Actually the only vessel to come anywhere near the 6000 mark is the new Genesis class of passenger vessels currently due out in 2009 from RCI.
A more normal figure at the moment is around 3000. We have a total of 3600 crew and passengers.
As I mentioned on the thread regarding the Sea Diamond ships nowadays are inherently designed to float with two of thier vertical watertight compartments flooded but should they sink they are designed to sink in a vertical attitude. Why the Sea Diamond was listing so much I cannot even imagine but this concept has been designed into liners and passenger vessels since the Titanic where one of the big problems was that they couldn't fill the few boats they had because on one side they were sat against the hull and wouldn't drop and on the other side they were too far away from the ship.
Just to also try to get the numbers into context. No matter what the situation may be involving passengers or the public in any emergency the biggest loss of life will be as a result of panic. That can be on a London Bus, The Mersey Ferry or a transatlantic liner.
How many of you use supermarkets, theatres, cinema's or even a shopping mall? Who works in a large office building, uses the subway or even a train? In any of those situations no amount of fire regs or the training of the attending staff will prevent panic and the subsequent loss of life.
I can assure you that per head of passengers there are an infinately greater number of trained crew to at least try to deal with the situation than you will find in any of the situations mentioned above.
It's very easy to judge based on one incident but ships, companies and crews are as varied as everything else is in life.
Also remember that it is only the emergencies that go wrong that are reported. You don't hear about the emergency situations on ships that were successfully dealt with do you?