close.

― sffd, Sunday, 5 February 2006 10:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Official death toll from 9/11 is just under 3,000. Estimates for this incident appear to be in the region of 1,000. So, yes they did.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 5 February 2006 11:35 (eighteen years ago) link

"Bhopal thus ranks as the single deadliest industrial disaster of the modern environmental era. With a death toll of approximately 22,000, it has killed more people than the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, did. And its victims are still dying today, 20 years later."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/02/bhopal_20th/print.html

this shit isn't a secret.

― sffd, Sunday, 5 February 2006 11:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Sorry, I thought we were talking about this incident v 9/11. Misunderstanding.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 5 February 2006 12:03 (eighteen years ago) link

ah, ok

― sffd, Sunday, 5 February 2006 12:08 (eighteen years ago) link

"this incident" being the Red Sea ferry, obviously.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 5 February 2006 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

i was talking about 9/11 vs. the ferry disaster, not bhopal.

its always sad that more people die in things like this than in 9/11

i think trayce was as well, based on the above.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Murder will always fix in the mind more strongly than death by negligence or accident. Maybe it shouldn't be that way, but it probably always will be.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link

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