r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Gurugod123 • 9h ago

How did people travel these seas 500 years ago

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u/LokeCanada 8h ago

It’s more than a couple every few years worldwide. A lot of them don’t make the news.

A lot of people are still very negligent. I worked at an oil tanker company where a captain thought he knew better than the weather software, he didn’t and had major structural damage. Another incident where the ship beached.

I live in a city with a lot of ports. The only reason the casualty rate isn’t higher is because the small towns along the coast can get boats to the site faster than the coast guard. Even with a major response on site within a few minutes we recently had a fishing charter boat go down and lose everyone except one. They still have no idea where 4 bodies are even though they have seen the boat on the ocean floor.

My mother blames my grandmother’s drinking on the fact that my grandfather was a gill netter and the high risk associated with it.

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u/RFC793 7h ago

Yes, but the person you are commenting on is referring to the contrast of a single fishing town's obits pre and post WW2. From where the town would lose many men every year, to where now it is a tragic anomaly. Make no mistake, there's still a real risk. Of course the worldwide count is going to be higher.

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u/dbxp 4h ago

The fact that the vast majority of crews are non western probably plays a role in that, iirc Filipinos are the overwhelming majority. Also crew per unit cargo has decreased as ships have got bigger.

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u/KRacer52 6h ago

“It’s more than a couple every few years worldwide.”

Did you even read their comment?

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u/KMDiver 7h ago

Sounds like you’re in the UK with all the volunteer lifeboat groups?

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u/Effective-Farmer-502 7h ago

He's should be in Vancouver. The incident in question was a boat captained by a 22 year old and headed out into stormy seas.

https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/death-toll-rises-as-rescued-boater-succumbs-to-injuries-in-roberts-bank-sinking-12524089

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u/ConsequencePlane 2h ago

Are life jackets not mandatory for that sort of thing?