Cruise Ship Law

Salon.com

Dec 26th, 2008 | MEXICO CITY -- Three Mexican Navy boats and a helicopter were searching the waters off the Caribbean resort of Cancun on Friday for an American woman who reportedly fell from a cruise ship, authorities said.

A U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue crew using a Falcon jet halted its efforts to find 36-year-old Jennifer Feitz late Friday, but will resume Saturday morning using a larger C-130 aircraft, said Petty Officer Third Class Nick Ameen.

Feitz's husband reported her missing from the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship just before 5 a.m. EST Friday. Her hometown was not available.

Mexico's Fifth Naval Regional Command said in a statement that by late Friday it had found no sign of Feitz and was having to deal with "adverse conditions" and strong waves in the search taking place just over 17 miles (27 kilometers) east of Cancun.

"The search is being carried out for an American woman who fell into the sea from a cruise ship east of Isla Mujeres," an island just off the coast from Cancun, the statement said.

Norwegian Cruise Line says the ship left Sunday from Miami for a seven-day western Caribbean cruise.

Posted by Lipcon Law Firm at 10:02 PM | Permalink

Fox News

A cruise ship headed for the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden docked Wednesday in Yemen to let off hundreds of passengers so they could bypass the dangerous waters by plane before rejoining the ship at its next port of call.

The M/S Columbus arrived in the western Yemeni port of Hodeida, where 420 passengers and crew were taking charter flights to Dubai on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. The ship will continue with a limited crew through the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have targeted commercial ships, cruise liners and yachts.

Meanwhile, Somali pirates freed a Greek cargo ship and its 19 crew members on Monday, nearly three months after it was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, and Philippines Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos confirmed the release of the M/V Captain Stephanos on Wednesday.

Click here for photos.

Pirates have attacked 32 vessels and hijacked 12 of them since NATO deployed a four-vessel flotilla in the region on Oct. 24. They have netted more than $30 million in ransoms along Africa's longest and most lawless coast.

The EU launched its anti-piracy mission on Tuesday, five days early, before it takes over for the NATO ships on Monday. The EU mission will include six ships and up to three aircraft patrolling at any one time, and will station armed guards aboard some cargo vessels, such as ships transporting food aid to Somalia, according to the British naval commander in charge of the mission.

On Nov. 30, pirates fired upon the M/S Nautica — a cruise liner carrying 650 passengers and 400 crew — but the ship outran its assailants.

The Hamburg, Germany-based Hapag-Lloyd cruise company said Tuesday that it was taking the precaution of removing the Columbus cruise passengers because the German government denied its request for a security escort through the gulf.

Some 115 of the ship's passengers arrived in Dubai Wednesday afternoon.

Few passengers arriving at the airport agreed to speak about the diversion. One, Greinert Burkhard, a retired high school teacher from Hildesheim, Germany, said he thought it was a good idea.

"(The trip) cost a lot of money, (and) it was more secure to do it like this," Burkhard said.

Not every passenger was happy about the diversion.

"Of course it was a good decision for our security, but I will not enjoy my stay in Dubai," said one woman from Dusseldorf who declined to give her name. "I will think of the crew in a dangerous situation."

Passengers will spend three days at a five-star hotel in Dubai waiting to rejoin the 490-foot vessel in Oman's port of Salalah for the remainder of the around-the-world trip, which began in Italy.

The surge in piracy in the busy shipping lane leading to and from the Suez Canal threatens to take a heavy economic toll. Some commercial shipping companies have announced plans to bypass the Gulf of Aden by taking the much longer and costlier route around the southern tip of Africa.

At least two other cruise operators have also altered or canceled routes that would have brought passengers within reach of pirates.

Mohammed Abdel-Moghni, the head of a tour agency in Yemen that was handling the Columbus passengers' onward travel, said a first group has left on a flight for Dubai. Others were staying in Yemen to tour the mountainous villages of Manakha or Yemen's capital, San'a. They will be leaving on a later flight, he said.

Conejos said he was unaware if a ransom had been paid to pirates for the release of the M/V Captain Stephanos, which is Greek-owned by flies a Bahamas flag.

Its 19 crew members — 17 Filipinos, one Chinese and one Ukrainian — were in "good health" and the ship was sailing to Italy before proceeding to Greece, Conejos said, citing a report by ship owners.

Ships still being held by pirates for huge ransoms include a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million in crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and heavy weapons.

A German official said Wednesday his country's Cabinet has approved a plan to contribute one navy ship and up to 1,400 troops to the EU anti-piracy mission. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Cabinet's decision has not been publicly announced, said the mandate could allow soldiers to pursue, detain and hand over piracy suspects. They will also be authorized to confiscate looted goods.

The German parliament must also approve the deployment.

Posted by Lipcon Law Firm at 9:58 PM | Permalink

USA TODAY

Another small expedition ship that caters to adventurers has run aground in Antarctica.

The 84-passenger Ushuaia, an ice-strengthened vessel that spends five months a year in the region, was near the entrance to Antarctica's famed Wilhelmina Bay when the accident occurred, a spokesman for the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators tells USA TODAY.

No one was injured in the grounding but the ship's officers plan to move passengers to another vessel before they try to "refloat" the Ushuaia -- i.e. move it from where it is stuck.

"An initial assessment of damage indicated that while there was no imminent danger and no threat to life, it would be precautionary to transfer passengers to another vessel," the Association says in a situation report sent to USA TODAY. Still, they added, the ship is stable.

Another expedition ship, the Antarctic Dream, was seven miles away when the incident occurred and already has arrived on the scene. Several other ice-strengthed expedition ships including the National Geographic Explorer, Professor Multanovskiy and Polar Star also are nearby and have offered assistance should it be needed.

Several Chilean Naval vessels also are en route, and the Association, which has been in contact with the Ushuaia's crew, says the crew plans to transfer passengers to the Chilean Naval vessel Achiles on Friday.

The Association says the Ushuaia leaked a small amount of light oil when it ran aground, but the leak has since been sealed and oil barriers have been deployed to contain further spills.

EXPEDITION REPORT: Gene Sloan's multi-media diary of sailing to Antarctica in 2003

Originally built for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1970, the 2,923-ton Ushuaia is one of several dozen small expedition ships that operate adventure cruises to Antarctica each year during the brief Antarctic summer -- the period between November and March when the ice around the continent melts back enough to allow visits.

The often-spartan voyages, which appeal to well-heeled adventurers from around the globe who pay $4,000 per person or more for the chance to see one of the most remote and untrammeled regions on Earth, have grown in popularity in recent years. But several recent incidents also have raised concerns about the trips, which offer the chance to see everything from giant icebergs to penguins and whales.

Just last year two expedition vessels, G.A.P. Adventures' Explorer and Hurtigruten's Fram, were damaged by icebergs. The Explorer eventually sank.

The IAATO situation report on the incident says the Ushuaia was sailing nearly full with 82 passengers on board, including 12 Americans, 2 Canadians, 11 Australians and 7 residents of the United Kingdom. Passengers from nearly a dozen other countries including The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and China also are on board.

Have you taken an expedition cruise to Antarctica? Tell us about it below.

UPDATE, Friday, 10:00 AM ET: The Chilean Navy says passengers on the Ushuaia have been safely transferred to one of its ships, the Achiles, and will be taken to an airstrip on nearby King George Island to be flown back to Argentina and, eventually, home.

Posted by Lipcon Law Firm at 9:54 PM | Permalink

Fox News

MUSCAT, Oman — Ordered to get inside and stay down, Oregon tourist Clyde Thornberg heard the pirates' rifle shots hit the side of the luxury cruise liner — "Pop! Pop! Pop!" — then felt the ship accelerate to escape.

At this Omani port north of the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, passengers told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the crew of the M/S Nautica warned them of pirate dangers before embarking, then deployed clever and non-lethal defenses to keep the marauders at bay.

Sunday's attack on the nearly 600-foot cruise ship in the dangerous waters between Yemen and Somalia was the latest evidence that pirates have grown more brazen, viewing almost any vessel on the water as a potential target — even a large luxury liner with hundreds of tourists on board.

But the assault lasted only five minutes, and the ship with about 650 passengers and 400 crew members on board sped away quickly and was not seized.

"We didn't think they would be cheeky enough to attack a cruise ship," said Wendy Armitage, of Wellington, New Zealand, shortly after disembarking the ship for a daylong port stop in the Omani capital of Muscat.

During Sunday's assault on the cruise liner, pirates on one of two skiffs fired eight rifle shots at the ship, according to its American operator, Oceania Cruises, Inc. But the captain ordered the ship's passengers inside and accelerated the cruise liner quickly, leaving the pirates far behind in their 20 to 30-foot wooden speedboats, powered with twin outboard motors.

"I couldn't see them shooting, but I heard them hitting the ship, 'Pop! Pop! Pop!"' said Thornberg, of Bend, Oregon. "It wasn't really scary because the captain announced for the safety of everybody to get inside and get down, and by that time he was pouring on the coals to the ship and was outrunning them."

Lynne Pincini, of Australia, said she was heading to a friend's cabin when the ship's captain got on the loud speaker and told people to keep their heads down and stay inside.

"We heard the announcement, and of course we went straight out on the balcony to have a look. It was like a very large speedboat. It was running alongside the boat," she said.

The cruise was on a monthlong trip from Rome to Singapore, a route that took it through the dangerous Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, where pirates have hijacked dozens of boats this year. Cruises and other vessels have to use the route — the only access for the Suez Canal shortcut between East and West — unless they are willing to add weeks to the trip by traveling around the southern tip of Africa.

At the beginning of the journey, the ship's captain briefed the mostly well-traveled passengers on what the vessel could do to ward off pirates.

One passenger, Alica Moorehead, said they were told the cruise ship could outrun the pirates by picking up speed, aiming high-pressure water hoses at them and using a device that blasts painful sound waves at the pirates to distract them. Such devices can blast sounds of up to 150 decibels, focused on targets several hundred yards away — above the normal pain threshold of 120 decibels.

"We had been reassured that they had these ghetto blasters that could go through them. And we could outrun anything that they had," Pincini said.

Moorehead's husband, Pat, said the ship's crew had even laid out the fire hoses before the vessel entered the Gulf of Aden.

"They had laid out the fire hoses for a high pressure repellant. They never did fire them up, but they were ready for them," said Moorehead, a native of Long Beach, California.

"I will say the crew was very calm. They had prepared for this. Every staff member has an assignment in case of an emergency, and every one of them did it calmly and quickly," he added.

It was not clear what devices, if any, the crew used beyond accelerating. Some passengers on the Nautica said the crew used the long-range acoustic device to ward off Sunday's attack, and at least two passengers described hearing two "boom" sounds after the pirates fired their rifles.

But Oceania Cruises would not comment on specific details of the ship's security other than to say the ship's captain and crew used "evasive maneuvers and took all prescribed precautions."

Roger Middleton, author of a recent report on piracy for London-based think-tank Chatham House, said the non-lethal defense are preferable to having armed guards on board — but their effectiveness is limited. For example, simple earplugs can foil the sound device. .

The ship's speed and difficulty in boarding the ship probably were the reasons why the pirates were not successful, he said.

"Lots of pirate attacks fail ... They will go for anything and keep trying until they get on board," Middleton said. "I think they see these things as how much money they get out of them. And lots Western tourists is very valuable."

International warships patrol the Gulf of Aden and have created a security corridor in the area under a U.S.-led initiative, but attacks on shipping have not abated.

In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked. Thirteen ships remain in the hands of pirates, including a Saudi supertanker filled with $100 million worth of crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 battle tanks.

Pirates freed a hijacked Yemeni cargo ship and its eight crew members without receiving any ransom after an appeal by local clan elders and regional officials, Somali official said Wednesday.

The ship, released Tuesday night, was seized last month in the Arabian Sea. A Yemeni security official had said the pirates were initially demanding a $2 million ransom to release the ship and its eight-person crew.

Posted by Lipcon Law Firm at 10:05 PM | Permalink