Comparing The Lusitania Disaster And Thomas Aquinas Disaster
Lusitania Disaster vs Thomas Aquinas Disaster
PSYC 431: Psychology of Disasters
Tamey Greene
Jonathan Avenido
July 31, 2016
Lusitania was one of the largest ships to have set sail on the River Clyde. The New York Times stated that the impressive ship was unsinkable, powerful, and the most fastest ship in the world. When War World 1started in 1914, when required Lusitania and her sister ships, Mauritania and Aquitania, were used for war duties by the British. Lusitania was allowed to continue to be used for services for the transatlantic passengers. Before Lusitania sailed from the New York harbor, there was a rumor that the ship was carrying high explosives. On May 6th the Lusitania was hit by several torpedoes that exploded …show more content…
under the bridge of the ship forcing the bow of the ship to dip into the ocean and eventually sinking it. When the United States heard of the sinking they were shocked, so shocked that Woodward Wilson, who was President at that time, had to go into seclusion for two days. 1,198 lives were taking that day, but only 200 dead bodies were retrieved from the sea., this included 127 Americans, 79 children, and 39 infants. The sinking of Lusitania was one of the most made known tragedy of War World 1.
On August 16, 2013 Thomas Aquinas, a Philippine passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship causing it to sink. Thomas Aquinas was a 455 foot ferry that would transport passengers and their vehicles. On the day of the collision Thomas Aquinas left from the southern Philippine island of Mindanoa and headed to the port at Cebu city when it collided with a cargo ship called the Sulpicio Express Sieto which was owned by the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation. After the collision happened hundreds of passengers jumped overboard and 30 minutes later Thomas Aquinas sank. The day of the collision Thomas Aquinas was carrying 715 passengers and after the collision 55 were confirmed dead and 65 were still missing. Because of bad weather, faulty maintenance and poorly enforcing safety regulations it is very common for the Philippines to have maritime accidents. The ramifications from the collision was from the gas and oil that was leaking from the wreaked ship. This had affected local fishing and contaminated beaches and swamps, damaging Cebu's economy and ecosystem.
The similarities between the Lusitania and Thomas Aquinas disasters is that they were both ships. Another similarity is that both ships were carrying passengers and both ship disasters took place on sea waters. The dissimilarities would be that Lusitania was a cruise ship and when needed, used for war duties and Thomas Aquinas was used only for passengers and their vehicles. Another dissimilarity between these two disasters would be that Lusitania was hit by torpedoes that came from German submarines (U-20). While Thomas Aquinas disaster was caused because it collided into a cargo ship called the Sulpicio Express Siete.
In both disasters the public reaction was very similar. When the Thomas Aquinas collision happened the public reaction that came from the people of the Philippines was anger. The survivors felt helpless when they heard the screams for help from people who were trapped inside the ship and left traumatized by all the dead bodies floating in the water. These maritime accidents occurred frequently and many lives were taken every year. In the Lusitania disaster there was a large amount of U.S. citizens traveling to Ireland, so when the U.S. received the devastating news of the disaster and how many American lives were lost they were angered. They were also in disbelief that this had happened. The survivors reaction to the Lusitania disaster were also similar to the Thomas Aquinas disaster . Many of the survivors had to witness their loved ones dying either on the ship or in the water. This surely would have traumatized the survivors of Lusitania.
The three major psychology disaster concepts that I'm going to use is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Phases of disaster recovery, and culture of casualty. There are many types of traumatic events and the results of these events have been linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In both Lusitania and Thomas Aquinas disasters the trauma was more atrocious that had traumatized a large amount of people, resulting in an outbreak of survivors guilt. Survivors guilt is a mental disorder that can happen when a person feels like they had done something wrong by surviving a traumatic event. Other symptoms of PTSD are flashbacks of the event, confusion, unable to make decisions, sleep or eating issues. These are just some of the many symptoms of PTSD.
There are a cycle of phases that an individual or community go through during and after a disaster. There are four different phases, 1 heroic phase, 2 honeymoon phase, 3 disillusionment phase, 4 reconstruction phase. All of these phase can be applied as a concept to both Lusitania and the Thomas Aquinas disasters.
In the heroic phase the individual or community are in shock and are in need of food,water, and shelter.
The emotions of grief and loss are strong at this stage, and so is the emotion of heroism. This is when another person puts aside their own trauma experience to help others in need. Depending on the extent of the disaster, the honeymoon phase can happen a few days or three to six months after the disaster occurred. In the honeymoon phase the survivors begin to feel relief that they and their loved ones had survived and they also start to have high expectations on the help that they were promised and expected to receive to rebuild their lives. In this stage volunteers become easier to recruit and communication is the key to helping the volunteers learn how to give the right kind of help. The third phase disillusionment is when survivors begin to feel a strong sense of bitterness, anger, and disappointment of the unfulfilled promises that were made by Government agencies. The Government will give out assistance to the survivors, but with conditions and this can take a few months or up to two years. This is when survivors start to rebuild there live as individuals and not as a community. The last phase of disaster of recovery is reconstruction, this is the longest phase and can last for several years after a disaster. The emotions of this phase is that the survivors have the harsh realization that they are responsible for resolving their own problems in their lives. It is …show more content…
critical at this stage for the community to work together towards recovery, if not, there may be a possibility that individuals trying to recover on their own can develop mental issues.
Culture as casualty can be related to both Lusitania and Thomas Aquinas disasters, but mainly to Thomas Aquinas because most of the passengers were Filipino descent. There have been a significant rise around the globe of natural and man made disasters that have been creating compelling loss and damages to people, their community, and their economy. In a disaster DRR can play a big part on how communities deal with disasters, this would be the key element in their survival. Studies have shown that Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) was effective in disasters of cultures, their communities, and individuals and that it can adequately manage risk to disaster by using its components to integrate cultures.
Disaster risk reduction is a very important aspect in disaster management, because without it could lead to significant damage or loss. Cultures have used what they learned from one generation to the next to hand down strategies that are used to survive. Most cultures like to solve their own problems among themselves or their communities on their own. When the Government gets involved with a disaster they tend to overlook the cultural aspects while planning and enforcing DRR strategies (Hoffman 1999; Wisner et al, 2004). This results in foiled government intervention, and this is because they neglected to consider the cultural components of the community. In order for this to change the government would need to to provide awareness to the community about the dangers that they can encounter from strictly following their culture beliefs. For more lives to be saved the community would need to let the government mitigate disaster strategies and evacuations so they can have a better chance for survival and
recovery.
In the Lusitania disaster there were numerous passengers who were warned not go aboard the the ship. The German Embassy also warned them by putting notices in the New York news paper of the risk that the Lusitania could encounter passing through a active war zone. The travelers and the captain of the ship ignored these warnings simply because they didn't think that this could possibly happen. What lesson could have been learned from this disaster would be that the captain of Lusitania should have taken the warnings seriously and the consideration of the passengers safety. This would of prevented the ship from sailing that day saving a lot of people from the traumatic event that took so many lives and left so many traumatized.
In the Philippines there have been so many accidents involving ships and due to lack of establishing of what caused the accident there was little learned from past accidents. What caused the Thomas Aquinas to collide with Sulpicio Express Siete was purely human error caused by both of the ships captains. The captains of these ships were not following protocol or thinking about the safety of their passengers. A collision would have not occurred and people wouldn't have died if the captains of both ships would have followed the right procedures. Safety should always be priority especially when there are passengers involved.
References
Common Stages of Disaster Recovery. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2014/05/26/common-stages-of-disaster-recovery/
Firstworldwar.com. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://firstworldwar.com/source/bryanlusitaniaprotest.htm
Flashback in history: Collision/Sinking of M/V ST Thomas Aquinas passenger ferry 16 Aug 2013. (2015). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://maritimecyprus.com/2015/08/16/flashback-in-history-collisionsinking-of-mv-st-thomas-aquinas-passenger-ferry-16-aug-2013/
Impact of Culture towards Disaster Risk Reduction - USIR. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://usir.salford.ac.uk/15891/1/Impact_of_Culture_towards_Disaster_Risk_Reduction.pdf
The psychology of disaster. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.resilience.org/stories/2011-03-17/psychology-disaster
The Trauma That Arises from Natural Disasters. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somatic-psychology/201004/the-trauma-arises-natural-disasters
LUSITANIA DISASTER VS THOMAS AQUINAS DISASTER
Running head: LUSITANIA DISASTER VS THOMAS AQUINAS DISASTER
PSYC 431: Psychology of Disasters
Tamey Greene
Jonathan Avenido
July 31, 2016
Lusitania was one of the largest ships to have set sail on the River Clyde. The New York Times stated that the impressive ship was unsinkable, powerful, and the most fastest ship in the world. When War World 1started in 1914, when required Lusitania and her sister ships, Mauritania and Aquitania, were used for war duties by the British. Lusitania was allowed to continue to be used for services for the transatlantic passengers. Before Lusitania sailed from the New York harbor, there was a rumor that the ship was carrying high explosives. On May 6th the Lusitania was hit by several torpedoes that exploded …show more content…
under the bridge of the ship forcing the bow of the ship to dip into the ocean and eventually sinking it. When the United States heard of the sinking they were shocked, so shocked that Woodward Wilson, who was President at that time, had to go into seclusion for two days. 1,198 lives were taking that day, but only 200 dead bodies were retrieved from the sea., this included 127 Americans, 79 children, and 39 infants. The sinking of Lusitania was one of the most made known tragedy of War World 1.
On August 16, 2013 Thomas Aquinas, a Philippine passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship causing it to sink. Thomas Aquinas was a 455 foot ferry that would transport passengers and their vehicles. On the day of the collision Thomas Aquinas left from the southern Philippine island of Mindanoa and headed to the port at Cebu city when it collided with a cargo ship called the Sulpicio Express Sieto which was owned by the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation. After the collision happened hundreds of passengers jumped overboard and 30 minutes later Thomas Aquinas sank. The day of the collision Thomas Aquinas was carrying 715 passengers and after the collision 55 were confirmed dead and 65 were still missing. Because of bad weather, faulty maintenance and poorly enforcing safety regulations it is very common for the Philippines to have maritime accidents. The ramifications from the collision was from the gas and oil that was leaking from the wreaked ship. This had affected local fishing and contaminated beaches and swamps, damaging Cebu's economy and ecosystem.
The similarities between the Lusitania and Thomas Aquinas disasters is that they were both ships. Another similarity is that both ships were carrying passengers and both ship disasters took place on sea waters. The dissimilarities would be that Lusitania was a cruise ship and when needed, used for war duties and Thomas Aquinas was used only for passengers and their vehicles. Another dissimilarity between these two disasters would be that Lusitania was hit by torpedoes that came from German submarines (U-20). While Thomas Aquinas disaster was caused because it collided into a cargo ship called the Sulpicio Express Siete.
In both disasters the public reaction was very similar. When the Thomas Aquinas collision happened the public reaction that came from the people of the Philippines was anger. The survivors felt helpless when they heard the screams for help from people who were trapped inside the ship and left traumatized by all the dead bodies floating in the water. These maritime accidents occurred frequently and many lives were taken every year. In the Lusitania disaster there was a large amount of U.S. citizens traveling to Ireland, so when the U.S. received the devastating news of the disaster and how many American lives were lost they were angered. They were also in disbelief that this had happened. The survivors reaction to the Lusitania disaster were also similar to the Thomas Aquinas disaster . Many of the survivors had to witness their loved ones dying either on the ship or in the water. This surely would have traumatized the survivors of Lusitania.
The three major psychology disaster concepts that I'm going to use is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Phases of disaster recovery, and culture of casualty. There are many types of traumatic events and the results of these events have been linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In both Lusitania and Thomas Aquinas disasters the trauma was more atrocious that had traumatized a large amount of people, resulting in an outbreak of survivors guilt. Survivors guilt is a mental disorder that can happen when a person feels like they had done something wrong by surviving a traumatic event. Other symptoms of PTSD are flashbacks of the event, confusion, unable to make decisions, sleep or eating issues. These are just some of the many symptoms of PTSD.
There are a cycle of phases that an individual or community go through during and after a disaster. There are four different phases, 1 heroic phase, 2 honeymoon phase, 3 disillusionment phase, 4 reconstruction phase. All of these phase can be applied as a concept to both Lusitania and the Thomas Aquinas disasters.
In the heroic phase the individual or community are in shock and are in need of food,water, and shelter.
The emotions of grief and loss are strong at this stage, and so is the emotion of heroism. This is when another person puts aside their own trauma experience to help others in need. Depending on the extent of the disaster, the honeymoon phase can happen a few days or three to six months after the disaster occurred. In the honeymoon phase the survivors begin to feel relief that they and their loved ones had survived and they also start to have high expectations on the help that they were promised and expected to receive to rebuild their lives. In this stage volunteers become easier to recruit and communication is the key to helping the volunteers learn how to give the right kind of help. The third phase disillusionment is when survivors begin to feel a strong sense of bitterness, anger, and disappointment of the unfulfilled promises that were made by Government agencies. The Government will give out assistance to the survivors, but with conditions and this can take a few months or up to two years. This is when survivors start to rebuild there live as individuals and not as a community. The last phase of disaster of recovery is reconstruction, this is the longest phase and can last for several years after a disaster. The emotions of this phase is that the survivors have the harsh realization that they are responsible for resolving their own problems in their lives. It is …show more content…
critical at this stage for the community to work together towards recovery, if not, there may be a possibility that individuals trying to recover on their own can develop mental issues.
Culture as casualty can be related to both Lusitania and Thomas Aquinas disasters, but mainly to Thomas Aquinas because most of the passengers were Filipino descent. There have been a significant rise around the globe of natural and man made disasters that have been creating compelling loss and damages to people, their community, and their economy. In a disaster DRR can play a big part on how communities deal with disasters, this would be the key element in their survival. Studies have shown that Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) was effective in disasters of cultures, their communities, and individuals and that it can adequately manage risk to disaster by using its components to integrate cultures.
Disaster risk reduction is a very important aspect in disaster management, because without it could lead to significant damage or loss. Cultures have used what they learned from one generation to the next to hand down strategies that are used to survive. Most cultures like to solve their own problems among themselves or their communities on their own. When the Government gets involved with a disaster they tend to overlook the cultural aspects while planning and enforcing DRR strategies (Hoffman 1999; Wisner et al, 2004). This results in foiled government intervention, and this is because they neglected to consider the cultural components of the community. In order for this to change the government would need to to provide awareness to the community about the dangers that they can encounter from strictly following their culture beliefs. For more lives to be saved the community would need to let the government mitigate disaster strategies and evacuations so they can have a better chance for survival and
recovery.
In the Lusitania disaster there were numerous passengers who were warned not go aboard the the ship. The German Embassy also warned them by putting notices in the New York news paper of the risk that the Lusitania could encounter passing through a active war zone. The travelers and the captain of the ship ignored these warnings simply because they didn't think that this could possibly happen. What lesson could have been learned from this disaster would be that the captain of Lusitania should have taken the warnings seriously and the consideration of the passengers safety. This would of prevented the ship from sailing that day saving a lot of people from the traumatic event that took so many lives and left so many traumatized.
In the Philippines there have been so many accidents involving ships and due to lack of establishing of what caused the accident there was little learned from past accidents. What caused the Thomas Aquinas to collide with Sulpicio Express Siete was purely human error caused by both of the ships captains. The captains of these ships were not following protocol or thinking about the safety of their passengers. A collision would have not occurred and people wouldn't have died if the captains of both ships would have followed the right procedures. Safety should always be priority especially when there are passengers involved.
References
Common Stages of Disaster Recovery. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2014/05/26/common-stages-of-disaster-recovery/
Firstworldwar.com. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://firstworldwar.com/source/bryanlusitaniaprotest.htm
Flashback in history: Collision/Sinking of M/V ST Thomas Aquinas passenger ferry 16 Aug 2013. (2015). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://maritimecyprus.com/2015/08/16/flashback-in-history-collisionsinking-of-mv-st-thomas-aquinas-passenger-ferry-16-aug-2013/
Impact of Culture towards Disaster Risk Reduction - USIR. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://usir.salford.ac.uk/15891/1/Impact_of_Culture_towards_Disaster_Risk_Reduction.pdf
The psychology of disaster. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.resilience.org/stories/2011-03-17/psychology-disaster
The Trauma That Arises from Natural Disasters. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somatic-psychology/201004/the-trauma-arises-natural-disasters
LUSITANIA DISASTER VS THOMAS AQUINAS DISASTER
Running head: LUSITANIA DISASTER VS THOMAS AQUINAS DISASTER