CJB-

Thanks for posting those reports above.

I can't imagine any luxury cruise ship captain using charts at 1:300,000 scale for navigating several hundred meters from shore.

The captain evidently had an hour after the initial collision to assess the situation before deciding to ground his ship in shallow waters. Some have questioned whether he should have ordered the lifeboats deployed earlier than he did. I'll be interested in what the investigation concludes about that.

Charley Noble