NTSB - Queen of the West fire on the Columbia River

**dougpine** · December 2nd, 2009, 01:14 PM

**Jeffrox** · December 2nd, 2009, 09:41 PM

Interesting read. One thing not pointed out by the NTSB as a factor that aided in the quick and succesful recovery from the fire was that there was an extra Captain and ChEng onboard which says something about the advantages of increased manning being a good thing. Seems like MAL didn't mind spending money on safety or crew training; I guess it's too bad they folded. As an old Submariner I enjoyed reading about the hydralic propulsion too.

**Ordinaryseaman** · December 15th, 2009, 07:02 PM

Thanks for posting this Doug.

I sailed on the Queen- nice boat- but tiniest crew quarters-ever!

I knew a lot of the crew that was on that night- and my ship (Empress of the North) picked up their anchor where they dropped it by John Day Dam a few days after the fire.

Also-

I just found out that American Cruise Lines bought her- and will be cruising next year-Check this out- http://www.americancruiselines.com/ships.php?ship_id=16

Thought you might want to know..

Happy Holidays-Anthony