Cruise Law News : Maritime Lawyer & Attorney : James M. Walker : Walker & O'Neill Law Firm : Admiralty Law, Cruise Ship Accidents & Injuries

Today I was reading Yahoo News when I saw a weird story featured on the front page about a cruise ship named "iglu cruise ship" in the Caribbean where you can snow ski on the top deck.  I clicked on it the link which took me to the article below.  

Yes, there is an iglucruise website; it is a travel agency in the U.K.  But no, there is not an iglu cruise ship where you can ski.  I remember receiving a link to a story similar to this earlier this year, and it turned out to be an April Fool's joke.  Yahoo just picked up the story which has been floating around since April, and didn't check out whether it was legitimate. 

Looks like Yahoo turned into the fool this year.  Here's the story which punked Yahoo:

CARIBBEAN SKI SEASON OPENS ATOP INNOVATIVE CRUISE SHIP

"The most unusual ski adventure of the season will occur beginning this week in the unlikeliest of destinations: the Caribbean Sea, where dressing in layers will not be required and sunscreen will be at a premium.

The cruise got underway Thursday in Barbados aboard a custom-built ship that boasts a tall slope and lift at its stern (see image at right), a rental chalet, an apres-ski bar, saunas and hot tubs.

Purists may cringe at the notion. The snow is not real and there is no tree skiing, obviously, because there are no trees; and there is no wintry crispness to the air.

But consider the bright side: Bluebird skies and balmy temperatures every day. A vast and placid sea with islands on on the horizon.

The company offering this first-ever Caribbean ski excursion is Iglucruise, a British travel business whose inaugural eight-day voyage includes stops at Tobago,Isla Margarita, St. Lucia, Grenada and St. Vincent.

The ski slope is almost 500 feet long, built atop the upper deck to afford fantastic views of the blue water. The slope is covered with a Perma-Snow carpet, which is said to almost feel like real snow. The lift is operated with the touch of a button.

Iglucruise states on its website that it's "proud to announce the launch of their first cruise ship, a ground-breaking new ship to combine the passions of their loyal customers; skiing and cruising."

It figures to be crowded on the hill, though, as the ship can carry 1,129 passengers.

News of this crazy adventure spread among the ski community earlier this fall, when the voyage was announced, and the ski community wasn't quite sure how to react. Reads a post on the Unofficial Networks website:

"I think it's a stretch to actually call it skiing, then again, speaking to the uniqueness of this idea, what a trip it's going to be for people to be linking turns on a cruise ship sailing across the famed waters of the Caribbean Sea. This is not a ski trip most of us would ever consider, then again name another time you've heard of such a trip being offered."

Prices for this ski cruise were as low as 799 British pounds, or about $1,240."

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A life sentence in jail was imposed today on a cruise passenger by a Federal District Judge for a murder on a cruise ship which occurred two years ago. 

In July 2009, Robert and Shirley McGill cruised to Cabo San Lucas aboard the Carnival Elation cruise ship to celebrate Mr. McGill's 55th birthday and his wife's retirement.  

But following heavy drinking ashore in Mexico, McGill strangled and beat his wife to death in their cabin.  McGill was arrested when the Elation arrived in San Diego.

We wrote about the cruise crime last year - Prosecutors May Seek Death Penalty In Carnival Cruise Murder Case.

McGill apologized for his actions at the court sentencing today although he didn't explain why he killed his wife.  

His defense attorney argued that McGill was a good man who made a horrible mistake after getting drunk. 

According to the AP, the defense lawyer argued that his client hallucinated after drinking a half bottle of Mezcal and seven or eight beers.  He was so intoxicated that he had to be helped up the gangway after drinking in Cabo.  McGill said he believed a scorpion that was in the Mezcal bottle had "set him off."

U.S. Chief District Judge Irma Gonzalez said she didn't buy the scorpion-made-do-it excuse.

The Court noted that after killing his wife, McGill cleaned himself up and then went to an upper deck to smoke a cigar.   Other news accounts report that he ordered a bucket of beer which he continued to drink as the cruise ship headed back to the U.S.

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The Australian Broadcasting Network just published a weird and disturbing report that the Scientology organization held a young woman against her will on its cruise ship, the Freewinds, which the Scientologists home port in Curaçao. 

The report involves Valeska Paris who was born into a Scientology family.  Her father, once a millionaire, alleged that the organization fleeced him and he became impoverished.  After he committed suicide, her mother denounced Scientology on national television.  Scientology "church" leaders then instructed Ms. Paris to have no further contact with her family and placed her on the organization's cruise ship where she has been held for twelve years.

As a child, Ms. Paris had enlisted into Scientology's "Sea Organization" which required her to agree to a "one billion year contract" of service. 

It seems that the Scientology cult uses the cruise ship to teach "specialized services . . . in advanced spiritual concepts" based on lectures that its leader L. Ron Hubbard gave in the 1960s.  Hubbard thought that the path to higher spirituality could be found in settings like cruise ships sailing to tranquil locations.  Hubbard was often photographed wearing a captain's hat.

The "Church of Scientology International" calls Ms. Paris a "liar" and an "apostate."  It refers to Ms. Paris' claims as "wholly irresponsible, ludicrous, sad, spurious, dishonest, ridiculous, unreliable,  uncorroborated, and totally false."  You can read the over-the-top Scientology denials here.   

The Scientology statement says that the Freewinds cruise ship is a "wonderful place."

The last time the Freewinds was in the news was in 2008 when asbestos was located on the ship and the cruise ship was declared a health hazard.  It was dubbed the Death Ship. 

The Freewinds also came under criticism for discharging waste and polluting the waters of southern Caribbean islands.

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Yesterday, a jury convicted a Chinese passenger of murder after finding that he threw his wife off a cruise ship.   

The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong reports that Wang Weile, age 49, shook his head in disbelief when the seven member jury returned its guilty verdict.  The judge then sentenced him to life imprisonment.

As we reported in our article about this bizarre crime earlier this week - Sea Burial or Cruise Murder? - the cruise passenger claimed that he accidentally injured his wife while trying to keep her from committing suicide.  When she lost consciousness, he thought that she was dead. 

Wang claims that he suddenly remembered that she wanted a burial at sea.  He then pitched her overboard to honor her wishes.

The couple have a nine year old child.  

However when he took the stand at trial, he retracted the "sea burial" story.  He admitted being partially responsible for his wife's injuries, explaining that he struggled with her after she asked him to leave her alone and find another woman.

He also alleged his wife wanted to borrow 400,000 yuan (around $63,00) for her niece's business.

The incident occurred on the Macau Success, a casino cruise ship, while it was in Hong Kong waters.

As bizarre as Wang's defense sounds, the guilty verdict was not unanimous. 

One juror voted to acquit Wang.

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What do you do if you accidentally knock your wife unconscious when she tries to commit suicide on a cruise?  Do you throw her overboard after suddenly remembering that she wanted to be buried at sea?

Yes, pretty far fetched.  But that is exactly the defense offered in a criminal trial against a Chinese cruise passenger who is accused of murdering his wife and then pitching her overboard during a cruise aboard the Macau Success last year.  

The Standard newspaper in China explains that Wang Weilie, age 49, stands accused of murdering his wife Yang Wenjuan, age 43, during a cruise on September 24th last year.

A cruise passenger witnessed the couple on a deck when Wang pushed Yang's head backwards towards the railing.  He rushed to notify the cruise staff but returned to find the couple gone but blood covering the deck.

Cruise security guards observed bloodstains on Wang's fingertips.  He said the injuries to his fist, chest and knee were caused during a struggle to prevent his wife from killing herself.  However, when she lost consciousness, he threw her overboard.

A post-mortem examination found bruises, abrasions and a broken arm.  A pathologist concluded Yang "died of drowning after sustaining significant but otherwise non-fatal injuries."

According to an article published last year, the couple have a nine year old son.

The bizarre story reminds me of the violent death of cruise passenger Karen Roston whose husband threw her overboard on the last night of her honeymoon cruise from the Sundancer cruise ship operated by Admiral Cruises of Miami.  Scott Roston concocted a story that high winds blew her overboard as she ran on the jogging track on an upper deck.  But evidence introduced at his criminal trial indicated that the winds were just 4 - 5 mph. 

FBI agents found Ms. Roston's hair embedded in the rubberized jogging track along with a broken earring matching one she was wearing in a photograph taken at a shipboard dinner.  Her husband was observed with scratches on his face after her disappearance.  A medical examiner concluded from an autopsy that Ms. Roston had been strangled and then thrown overboard . . .

Photo credit:    shipphotos.com.au

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One of the categories I have for my Cruise Law News blog is "weird cruise news." 

Why such a category? 

For stories just like this:

The Nassau Guardian published an article today about a Royal Caribbean crewmember, employed as a stateroom attendant, who was accused of raping a young woman on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas cruise ship. 

The incident involved a student from Florida State University who reported being raped back in 2006 on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship while it was docked in Nassau. 

The accused crewmember was Ruel Lockwood from Nicaragua.  He used his key card to enter the young woman's cabin with a key card, which he used to enter cabins to clean them, and then allegedly commit the rape.

Why Royal Caribbean lets single men have key cards to women's cabins on their cruise ships remains an unpleasant mystery for me. 

I was young Jane Doe's Miami counsel, appointed by the Washington D.C. law firm of Winston & Strawn to act as co-counsel for Jane Doe after the shipboard rape.

Convincing juries in foreign countries to convict a cruise ship employee for raping an American woman is a daunting task, especially when the cruise line sent its defense lawyers to Nassau to assist the Bahamian criminal defense lawyers defend the case - which we alleged in the lawsuit filed against Royal Caribbean.

Yes, as expected, the jury in the Bahamas acquitted the cruise line employee accused of the rape.  The legitimacy of the verdict should be considered with the fact that Royal Caribbean paid $1,500,000.00 to settle the civil case where we alleged that the crewmember raped our client.

In my opinion, cruise lines don't pay that type of compensation if a rape did not occur.

Now here comes the weird part. 

After crewmember Lockwood was acquitted, he remained in jail for 4 days in Nassau.   For that, he sued the Bahamas for "unlawful detention."  Although he spent months and months in jail for the rape charges, he is now seeking damages for the 4 days he spent in jail after the jury acquitted him.  

Crewmember Lockwood should count his blessings for not spending the next 20 years of his life in the bowels of the Nassau jails.

Seeking compensation for 4 days in jail after his "acquittal" of raping an innocent coed during a cruise is a sick joke.

Photo Credit:  usscusk.com

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A Carnival crewmember found a dead baby in a passenger cabin this week.  The child is apparently the newborn baby of a twenty year old passenger. 

The disturbing discovery occurred aboard the Carnival Dream cruise ship.  Carnival released a statement indicating that Dutch authorities detained the mother in St. Maarten, where the cruise ship called on Wednesday.  The FBI boarded the Dream when it returned to Port Canaveral.  The FBI has special maritime jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes involving U.S. passengers in international waters.      

Carnival does not permit pregnant women to cruise if their estimated gestational age on the day of disembarkation is 25 weeks or more. 

There is no indication whether the baby was stillborn or died after the mother gave birth.  An autopsy should provide answers.

If you have additional information about this incident, please leave a comment below. 

Video credit:  CBS / Today Show

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Multiple news sources are reporting that a passenger threw his 7 year old son overboard from the Pavillion Queen, which is being referred to as either a cruise ship or sight seeing boat.

The incident occurred yesterday afternoon, when Sloane Briles, age 35, was sailing on a sight seeing cruise in Newport  Harbor, California with his girlfriend and two sons, ages 7 and 6.

According to news sources, Briles began arguing with his girlfriend and struck his older boy and then threw him overboard.

NBC LA reports that the boy was pulled from the water and onto a nearby boat, according to  Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office arrested Briles for child endangerment and resisting arrest.  He was released after posting bond. 

Briles' facebook page indicates that Briles was in the U.S. Marine Corps for 5 years from 1995 to 2000.

This is the first time I have ever heard of a child being thrown overboard.  This is why I have a section in this blog called "Weird Cruise News."

Photo credit:  LA Sheriff's Office via NBC LA 

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The Miami Herald reported that Discovery Cruise Line, which is known for operating day cruises to the Bahamas plans to discontinue services starting September 7.

It is unknown whether this is a temporary hiatus or whether the cruise liner is going out of business for good. According to the Herald, the cruise line announced its suspension is a result of necessary repairs to the cruise liner's sole cruise ship, the M/S Discovery Sun. No timetable for its return has been released.

Photo credit: Casinos Austria Maritime

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Last November, Cruise Law News (CLN) reported on the drunken cruise ship passenger who reportedly snuck into the control room and dropped anchor while the ship was sailing back to Tampa from Mexico.

Daniel Castillo, Ehlert’s defense attorney now claims that Rick Ehlert admits to being intoxicated and sneaking into the control room to drop the M/S Ryndam’s anchor; however, what his client did was not a crime.

Castillo claims that while his client was certainly acting stupid, Mr. Ehlert did not commit a federal crime. Castillo says that no persons were injured or property damaged as a result of his client’s stupidity. Ehlert admits to being drunk around 5:30 a.m. when he stumbled into the control room and released the anchor while the cruise ship was out at sea.

Ehlert was arrested on felony charges for attempting to “damage, destroy, disable, or wreck a vessel.” However, according to Tampa Bay Online, Castillo stated that his client is only “guilty of felony stupidity.” 

While the charges Ehlert faced could have placed him in jail for 20 years, Castillo reported that prosecutors have told him to expect some form of probationary period for his client.  

Who is to blame? The passenger for getting wankered and pulling a not-so-funny prank? Or the cruise line for continuously pushing alcohol and failing to monitor and/or lock the control room? Should Rick Ehlert be sentenced to more than probation? Should he have to serve time?

Photo credit: Gawker

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This weekend I ran across an interesting tweet "Scuttled cruise ship on Google Maps" from Brian Major (@cruiseprguy) who handles PR for some of the cruise lines.  I could not resist clicking on the link.

His tweet linked to an interesting article in Geek O System about the World Discoverer, a German cruise ship built in 1974.  In 2000, the ship captain decided to ground the ship in Roderick Bay in the Solomon Islands after hitting an uncharted reef.  The ship was subsequently ransacked and its equipment and furnishings were stolen. 

Gizmodo originally ran the story pointing out the weirdness of finding a scuttled cruise ship on a Google Map.  

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The New York Daily News published a weird cruise story this morning about a man from Malaysia who smuggled nine illegal Chinese immigrants into Brooklyn aboard the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested five women and four men after the luxurious QM2 arrived at the New York Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.

Fatt Kwee Wong told the federal agents that he was paid $3,000 for each of the nine passengers who also paid him around $500 each when they boarded the cruise ship in Dubai.  Wong aroused the suspicion of the U.S. immigration officials when he was stumped when asked the names of his nine travelling companions.

The illegal immigrants were not stowaways and their names appeared on the boat's manifest.

It is a rather amazing spectacle for nine Chinese people to board a cruise ship in Dubai and sail into the harbor in New York.  So much for Cunard's security protocols.    

Photo credit:  AFP
 

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Before Royal Caribbean lost its mind and created the 'Nation of Why Not" (which seems like a rip-off of Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman's "What Me Worry?"), the cruise line used a snappy song called "Lust for Life" as part of its Get Out There! marketing campaign.

You remember the video - passengers hiking on a glacier, dog sledding and kayaking, while a  upbeat tune with a heavy base blared out the refrain Lust for Life!   Take a look and listen:

But few people (except those Iggy Pop fans like me) knew what the song was really about - booze, drug addiction, a dead heroin dealer, and sex.   Here is a portion of the lyrics: 

Here comes Johnny Yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He's gonna do another striptease
Hey man where'd you get
That lotion? I been hurting
Since I bought the gimmick
About something called love
Yeah something called love
That's like hypnotizing chickens
Well I am just a modern guy
Of course I've had it in the ear before

'Cause of a lust for life
'Cause of a lust for life .  .  .

Both of my boys have Iggy Pop loaded on their iPods.  They used to break out in laughter when they heard this commercial.  They'd say "hey Dad, isn't that the cruise line you sue all of the time?  Why is Iggy Pop singing for them?"    "Yes," I would tease them.  "Royal Caribbean's CEO Richard Fain may seem like a Tony Bennett or Perry Como fan, but he secretly loves Iggy Pop!" I would tell my kids.

Take a minute and listen to Iggy's original version of "Lust for Life" back in 1977 ( when I was a freshman in college):   

Royal Caribbean, Iggy Pop, drugs, booze and sex - strange bedfellows in the weird world of cruising . . .  

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Gene Sloan's popular cruise blog on USA Today's CruiseLog has an article today of particular interest to me - A Cruise to Libya? Another Line Puts it on the Schedule.

Gene reports that Azamara Cruises' 694-passenger Azamara Quest will visit Libya's Al Khums and Tripoli during a Mediterranean voyage that begins on Oct. 16, 2012.

This is not the first cruise line which plans to visit Libya this year.  CruiseLog previously reported that Crystal Cruises announced plans for the Crystal Serenity to call on Libya later this fall.  A Crystal spokeswoman told CruiseLog that a reversal of Libya's longtime ban on American tourists is behind the addition of a Libyan port to the line's schedule.

"Libya has loosened its ban on American tourists once before -- after President Bush lifted U.S. sanctions on the country in 2004 -- in a move that didn't last long. Back then, a number of cruise lines that carry Americans including Crystal, Silversea and Oceania announced plans to begin calling on the country only to have to scuttle the plans after new tensions between the countries prompted Libya to once again raise obstacles to American tourists."

Cruise passengers on the Crystal cruise "will be able to see some of the world's best-preserved archaeological relics from Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Phoenician and Arab-Islamic civilizations; mix with local and tribal groups; feast on traditional cuisine; and visit the Saharan desert."

So why is this of interest to me?  My family lived in Libya from 1965 to 1988.  My Dad was the head of the geophysical department of a large American oil company.  I attended school from second to ninth grade in Tripoli. 

My brother and sister and I had the time of our lives.  We grew up swimming in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, took trips into the Sahara desert, dove for pottery off the coast of the incredible Roman ruins of Sabratha, pick Roman coins from the Libyan sands and made many friends with Libyans.  Unlike the images broadcast in the U.S. of crazy Iranians and Iraqis, the Libyans (largely Sunni Muslims) were peaceful and patient people, especially considering that they were confronted with red neck Americans of the 1960's from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas (where my family is from).     

At the last Seatrade conference on Miami Beach earlier this year, I had a chance to meet the Libyan representative promoting cruising in Libya.  He has a small booth and seemed to be wrongfully treated like a pariah.  

But it was nice to see an old friend and shake his hand. 

Perhaps I should cruise back to Libya, a land of nice people and fond memories. 

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Over a decade ago, maritime attorney Jeffrey Maltzman (photo below, middle) opened up the Miami office of the California law firm of Kaye Rose and Partners.  Over the course of the past ten years, Mr. Maltzman created a firm of around twenty-five lawyers which represented Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises in a variety of passenger and crewmember cases.  He teamed up with ace litigator Jeffrey Foreman (photo below, left), broke away from the Kaye Rose firm, and re-named his firm Maltzman Foreman.  

Mr. Maltzman's firm handled cruise line crisis management issues, such as when the Star Princess caught fire off of the coast of Jamaica.  He defended some of the most high profile cases against the cruise industry, including many cases involving young women who disappeared on the high seas or were the victims of violent crimes, including:

The disappearance of Amy Bradley from Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas.

The disappearance of Merrian Carver from Celebrity Cruise's Mercury.

The sexual assault of Janet Kelly on a cruise ship (a confidentiality order prohibits us from mentioning the name of the cruise line).  

The sexual assault of Laurie Dishman on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas.

Mr. Maltzman's firm was well known for its methodical and exhaustive investigation into the background of personal injury claimants and cruise ship crime victims.  A good example of the aggressive style of defending cruise line cases is found in articles "Defense Team Found the Needle in the Haystack" and  "When Winning is Everything, Maltzman Foreman is There."  After winning a case filed by a group of elderly passengers against Cunard, the firm was quoted saying "there's a saying that pigs get slaughtered . . . If you make them look like they're greedy . . . that usually has an impact. So we tried to paint them as greedy, exaggerating, malingering."    

We have litigated many cases against Mr. Maltzman's firm.  I have given him kudos in at least one prior blog article involving a disastrous bus excursion crash in the British Virgin Islands where a passenger was killed.  

However, the result of the harsh personal style of attacking sexual assault victims and grieving families members is that the cruise industry, particularly Royal Caribbean, has created life time enemies.  Many passengers who were raped or lost children on cruises and then subjected to the "make them look greedy, exaggerating, malingering" treatment have not forgotten their ill treatment following their personal cruise tragedies.  These victims created the International Cruise Victims (ICV) organization.  The ICV soundly defeated the cruise industry in the arena of public opinion.  Ken Carver and firm clients Laurie Dishman and Janet Kelly all appeared on national television and testified before our U.S. Congress regarding cruise crime issues.  There have been hundreds of articles in national and international publications involving the ICV members over the last several years.  Their compelling stories were integral in Congress passing the 2010 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act which now protects Americans on the high seas. 

Whereas the Maltzman firm was skilled at winning the small battles involving individual cases, it was consistently trounced in the larger war being fought by victims demanding cruise line transparency and accountability.

So this year began with word that Mr. Maltzman had suddenly and unexpectedly left the firm he created long ago. The firm, now called Foreman Friedman, dropped Mr. Maltzman's name and added the name of Mr. Maltzman's partner, Darren Friedman (photo above, right).  What happened?  Who knows?  Who cares?   Mr. Maltzman will create another dynamo of a new firm, no doubt.  Now there will be two firms where there was once one, both aggressively defending high profile cruise cases with a "winning is everything" attitude. 

Photo Credit: South Florida Business Leader

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We receive a lot of weird emails and telephone inquiries from cruise passengers about all types of things.  Can we get our money back because the waiter was rude?  Can we get a free cruise because the weather was bad and we missed a port, etc . . . etc. . . . etc.

I'll be honest.  I hate these type of inquiries.  They are a waste of everyone's time.

Last month we received one of these type of complaints.  Passengers on some type of music fan cruise on a Carnival cruise wanted us to help them obtain a refund because they claimed that some of the band members were drunk and disrupted their enjoyment of the cruise.  We couldn't help them.  Bad cruise experiences (not involving a serious injury) like this have no place in our legal system.  The passengers we talked to agreed with us after a few minutes.

This weekend one of the passengers emailed me a link to the TMZ web site (not something I read everyday), joking about their experience.  TMZ gossiped about one of the members of the Backstreet Boys becoming so intoxicated that many passengers wanted a refund.  Its turns out that the Backstreet Boys had a fan cruise in December on a Carnival cruise ship leaving from Miami to Cozumel and back.  TMZ claims that A.J. McLean (who I learn is a Backstreet Boy) "was so hammered and rowdy on a BB fan cruise last month, that several passengers lodged complaints ... with some even demanding a refund .  .  .  one cruise staffer tells us A.J. and his crew acted like 'drunken fools' for the entire five-day trip." 

Drunks during a Carnival cruise?  Sounds like business as usual on the Carnival "fun ships."

Photo credit:  TMZ

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The Smoking Gun reports that a drunk passenger aboard the Ryndam cruise ship, operated by Holland America Line (HAL), released the vessel's anchor as the cruise ship was returning to Tampa from Costa Maya, Mexico.

Under the category "drunk, stupid, crime," the article identifies the intoxicated passenger as Rick Ehlert, age 44, from Thousand Oaks, California. 

The Smoking Gun website contains an affidavit from a FBI agent who noted that a subsequent review of the ship's surveillance video showed cruise passenger Ehlert  releasing the anchor around 5:30 in the morning while wearing the same clothing he was photographed in Friday while attending the ship’s formal night. 

Ehlert was arrested on felony charges of attempting to “damage, destroy, disable, or wreck a vessel.”

Its a pity that cruise ships have such poor security with so much alcohol aboard the ships.  How can a single and very drunk passenger release a anchor without anyone noticing?  Doesn't the security personnel monitor the surveillance cameras?  Shouldn't the anchor be locked?  I would love to take a look at this passenger's bar bill and see how much money HAL collected serving Mr. Ehlert booze on the night in question. 

Article credit:  Smoking Gun

Photo credit:  Gawker

Map credit:  Mail OnLine

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Pirate attacks against cruise ships have occurred and will continue to occur in the future.  It's a subject we have written about:  Cruise Line Liability for Injuries to Passengers and Crew Members Caused by Pirate Attacks, Are Cruise Lines Taking Adequate Steps to Protect Passengers from Pirate Attacks?, and Somali Pirates - A Threat To Cruise Ships? 

A marine expert warned that the successful capture of a cruise ship with thousands of passengers on board would provide Somali pirates with “the mother of all ransoms.”

Cruise ships have used a wide variety of measures against pirates, including Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD) which emit powerful sound waves. 

A  company Security Alliance For Effective Solutions, LLC (SAFE) has designed a new device designed to prevent pirates from boarding ships. Called the "Nemesis 5000," the revolving water gun shoots an 80mph “360-degree curtain of water” to blast the pirates and keep them from using harpoon ladders to scale the side of vessels. The water blast is twice the blast as a high pressure fire hose.

The Express newspaper in the U.K. reports that at least 28 vessels and more than 500 hostages are currently being held by Somali pirates who netted more than $120 million in ransom payments last year. 
 

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A Korean television station is reporting that more than 30 Chinese tourists remain missing in Korea's southern resort island of Jeju after 44 of them abandoned a tour group from a cruise ship.

The Chinese passengers arrived on the Italian cruise ship Costa Classica Sunday in Jeju  from Shanghai and went to visit tourist sites on the island but did not return for the 3 p.m. departure. 

South Korean police apprehended eleven of the cruise passengers, but the other 33 remain unaccounted for.   The South Korean port of Jeju has been a frequent stopover for illegal immigrants from China seeking employment in Korea. The Chinese passengers took their luggage with them, and apparently intended to work illegally in South Korea.

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Just when you think you have seen everything, I ran across an advertisement for a "Spy Cruise." 

"SpyCruise®"  advertises itself as "a private group aboard a cruise ship where members attend exclusive lectures and talks on espionage, spies, intelligence, counterterrorism and more. Speakers are intelligence experts, leaders, officers, operatives, analysts, authors and historians, many of whom served in the US Intelligence Community."

The cruise will be into the Caribbean aboard Holland America Line's Eurodam cruise ship, leaving Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) on November 13th.  

The cruise is sponsored by the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI CENTRE) whose motto is "Detect, Deter & Disrupt," Henley-Putnam University and The Counter Terrorist magazine which is discussing "The Radical Islamic Threat" and "Mass Casualty Protection" in its publication.

Now, to be honest, I have never heard of this organization, or this university, or this anti-terrorist magazine (which actually sounds quite interesting).  Perhaps because they are run by spies and operatives? 

But all kidding aside, the line-up seems impressive if you like this kind of stuff, and includes a couple of former CIA and NSA Directors as well as some top generals and commanders from the U.S. Army and Navy.  According to the Washington Post, its also for a good cause - part of the cruise proceeds go to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen CIA officers and another memorial fund for a U.S. Army soldier.

The cruise website includes links to prior spy cruises, to the Western Caribbean in 2002, and Hawaii and London in 2003.

But I can't help thinking about the potential dangers involved in such an event.  Is it a smart idea to load up a cruise ship with a group of former CIA, NSA, FBI directors and operatives and retired U.S. Army and Navy types to sail around on a foreign flagged cruise ship where the passengers' safety is protected only by a small number of unarmed Filipino security guards?   

Credits:

Photo and ad banner  SpyCruise®  

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This week was another interesting week in the strange world of cruise law.  Just consider:

A Cruise CEO With Billions of Dollars But No Soul?

Carnival Cruise's CEO Billionaire Mickey Arison was named the richest man in Florida again by Fortune magazine with a net worth of $4,100,000,000.  So why does he pay his injured and ill crew members slave wages of only $12 a day? 

Arison owns the Miami Heat and is paying basketball stars Dwayne Wade and LeBron James hundreds of millions of dollars, but he treats his crew employees like dog crap.  

Arison and the other cruise line tycoons Leon Black and the Pritzker families are stereotypes of greedy shipping executives.  Earlier this year I wrote about these Cruise Line Fat Cat Billionaires.  Here we are again with these billionaires counting their pennies.  

Billions for me, peanuts for the crew.  

More Lies By the Cruise Line International Association

The notorious Cruise Line International Association ("CLIA"), which rivals the former communist regimes of Russia in trying to control the flow of information (Pravda anyone?), released a major marketing PR effort this week to promote itself as a green industry.  CEO Arison is quoted as saying that the cruise industry is "committed to the highest environmental standards through cutting-edge environmental policies, procedures, technologies . . . "

Ha.

The truth is that Arison and CLIA fought tooth and nail this year to avoid Alaska's high wastewater restrictions.  A green company?  Hardly.  CLIA opposes the Clean Air Law and its cruise ships are still burning nasty bunker fuel.  Technologies needed to meet the "highest" wastewater and emission standards cost money, that billionaire Arison has historically avoided spending unless forced to do so.     

At the same time CLIA issued its grandiose environmental press statement, numerous newspapers published articles revealing that the cruise industry still has a long, long way to go to protect the seas in which its cruise ships still pollute: "Cruise Ships Continue Dumping Sewage,"  "The Dark Side of Cruising: Waste Disposal," and "Cruise Ships Continue to Foul the Baltic Sea."

More Monkey Business By Royal Caribbean

My blog this week contained two of my most widely read articles over the course of the last year.  Royal Caribbean's Deep Throat focused on the corruption in Royal Caribbean's risk management department.  

The "Deep Throat" article about the cruise line's indifference toward its own corrupt employee should be read in contrast to the cruise line's diabolical conduct toward a former cruise line lawyer who decided to "switch sides" and represent injured passengers and crew members - Royal Caribbean Forces Defense Lawyer to Switch Sides.  This article was widely circulated by email within Royal Caribbean's legal department and its outside law firm who are teaming up in a campaign of malicious prosecution against our firm.

The "Deep Throat" article was named as one of the "best in blogs" by LexBlog yesterday.

More Good News For Cruise Law News (CLN)

Speaking of the best blogs, CLN has reached another milestone as one of the most read legal blogs in the U.S.  Three months ago, I was excited to mention that this blog was the 55th most popular legal blog per the Alexa rankings and was rising fast. I predicted by the end of the year that CLN's popularity would place it in the top 25 law blogs.

Well today Alexa's ranking shows that CLN moved up from the 55th to the 32nd most popular law blog.   

It seems that the public is hungry for a source of information about cruising other than the slick corporate statements from billionaire executives and bogus facts from the cruise industry's PR people. 

Interested in how your blog or website is ranked?  Click here and download the Alexa toolbar.  It will take 20 seconds . . .

Credits:  Mickey Arison - David Adame AP (via Cruise Blog)

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OnlinePoker.net reports that a 51 year old passenger aboard the SuperStar Aquarius lost HK$5 million ($650,000) playing baccarat.  He then leaped to his death from the top floor of the 13-deck cruise ship.

The article identifies the passenger as "Xu" and states that he gambled at the baccarat table until it closed at 8 a.m. on Sunday.  After losing this staggering amount, "Xu then wandered the deck for an hour before he was seen jumping to his death .  .  ." 

A police spokesman classified the incident as “man overboard,” with no suspicious circumstances.

The cruise ship is operated by Star Cruises.

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Just when you think you have heard everything  . . .  along comes a story like this.

Dianna Hilliard, an attorney in Missouri with 25 years of experience handling drunk driving cases, explains that if you are a passenger with a DWI / DUI conviction you may have a problem entering Canada during your cruise.  In a blog entitled "On a Cruise to Canada???  DWI Conviction?  May need a special waiver to enter Canada," Ms. Hilliard writes:

"A DWI incident will effect your ability to go to Canada.

Canadian authorities are reported to be refusing admission to drivers with a DWI conviction in the USA.  Such records are immediately available on Canada Immigration computers and may show convictions as far back as 20 years ago.  Those with such convictions may be able to get a waiver for up to 30 days visitation upon payment of a $200 (Canadian) fee.  A single DWI conviction may be permanently expunged from the Canadian computers for payment of $400 (Canadian).  Canadian officials are reported justifying the fees because they feel DWI is a serious crime and it is a way of keeping "undesirables" out of Canada. 

This includes passengers on a cruise.  What should you do?  First, plan ahead, way ahead as Canada may take over 6 months to decide on a special waiver .  .  ."

It seems strange that a passenger who enters Canada only for an afternoon and returns to the cruise ship which leaves at 6:00 p.m. (and doesn't even rent a car) could be be prevented from entering the country for a drunk driving arrest 5 or 10 years ago.  It seems particularly strange because at any given time there are hundreds of drunk passengers on the cruise ships as they enter Canadian waters.  

Does anyone know of a passenger who was denied entering Canada because of a DWI / DUI conviction?

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Former child sitcom star Willie Aames recently joined the crew of an Oceania cruise ship as an assistant cruise director, according to several news sources. 

You may recall Mr. Aames as Tommy Bradford in the sitcom Eight is Enough.  He starred in a few movies and some other T.V. shows.  At one point, he was reportedly making a million dollars a year. 

But the make-believe life of young Tommy Bradford was in stark contrast to the real life woes of Willie Aames.  He fell into some serious hard times, due to alcohol and drugs.  The bank foreclosed on his house, his wife left him, and he became homeless.  In 2008, he attempted suicide by cutting his throat after drinking a cocktail of Jack Daniels and pills while alone in a hotel room.

He is now clean and living a sober life. Good for him.  But I am having a hard time imagining what the cruise line's human resources department was thinking when they read his resume:  Child star, drug addict, born again Christian, ordained minister, furniture builder, suicide survivor, financial advisor, and bankruptcy petitioner.

Working on a cruise ship is a stressful job.  Let's keep our fingers crossed and pray that Mr. Aames finds redemption on the high seas.    

Credits:

Photograph 2, sojoco.blogspot.com; photograph 3, National Enquirer. 

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