2011

Sergey Abramov - Russian River Cruise ShipMultiple news sources are reporting that a fire broke out aboard a Moscow based river cruise ship, the Sergey Abramov, and engulfed the vessel.  

Various news reports indicate that several passengers were burned and one crewmember is either missing or reported dead.  Other news accounts reports indicate no deaths.

The Sergei Abramov is a three-deck river vessel which apparently caught

The Sunday Times of London published a disturbing story today regarding paint used on cruise ships and other vessels which could leach into the ship’s water tanks.  The newspaper reports that the potable water supplies may have been contaminated and posed a cancer risk to thousands of cruise passengers.  

The paint could leach the toxin acrylonitrile, described as a tumor-causing probable

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.

Charlie Chan's Murder CruiseAs we reported in our article about this bizarre crime earlier

An unusual debate continues over the use of Charleston, South Carolina as a cruise port and the scale of the cruise industry’s presence in this quaint old southern town.  There is a lot to argue about – air emissions, waste discharge, traffic, noise and passenger congestion as well as the visual pollution of this beautiful city.  

The debate

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

Cruise expert Professor Ross Klein reports that a NCL passenger went overboard from Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sun shortly after the cruise ship pulled out of the Falmouth shipping pier in Jamaica late Wednesday. 

Professor Klein has the most complete list of passenger overboards over the course of the last ten years.

Professor Klein’s website refers to an

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:

Soveriegn of the Seas Cruise Ship - RapeThe 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

Earlier this month, crewmembers aboard the Celebrity Century cruise ship recorded interesting video of the rescue of an injured skipper in the Pacific as the cruise ship sailed to Hawaii.

The incident involved the Quantum Leap, a 49 foot sailing yacht which was being delivered from San Diego to Honolulu by captain Phillip Johnson, together with

Grand Princess Cruise Ship - Cocaine Drug SmugglingThe Crown Court in Southampton, England imposed an eight year jail sentence against a Princess Cruises bar supervisor who attempted to smuggle 1.29 kilos of cocaine with a 100 per cent purity worth  £429,000, into the U.K. 

At the current U.K. – U.S exchange rate, this is about $700,000 worth of coke.

The Daily Echo newspaper in England reports that Princess Cruise crewmember

7 New Belize reports today on the arrest of a 27-year old British cruise passenger in Belize City.

A police officer working at the Tourism Village reportedly arrested Paul Smith, after he was "acting suspiciously" and searched him. The officer found 2.3 grammes of crack cocaine inside a pack of cigarettes in Smith’s pocket.

Smith pleaded guilty to trafficking and a local constable