Maritime: Sultana Tragedy and Imperative of PEBEC Ranking
SAMBO, TRANSPORT MINISTER
By Fwdr Dr Eugene Nweke Rff.
The Sorry Story Of The Sultana Tragedy :
Sultana is a Mississippi luxurious river boat that carried passengers from New Orleans to St. Louis. Shortly after the Civil War, a greedy Union Officer, receiving $22 per head from the shipping company for every military passengers , crammed 2,400 troops aboard.
Many of the military passengers were badly treated prisoners then recently released from the infamous Confederate Prison Camp Andersonville and heading home to their families.
The Sultana also carried eighty (80) paying passengers and forty (40) mules. When fully loaded the photograph taken of her had an eerie ( strange, weird and fearful) look. All the shadowy figures clustered on the roof and crowded the decks including the mules, looked phantom wraith.
On 27th April 1865, by 2:00am at Tennessee, just about fifteen (15) miles above Memphis a boiler on the Sultana exploded and turned her into a holocaust before she sank in a cloud of steam and smoke. At least 1,800 died and perhaps as many as 2,100. The disaster still ranks as the worst marine tragedy in America history.
This tragedy and its global ranking as one of the worst disaster in the history of America happened as a result of:
a).Professional Negligence and Non compliance to regulatory requirements
b). Non firm supervision or poor regulatory enforcement.
c) Compromised and non setting of a clear standards of practices.
d). Greed, corruption and Impunity leading to arbitrariness and high handedness .
f). Profitization without recourse to safety measures or protocols nor consideration to effectiveness and competitiveness.
g), Inadequate enlightenment of the end users of the service leading to safety unconsciousness on the part of the end users of the services.
h). Poor equipments maintenance culture and prompt monitoring obligations.
i). Consequences of non regular training and retraining of staff.
j). In adequate handling services and inefficient equipments availability and monopolize operations/services.
In all, the whole of this causative factor as likened to the Sultana so it permeates amongst the maritime industry environment, especially with so many maritime agencies, so the ranking as published by PEBEC is a wake up call to the affected maritime agencies. It creates room for improvement. As such they should work hard to show administrative will and direction. The ranking is an indication that someone somewhere is watching and monitoring , hence, accepting the ranking in good fate.
*Nweke is former NAGAFF President, Director, SeaEmpowerment and Research Centre RTG
The Sorry Story Of The Sultana Tragedy :
Sultana is a Mississippi luxurious river boat that carried passengers from New Orleans to St. Louis. Shortly after the Civil War, a greedy Union Officer, receiving $22 per head from the shipping company for every military passengers , crammed 2,400 troops aboard.
Many of the military passengers were badly treated prisoners then recently released from the infamous Confederate Prison Camp Andersonville and heading home to their families.
The Sultana also carried eighty (80) paying passengers and forty (40) mules. When fully loaded the photograph taken of her had an eerie ( strange, weird and fearful) look. All the shadowy figures clustered on the roof and crowded the decks including the mules, looked phantom wraith.
On 27th April 1865, by 2:00am at Tennessee, just about fifteen (15) miles above Memphis a boiler on the Sultana exploded and turned her into a holocaust before she sank in a cloud of steam and smoke. At least 1,800 died and perhaps as many as 2,100. The disaster still ranks as the worst marine tragedy in America history.
This tragedy and its global ranking as one of the worst disaster in the history of America happened as a result of:
a).Professional Negligence and Non compliance to regulatory requirements
b). Non firm supervision or poor regulatory enforcement.
c) Compromised and non setting of a clear standards of practices.
d). Greed, corruption and Impunity leading to arbitrariness and high handedness .
f). Profitization without recourse to safety measures or protocols nor consideration to effectiveness and competitiveness.
g), Inadequate enlightenment of the end users of the service leading to safety unconsciousness on the part of the end users of the services.
h). Poor equipments maintenance culture and prompt monitoring obligations.
i). Consequences of non regular training and retraining of staff.
j). In adequate handling services and inefficient equipments availability and monopolize operations/services.
In all, the whole of this causative factor as likened to the Sultana so it permeates amongst the maritime industry environment, especially with so many maritime agencies, so the ranking as published by PEBEC is a wake up call to the affected maritime agencies. It creates room for improvement. As such they should work hard to show administrative will and direction. The ranking is an indication that someone somewhere is watching and monitoring , hence, accepting the ranking in good fate.
*Nweke is former NAGAFF President, Director, SeaEmpowerment and Research Centre RTG
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