Have any large cruise ships sunk due to bad weather conditions?

 In 1991, a massive winter storm sank a 500-foot luxury cruise ship. The passengers survived only because a magician and a guitarist took command after the captain fled in the first lifeboat.

While modern passenger ships are floating fortresses designed to withstand extreme weather, a cascade of mechanical failures can still turn a severe storm deadly.

This infamous incident involved the Greek-owned MTS Oceanos. Battered by 30-foot swells and 74-knot winds off South Africa's Wild Coast, the ship's hull sustained damage that burst a vital sea valve. Water poured into the generator room, knocking out the main engines and leaving the vessel adrift and powerless in the churning sea. With the senior officers gone, the remaining staff coordinated an airborne rescue with military helicopters. Miraculously, all 571 people on board were saved before the ship rolled over and plunged to the bottom.

A much deadlier weather-related sinking occurred in 1994 with the MS Estonia. While technically a Ro-Ro (roll-on/roll-off) cruiseferry, the Estonia was a 515-foot vessel carrying nearly a thousand passengers across the Baltic Sea. During a severe autumn storm, punishing waves repeatedly slammed into the ship. The immense force tore the 50-ton bow visor completely off, allowing the sea to flood the expansive, open car deck. The ship lost its stability in minutes and sank in under an hour, claiming 852 lives.

Today, maritime engineering has advanced to the point where weather alone cannot sink a modern mega-ship. In 2016, the Anthem of the Seas inadvertently sailed directly into a hurricane featuring 100 mph winds and 30-foot waves. Passengers endured hours of terror and the interior suffered cosmetic damage, but the ship itself remained structurally sound. Sheer scale, redundant watertight compartments, and computerized stabilizers ensure that contemporary cruise ships can ride out the worst nature has to offer.

The Greek-owned luxury cruise ship MTS Oceanos in port in 1986. Five years later, extreme weather caused the ship to sink off the coast of South Africa. Photo by Peter J. Fitzpatrick is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

If a cruise ship were left floating in the sea, how many years would it take to sink?

 The main problem is that all large cruise ships are very tall, narrow, and have long, flat sides, and are basically designed to roll on the water in heavy seas.

What keeps the cruise ship from rocking is continuous active stability control powered by hydraulic and electric drive from diesel generators. This drives the massive "tuna fins" that deploy on the sides of the ship at sea.

When the diesel fuel runs out, the fins can no longer be adjusted, and the ship loses its stability to prevent capsizing.

Fortunately, cruise ships spend most of their time on calm seas, but in glassy waters they tend to lose power, and large side-to-side movements can interfere with the top deck.

When will a drifting ship run out of fuel? Almost immediately. It won't have any extra reserves, just enough for a 12-day journey or 30 days of drifting.

Modifying a ship to increase its fuel supply while adrift requires laborious work by the crew, which would be impossible if the ship is scheduled to be abandoned. Therefore, it is expected that the fuel needed to prevent capsizing will run out within one or two days of the scheduled arrival date.

Once the power goes out, these ships become toys for the first big storm they encounter.

The first thing that happens is that the cabin is repeatedly and violently tossed around by the wind, with enough force to break down doors and tear off bolted-on beds and chairs.

If they rotate violently several times, loose furniture and debris can shift, causing the trim to come loose and increasing the risk of accidents. However, because their superstructure is divided into very small sections, most of the debris tends to stay within 20 feet (about 6 meters) of where it once stood.

That is, until the welded joint starts to break.

Welded joints are a weak point in modern ships.

This is a cruise ship being scrapped at a dismantling yard in Türkiye.

Take a look at how it's being dismantled. It's being taken apart just like Lego blocks, isn't it? That's because it's made of blocks.

Next, I'm assembling Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. This is also made of blocks.

A typical modern shipbuilding house-sized block awaits its turn under the cranes:

When modern ships are pushed to their limits, failure occurs along the welds between blocks.

This is the state the Norwegian Dream, which collided with a container ship in the English Channel, is in. You can see that the block under the bow is easily torn apart. Also note the 10 tons of rented cargo on the deck!

A drifting passenger ship begins to rapidly disintegrate once the welds between its sections start to fail.

Where do cruise ships get their water from and how do they store it?

 Cruise ships get their water from two main sources: the sea and the port. Cruise ships have advanced water treatment systems onboard that can convert seawater into freshwater. These systems use either reverse osmosis or evaporation to remove the salt and other impurities from the seawater.

Cruise ships also get their water from the port when they dock or anchor near the shore. They can connect to the local water supply and fill up their water tanks with fresh water. Cruise ships store their water in large tanks that are usually located in the hull of the ship.

The tanks are made of stainless steel or plastic, which can prevent corrosion and contamination. The tanks hold millions of liters of water, depending on the size and capacity of the ship. The water is then distributed to different parts of the ship through pipes and pumps. The water is also treated and disinfected before it reaches the end user, using methods such as chlorination, ozonation, UV radiation, etc.

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Can a whale flip a cruise ship?

 Kind of the opposite as cruise ships can and do run into whales and kill them

The only whale that would be able to flip over a cruise ship is a kaijiu, but sadly for us it isn’t real.

This would be the only whale that can flip over a cruise ship or cause it to entirely sink.