The Monarch of the Seas Disaster

In the early hours of December 15th, 1998, luxury cruise ship Monarch of the Seas took a massive hit on a coral reef and began to take on water.

The captain and crew were in a race against time to evacuate everyone before the ship sank completely or capsized.

Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels– from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!

#ships #sinking #disaster #titanic #wrecks #exploration #history #adventure #design #engineering #mairitime #safety #vessels #sailing #documentary #story #oceanlinerdesigns #monarchoftheseas

[kdoherty]

I was on this cruise. I will never forget it. While traumatic, I also remember how professional and helpful the crew were throughout the process of abandoning ship. They also stayed in contact and helped us the entire following week that we were stranded on St Martin and then in Miami. Definitely not a trip I’ll ever forget.

[dededavis]

The gentleman that had the heart attack on the ship was my cousin (and my best friend) He died 20 minutes after getting to the clinic. He was only 30y/o and was celebrating his 10 yr anniversary. The staff never left his wife’s side during the rest of the trip and subsequent disaster. Several cruise staff members came to his funeral.

[tired_and_stressed]

Always nice to hear about a successful failure where crew preformed admirably despite the initial error.

[Dargesh]

This could easily have gone the way of the Costa Concordia, but this captain cared more about the safety of the passengers.

[nqx]

I worked at the shipyard that got the contract to fix that disaster. When they pulled up on the blocks and dry docked, the amazing amount of sea life that that gash in the hull had sucked up was amazing. By the way, the cruise line was fined PER METER for the damage to the reef. It was in the millions. Excellent video!

[BleakComposure]

One of the things I like about being an oceanliner nerd is that, if you close your eyes, and ignore a little techno jargon, the story Mike is telling could be 1998 or 1898. The sea is always the sea, and ships and crews are always the creatures trying to tame it.

[devon]

It’s unfortunate that the reason it should be remembered is likely actually the reason it isn’t remembered so much. Humans love disaster, destruction, and death, so the ship servicing by quick thinking and great decisions, made after the incident, saving many lives and the ship, resulted in little of those things so many forget about it. Great video.

[matthewcreelman]

I suspect that the reason it's forgotten is because the cruise industry really, really wants it to be forgotten. It's probably better for the cruise industry if people think "Titanic, over a century ago" when they think "passenger ship disaster."

[Cheka__]

Mike is so friendly and polite. His voice makes me feel at ease.

[andyc]

I've led a few teams and used the phrase "Don't build a team that'll follow you off a cliff, build one that'll stop you going over in the first place" many times. Would've helped here too I think.

[norseman]

Friend of mine was Chief Engineer onboard, he had not left the Engine Control room yet after the departure, when he felt that the ship shook and all the bilge alarms from forward to aft started alarming, HE called the bridge and told them you must turn around and beach the vessel, we are taking water in several compartments, he understood immediately she was not salvageable.

[Hellokasper]

I remember going to school as a kid and seeing the Monarch of the Seas stranded on the sand bank in front of the Great Bay resort, I can still picture it today. Thanks for the technical explanation to this event, I remember the Monarch being stuck on the bank for weeks as a crew of underwater welders patched her temporarily so she could be floated and fixed in a shipyard.
The effect on the reef should not be underestimaed, the reef never fully recovered, and sadly due to bleeching of the corals I dont think they ever will.

[Realistic_Secret]

Our friend Mike Brady, coming in clutch for lunch break.

[thunderkrux]

I gotta say as far as maritime disasters are concerned, this is probably the best possible outcome. Despite the human errors that led to the disaster, the crew and captain immediately made plans to make this as safe as possible and succeeded.

[ranroncan]

You know it’s a good day when our friend, mike releases on a documentary on a disaster!

[BlancoIncognito]

That intro though..

Remember in the 90s and early 00s when we had cable and these kind of shows were on tv and you kind of were at the mercy of the tv schedule and release dates.

It’s crazy that we have that quality of editing and content just available anytime on YouTube. I love this channel. I feel like the quality is on or beyond par with those big budget discovery channel shows of yesterday

[yeeebayeeba]

Fun fact. I worked with Harbor Pilots for 15 years. I brought this ship in its home port, Port Canaveral, more than 100 times. Monarch and the Sovereign of the Seas were both home ported in Canaveral for many years. Now we have the big boys. 150k+ GRT ships. Worlds second largest cruise ship port. We inky take in Oasis class RC ships now. Lol.
Jk. They do like port canaveral, though. It's a very convenient port to enter and exit. Along with cheap pilot rates, compared to Lauderdale and Miami. That being said, the rates were just increased by 400%. Still cheaoer than the rest of Florida.

You cant say that enough! Complacency kills. Not just on the high seas, but in every aspect. Id always have mates that woukd walk away from the bridge while on auto pilot saying, "were in the middle of the ocean, not a vessel in sight. What can happen"?. Well, most of the time, he wouod be right. It would be a very rare accident to take place, but you would be surprised how quickly vessles can come out of nowhere. Even if youve scanned the radar, seen theres nothing sround for 12nm, walk away eneough times and yiull eventually hear the 5 short horn blasts you never want to hear when in the middle of the ocean.

I graduated the maritime academy in 2003. Ive been in the water my entire working life. I know that feeling because ive done it. Not once, but sveral times. Then i finally woke up. Im now a very cautious captain. My "cowboy" days are over. All the things my elder colleagues told me come to fruition.

[alensufli]

I am not a math person. In fact I didn’t even like ships before I encountered this channel. Not only the quality of the presentation but this young gentleman’s speech, manners got my interest hooked with these marvellous vessels. I almost thought these kind of gentlemen don’t exist anymore. Cheer to your parents for raising you appropriately.

[tyreni]

It's nice to hear about the crew and equipment being dialed in for a quick evacuation. Mike has told us so many stories about older ships and the disastrous, days-long evacs that ended up being worse than the initial accident.

[fwatcher]

My wife and I were on the ship when this happened.
Good times : )
Luckily we were the first lifeboat off the ship. We took a bus to the French side of St. Martin, to a nice hotel and then spent 2 or 3 days there before they flew us back to Miami. Where we waited for our bags.
They had to go into every cabin and pack everyone's belongings, then send them to Miami. We got everything back; including a diamond tennis bracelet my wife had purchased that day in St. Thomas. So hat's off to the ship's crew for that. They did a great job.
The only thing we didn't get back was the booze i had in the room (They must of had one heck of a party).
So all in all pretty painless....and made for many good stories later on : )
I work offshore in the North Sea on the drilling rigs. So I am very used to boat drills and rescue procedures.
I remember my wife waiting at the door to our cabin urging me to hurry up as we were to muster at our lifebaot....as I calmly got dressed and grabbed my wallet....which came in handy in the coming days....as many people had no money.
Once I arrived at my lifeboat station; and could see we were in a bay...I was relieved. I figured I could swim from there if needed.
Because we were supposed to be far out at sea; and not arriving into Martinique until the following day.
So I was happy to be close to land.
Needless to say our friends were leary to go on cruises after that one.
We got our money back and a free cruise out of it.
On the free cruise we hit hurricane that's a story for a different youtube video 🤣