13 Nov. 2018; Building Nieuw Statendam, 17 days to go.

An overcast but dry day to day so the work goes on unabated. The ship gets cleaner and cleaner by the day. The yard is cleaning up but also the crew is coming into full swing, today another “plane load” of new crew arrived. It will not be long before the complete team will be here. It also means that the trainings on board are gearing up.

Here we have the Kitchen team in action. Un-wrapping all the new plate covers that keep you food warm during transport from galley to diningroom

Apart from the induction trainings (HAL company and safety basics, which everybody gets when coming on board), the crew is now also going through the lifeboat handling training and the specific safety duties for each crew member.  Lifeboat instruction, Evacuation instruction etc. etc. Although we are loading full speed, there is still a lot material awaited and which cannot go in yet as a lot of public areas are not ready yet for us to move in full time. Although it will not be long before the furniture will start to arrive and the public rooms will start to look like a real ship.  But as open spaces make for easy cleaning and thus everybody is in full swing.

Even in the shipyard there are things to see when looking out of the window.

As you can see the ship was still missing the top and now it has arrived.

My efforts go now towards making small manuals for the training officers who will join the ship in the future.

So I am working in my cabin and running to and fro in the ship to see if everything is installed according to the drawing and what the variations are there with the Koningsdam as even sister ships are not 100% identical. Looking out of the balcony I saw a sight that you do not see every day: a complete ships funnel coming by. The top of the funnel of the Carnival Panorama arrived. Built at a shipyard nearby it arrived by barge and will be hoisted in place sometime in the future.

Why all this effort for the future? The ships are nowadays so complicated that you have to really sit down and study about how something is constructed, installed and works. We often lack that time and we have to train the crew so the ship is safe at all time. So to say,” I am turning the bible into 20 minute sermons”, so even when you are not a vicar you can still do the job. The main challenge is all the food outlets in the ship. The days that an extinguisher and a fire hose were the only tools you had and needed are long gone. Every time there is a major (cruise) ship fire, the industry comes up with an additional gadget which will make it safer again. Together with the Engine Room, the Galleys / kitchens are the most dangerous locations on board.  Our main concerns are the deep fat fryers and grills.  And there the main danger is that the flames will go into the hood and spread that way. There is always the danger of grease accumulating there. (Angelina Laura 1981) Although we also have cleaning systems in the hood to reduce the grease.

Nothing is too good for our guests. Which company buys a Van Gogh, just to hang in a staircase?  Forward Guest Staircase.

To avoid this, we have Hi-Fog everywhere. Also in the rest of the ship (including cabins) but there it works automatically as a glass bulb will burst if the temperature goes too high. A glass bulb above a frying location does not work and thus everything is/has to be manual. And thus we need to train the crew. There is Hi-fog which we can spray safely over Deep Fat fryers as a dense mist, there is CO2 up in the exhaust hood to avoid the flames from traveling upwards and then there are the manual dampers, steel covers and  shutters to close off the area. And then there is still the extinguisher, the fire blanket and the fire hose. Lots of options but everything has to be operated in the right way and in a safe way.

Quite a few landings in the staircases have rows of three or four smaller pictures next to each other.

In the meantime the shipyard carpenters have descended full speed on the staircases and have started to install the art on all the landings. As with the Koningsdam there is art everywhere and some is music related and some is considered “whimsical” At the moment the “whimsical” part is being installed. Similar in vein as on the Koningsdam but still different. I do not know if you can apply the word “beautiful” to every piece but it is certainly fascinating. There are some very creative artists out there who can dream up these ideas and then execute them in such a way that there is a sort of universal appeal.

A start has also been made by placing objects in the Elevators squares on various landings. More about that tomorrow.

Forward Guest Staircase. Is there a Van Gogh painting like this out in the world somewhere ?

I find this very clever. To select all these small items and turn them into another Van Gogh (or inspired by van Gogh) painting.

The Vincent van Gogh self portrait is made up of all sorts of small items. Items that I would say you find in children’s play rooms. The next collage (?) picture below is made up in the same way. I have placed an detailed enlargement next to it.

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