Norovirus outbreak on Oceana (From Daily Echo)

P&O really going down in my estimation, first they chose Portsmouth now they charge for Health care on board, perhaps they imported the bug too, I don't know why I brought that up! Eurgh!

OSPREYSAINT wrote:
P&O really going down in my estimation, first they chose Portsmouth now they charge for Health care on board, perhaps they imported the bug too, I don't know why I brought that up! Eurgh!

time to start re-flying the yellow jack

P&O spokesperson states "medical treatment used to be free but we changed it 9 months ago". So what happened when in December 2008 I was charged £810 for 3 hr in medical centre. P & O said it was not food poisoning or NV - I spent a week in hospital in Costa Rica after being taken off the Oceana after transitting the Panama Canal.

If you go abroad and need medical attention you have to pay then claim it back on your insurance (As i have done when abroad). Why should people not be charged for health care on board a ship? You are still on holiday and have to have travel insurance!

Will it spread to the Fishbourne Ferry next!

Anyone going abroad should read their travel insurance policy very carefully. Insurers have clamped down a lot.

For instance, accidents while under the influence of alcohol are often not covered. Neither are falls from balconies, except in emergencies.

Another thing to beware of is the need to declare pre-existing illnesses. These include heart and circulation problems, cancer and diabetes. If you do not tell your insurer you may not be covered and have to pay the entire bill yourself if you are taken ill. They write to your GP to check your medical history before paying out.

We did'nt have this trouble years ago when we had a Merchant Navy to be proud of. While they continue to employ Lascar crew members,(cheap labour), the problem will persist. Same goes for the NHS.

We did'nt have this trouble years ago when we had a Merchant Navy to be proud of. While they continue to employ Lascar crew members,(cheap labour), the problem will persist. Same goes for the NHS.

septuagenarian wrote:
We did'nt have this trouble years ago when we had a Merchant Navy to be proud of. While they continue to employ Lascar crew members,(cheap labour), the problem will persist. Same goes for the NHS.

Is more to do with passenger hygiene, and unwell people bringing a virus on board, and then spreading it.
Confined places where you have groups of people will always do this, trains, football matches, aircraft etc, even Butlins, yet only cruises get the negative publicity and demands for compensation.

septuagenarian wrote:
We did'nt have this trouble years ago when we had a Merchant Navy to be proud of. While they continue to employ Lascar crew members,(cheap labour), the problem will persist. Same goes for the NHS.

When the Container was invented, the obituary to the UK Merchant Fleet was written on the side of it. The industry struggled on for another twenty years but the general cargo vessels that made up the majority of the fleet couldn't keep going even after flagging out to foreign shores and using offshore crews. When a Container vessel can offload in hours what a General Cargo vessel would take days to unload, it's a no brainer.

Derek of Dibden Purlieu wrote:

septuagenarian wrote:
We did'nt have this trouble years ago when we had a Merchant Navy to be proud of. While they continue to employ Lascar crew members,(cheap labour), the problem will persist. Same goes for the NHS.

When the Container was invented, the obituary to the UK Merchant Fleet was written on the side of it. The industry struggled on for another twenty years but the general cargo vessels that made up the majority of the fleet couldn't keep going even after flagging out to foreign shores and using offshore crews. When a Container vessel can offload in hours what a General Cargo vessel would take days to unload, it's a no brainer.

the container was around longer than its has been coming to britian.
and septuagenarian right the problem of those type bugs was a very little and maybe you get an out break once in every 8 to 10 years, also a ship coming in with bug of this nature would be put in quarantine.
and when you think even the old immigration ships pack right out to the max number of passengers. and they never had this problem. they you got to look at the crew and it could be the fact using cheap labour is putting the passengers at risk.
just look at the nhs and the problems that they get, where the cleaning is no longer done by a training nurse, and is now contracted out to contractors that use cheap labour to, whitch many come in from over seas.

southy wrote:

Derek of Dibden Purlieu wrote:

septuagenarian wrote:
We did'nt have this trouble years ago when we had a Merchant Navy to be proud of. While they continue to employ Lascar crew members,(cheap labour), the problem will persist. Same goes for the NHS.

When the Container was invented, the obituary to the UK Merchant Fleet was written on the side of it. The industry struggled on for another twenty years but the general cargo vessels that made up the majority of the fleet couldn't keep going even after flagging out to foreign shores and using offshore crews. When a Container vessel can offload in hours what a General Cargo vessel would take days to unload, it's a no brainer.

the container was around longer than its has been coming to britian.
and septuagenarian right the problem of those type bugs was a very little and maybe you get an out break once in every 8 to 10 years, also a ship coming in with bug of this nature would be put in quarantine.
and when you think even the old immigration ships pack right out to the max number of passengers. and they never had this problem. they you got to look at the crew and it could be the fact using cheap labour is putting the passengers at risk.
just look at the nhs and the problems that they get, where the cleaning is no longer done by a training nurse, and is now contracted out to contractors that use cheap labour to, whitch many come in from over seas.

"he container was around longer than its has been coming to britian."


Shipping containers first appeared in the 1950s and the British Merchant fleet was on its death bed by the 1970s. I don't suppose this would have affected the IOW ferries but as I was in the MN at the time, I witnessed it first hand as we loaded the popular Tens and Twenties on deck and down the hatches in an attempt to embrace the new technology. This was in between selling cars and fitting double glazing you understand.

there you go then, you said it your self now the container was around in the 50's and the first ones showed up in the uk in the mid 60's to late 60's before we had any container port.

and the reason why the british merchant was on its death bed was because of it was cheaper and quicker to go by plane than it was to go by ship. carrying passengers was the biggest part of the british marchant navy for the last 100 years. even today if you had go to the states for a number of reasons you go by plane, because its still a lot cheaper and quicker than by boat, we dont have the regular shipping runns for passengers like we did do, its all about cruises now things that people was not interested very much back in the 70's and before

southy wrote:
there you go then, you said it your self now the container was around in the 50's and the first ones showed up in the uk in the mid 60's to late 60's before we had any container port.

and the reason why the british merchant was on its death bed was because of it was cheaper and quicker to go by plane than it was to go by ship. carrying passengers was the biggest part of the british marchant navy for the last 100 years. even today if you had go to the states for a number of reasons you go by plane, because its still a lot cheaper and quicker than by boat, we dont have the regular shipping runns for passengers like we did do, its all about cruises now things that people was not interested very much back in the 70's and before

"When the Container was invented, the obituary to the UK Merchant Fleet was written on the side of it. The industry struggled on for another twenty years "

Do try to read posts before commenting on them.

While a liner may appear to employ a large number of crew, the vast majority of vessels were general cargo and employed the lions share of the seamen. As I've already explained, the decimation of the GC vessels effectively wiped out the UK registered Merchant Navy as the new container vessels did more work with a fraction of the number of ships and offshore crews. Try to find historic Lloyds Register listings on Google and the information is there for you.

Southy I went to sea for about six years and I know that P&O were using foreign labour and very good they were and still are (Goanese).So how can you ascertain that these crews are causing this bug it has nothing to do with cheap labour if it did they would get this virus every trip.

a brief history of containers for you derek seeing you know very little. there are two stages the old type containers that was around in the 1700's whitch we will not get into, we will skip this because its a totally different type of container. the modern day container that we use today had it first outing back in 1920's in the states on the rail lines, it was at the ending of ww2 that usa army started to use the type of containers we know of today but was made of wood, then in 52 they change it to metal, and called them conex.
the first conex turn up on uk shores in 1967 just before felixstowe purpose built container crane was finished. while in southampton the first conex turned up while the container port was being built whitch was in between 1968 when the container port was started to 1972 when zone 1 of the container port was finished. the loading and unloading of ships cargo and lashing and unlashing the cargo has all ways been done by stevadores and not by ships crew. the crews job was just to watch and check the cargo is secure then close and seal the hatches.
but then again if you really did go to sea or work on a dock quay side you would of known this.

now please get back to the article title
"Norovirus outbreak on Oceana"

Southy,which book have you been reading on containers or did you get it of Google, by the way I was in Felixstowe from 1953 to 1958 when the container port was starting to be built and the Harwich ferry was going too the Hook Of Holland with trains on it.

espanuel wrote:
Southy,which book have you been reading on containers or did you get it of Google, by the way I was in Felixstowe from 1953 to 1958 when the container port was starting to be built and the Harwich ferry was going too the Hook Of Holland with trains on it.

that was not the container port, that was part of the old port being extended. whitch i believe ended up in the end being part of the container port. the end of 67 was when they had there 1st purpose built container crane built.
theres a very good book about transport though the ages, done by a team of people. title of the book is A 1000 years world transport there must be 20 volumes i have volumes 15, 18, and 20 its posable there could be one more volume, but i dont think so.
while you was there between 53 to 58 did you see the mtb berth there, or did you mean 63 to 68 and just hit the wrong key.

Southy, I was there between 53 & 58 on the air sea rescue station which had the old yellow Sikorsky helicopters and air sea rescue boats of which I went on both and also when I was there the films Yangtze Incident and The sea shall not have them were made Icould tell you more about Felixstowe and the container port than you would know.

espanuel wrote:
Southy, I was there between 53 & 58 on the air sea rescue station which had the old yellow Sikorsky helicopters and air sea rescue boats of which I went on both and also when I was there the films Yangtze Incident and The sea shall not have them were made Icould tell you more about Felixstowe and the container port than you would know.

tell me about the air sea rescue, that i would be interested in listen to.

but dont do it here do it on the echo blog forums

Oh no, southy is here as well. Worked as a Stevedore in southampton docks from 66-82, you seem to know so much about everything you must be about 150 yrs old.

frenchvic wrote:
Oh no, southy is here as well. Worked as a Stevedore in southampton docks from 66-82, you seem to know so much about everything you must be about 150 yrs old.

P.S. I was being sarcastic, Any-body with such vast knowledge and who finds spelling so hard should be prime-minister.

frenchvic wrote:

frenchvic wrote:
Oh no, southy is here as well. Worked as a Stevedore in southampton docks from 66-82, you seem to know so much about everything you must be about 150 yrs old.

P.S. I was being sarcastic, Any-body with such vast knowledge and who finds spelling so hard should be prime-minister.

or a doctor writing out prescription

southy wrote:

frenchvic wrote:

frenchvic wrote: Oh no, southy is here as well. Worked as a Stevedore in southampton docks from 66-82, you seem to know so much about everything you must be about 150 yrs old.

P.S. I was being sarcastic, Any-body with such vast knowledge and who finds spelling so hard should be prime-minister.

or a doctor writing out prescription

It is writing out A prescription.

Back when we had a Docks and Ship repair industry to be proud of, (It's demise was mainly caused by a protracted Stevedores strike), my work would take me down below decks, and into the galleys. Wherein, i saw things that made me vow to never take a trip on a P&O liner.

septuagenarian wrote:
Back when we had a Docks and Ship repair industry to be proud of, (It's demise was mainly caused by a protracted Stevedores strike), my work would take me down below decks, and into the galleys. Wherein, i saw things that made me vow to never take a trip on a P&O liner.

i take it you was never a stevadore.

OSPREYSAINT wrote:
P&O really going down in my estimation, first they chose Portsmouth now they charge for Health care on board, perhaps they imported the bug too, I don't know why I brought that up! Eurgh!

my parents were on the sruise and some people may have paid 1500 but my parents went all out and spent 4200 for theirs as it was a celebration. they were confined to their cabins for 5 days and my dad was never even ill, my mum was ill for 2 days but she thinks it was food poisoning as she ate in the buffet resturant which was closed for 5 days with suspeceted food poisoning. they were billed also for medical expenses but they are more upset that they missed 3 carrabean islands and p&o are saying no compensation even if it was poisoning they treat all gastric problems the same!!!! they are in the process of talking to soliceters as p&o seem to get away with murder!!!