COMMENTARY When I was a young surveyor for Lloyd’s Register in the early 1990s there was a ro-ro passenger ferry moored across the quayside in Southampton, UK, named ‘Candi’. It never moved while I worked there, but I’d look out of the window of our office on Town Quay and wonder what it must have been like on that vessel when she sailed as the Scandinavian Star. As the Scandinavian Star, the ship caught fire in 1990 and 159 people lost their lives. The cause of the fire was arson, but irrespective of the cause it is a basic truth that if a fire occurs onboard a passenger ship then the consequences can be catastrophic and horrendous. Prior to the Scandinavian Star fire, ships such as the SS Moro Castle in 1934 and the MV Dara in 1961 also experienced tragic incidents involving fires causing considerable loss of life. Due to incidents such as these, legislators have acted to create a regulatory regime that acknowledges that fires are probably the major risk to passengers onboard ships. Onboard fire risk awareness is not new. When designing the SS United States in in the late 1940s, William Francis Gibbs was so concerned about the risk of fire that it is said that the only wood onboard was the butcher’s block in the galley and the Steinway piano in the lounge. It is understood that the world of maritime regulations may be unknown to most in the business of cruise and ferry interior design, but it could be crucial in getting a design Any interior designer of cruise and ferry ships will be familiar with aesthetic requirements. But without appropriate certification, even the best design won’t make the transition from drawing board to ship PAUL NICHOLS Principal Specialist at Lloyd’s Register Navigating the minefield of regulations relating to marine interiors The fire-damaged Scandinavian Star was renamed Candi and moored in Southampton in the early 1990s 112
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