Norman Atlantic Ferry Fire A ferry carrying 423 passengers and 55 crew members caught fire off the Greek island of Corfu today as the vessel was sailing from the Greek port of Patras to Ancona, Italy.

Passengers and crew members were reportedly trapped on the top decks as gale-force winds and rough seas hindered the evacuation.

The fire broke

Prins RichardVessel Tracker reports that on December 25, 2014, a German passenger aboard the Scandlines Prins Richard ferry went overboard while the ferry  was underway from Puttgarden, Germany to Rødby, Denmark.  

German and Danish Search and rescue vessels and helicopters were deployed. The water temperature was reportedly 42 to 46 degrees ºF. There is no indication that

Cruise Critic is reporting that a fire broke out onboard Costa Cruises’ Costa neoClassica in the Red Sea, yesterday. The fire reportedly broke out in the funnel of the cruise ship. Ship personnel extinguished it. 

Cruise Critic reported that:

"During the incident no onboard services were stopped and the ship reached its destination port in

One of the focuses of Cruise Law News is not only crime on cruise ships, but crimes in ports of calls. 

Cruise lines have a legal obliCrime in the Caribbeangation to warn passengers of crimes which occur in the ports of call where they take their passengers. Cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean have agents in

Advertising Age reports that Carnival Corporation will be advertising its first Super Bowl commercial next year. Carnival has prepared four possible one-minute commercials as part of its multi-brand marketing initiative. 

Each year, around ten million people a year sail on a Carnival brand, such as Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Seabourn

I was sitting in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport this morning when I read a travel publication’s headline that Christine Duffy was just named president of Carnival Cruise Lines. Reading the headlines made me feel like I was having an out-of-body experience.

Christine Duffy president of Carnival?

I stopped for a moment and thought, is today

Nine years ago, I attended my first Congressional hearing regarding dangers to cruise passengers on the high seas. George Smith, of the Greenwich Connecticut area, had disappeared in the Aegean Sea during his honeymoon cruise.  I represented Mr. Smith’s widow. Senator Chris Shays (R-CT) convened a hearing to inquire into the disturbing circumstances surrounding Mr. Smith’s

Nassau BahamasThis weekend was one of the bloodiest in the Bahamas this year. Seven people shot and three dead.

By my calculations, the death toll for the year in the Bahamas is 118 (last year was 119 murders). The murders are primarily in Nassau. 

According to the Tribune, an 18-year-old out of jail on bail

This morning I received a number of emails from residents of Roatan about an extremely violent murder of a local merchant in Roatan (Coxen Hole) near the port. 

Four men attacked and repeatedly beat Mr. Marcelino Vásquez (age 58), the proprietor of a store called "Commercial Vasquez." An article in Teledifusora Insular states that Mr. Vásquez

Many cruise passengers began asking us when the Insignia will sail again, even before the ship’s burned-out engine room stopped smoldering.

Of course we don’t know. The investigation into the fire is just beginning. Investigators from the Marshall Islands (the flag of the Oceania cruise ship) has just started. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and

Costa LuminosaThis morning I learned that a fire reportedly broke out on a Costa cruise ship in the early morning hours on December 11, 2014.

The cruise ship involved reportedly is the Costa Luminosa.

Around 5 a.m. on December 11th, while the cruise ship was sailing in the North Atlantic, diesel engine number 4 reportedly