Its a sad thing to note that it does take things like this to make the human race realise that its not impregnable the ships are not unsinkable, but we have learnt our lessons.
Dart 8 the vessel in which i worked on was built in 1980 before the SOLAS systems were up dated she sailed around with just stern doors and they were not really that water tight, in 1987 SOLAS majorly over hauled its recomendations as a result Dart 8 was totaly rebuilt in that area.
She had to have fitted water tight doors on the cargo decks a secondary stern door to stop water from getting in, a water tight stern door, and the first officer and senior watch crew member had to witness and sign off that the doors and hatchs were shut correctly before leaving for sea.
i know in alot of modern ferries to back all that up they installed cameras and theres always one person on the lower decks when at sea.
i spoke to my stepfather about all the SOLAS regulations his answer was " should have come in decades ago, alot of good men would have been saved" (refering to soviet merchant navy)
for thoes of you that dont know what SOLAS is SOLAS stands for Safty Of Life At Sea if you enter european or US or Asian waters including australia and south america each ship must possess a SOLAS card failure to show the card can result in the ship being impounded pending inspection (happend in dover 8 months ago)
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