Another Cruise Ship Blamed for Deaths

Catherine Paneral

Jour 4460

Blog Thirteen

Princess Cruise Line is currently being investigated for the deaths of two 16-year-old boys who were stranded out at sea on a small fishing boat. Passenger Judy Meredith alerted a crew member of the stranded ship she had seen through her high-power binoculars. Meredith hoped the captain would send someone out to check on the boat but nothing ever happened.

"I saw a young man in the front of the boat waving his shirt up and down. Big motions, up over his head and down to the floor, waving it vigorously. Frantically I would say. That signal told me that they were in trouble. They were trying everything they could to get our attention,” Meredith told Good Morning America. “Nothing happened. The ship didn't slow down. It didn't seem to change course. And so I went back in and asked what the captain was going to do. And he said he didn't know (Rosenbaum 2012)."

In that fishing boat were three young boys. Adrian "Santi" Vasquez, Oropeces Betancourt and Fernando Osario set out on a fishing trip Friday, February 24. After a day out on the water the boys realized the motor would not start up to take them back to shore. They were stranded, drifting further and further away from land. “The three Panamanian fishermen drifted at sea for more than two weeks, hungry, hot, and dehydrated, before they spotted the Star Princess cruise ship and started desperately signaling for a rescue (Rosenbaum 2012).”  Betancourt and Osario died of dehydration just one day after the encounter with the cruise ship. 

The boat floated hundreds of miles for another two weeks before Vasquez, the only survivor, was rescued March 24 by an Ecuadoran fishing boat. "For a minute it looked like they were going to turn to come for us, but then they just went on their way,” he said about seeing the Princess Cruise.

The story is a tragedy. Many feel the boys would have survived if the captain of the cruise ship would have sent help. While that may be true, either way I feel the captain would have still encountered some sort of backlash.

If the captain would have checked on the fishing boat, he could be criticized for endangering the lives of the crew members he would have sent out there. The captain is responsible for the lives of every person on the ship and by allowing other people to come aboard, who they know nothing about, could be a threat to all. I say all of this with the fact that the captain had no idea who may have been on that boat. But now because he did not check on the boat he is under investigation for neglecting those who were in desperate need of help.

Regulation 33 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) Chapter V states:

"The master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to provide assistance on receiving a signal from any source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance, if possible informing them or the search and rescue service that the ship is doing so. If the ship receiving the distress alert is unable or, in the special circumstances of the case, considers it unreasonable or unnecessary to proceed to their assistance, the master must enter in the log-book the reason for failing to proceed to the assistance of the persons in distress, taking into account the recommendation of the Organization, to inform the appropriate search and rescue service accordingly."

“Santa Clarita, Calif.-based Princess Cruises, which is British-American owned, said in an email that it has launched an internal investigation into the matter, writing, "We're aware of the allegations that Star Princess supposedly passed by a boat in distress that was carrying three Panamanian fishermen on March 10, 2012. At this time we cannot verify the facts as reported, and we are currently conducting an internal investigation on the matter (Rosenbaum 2012).’” 

Source:

Rosenbaum, Matthew. "Princess Cruises to Investigate Why Captain Ignored Distress Call."Yahoo! Good Morning America, 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://gma.yahoo.com/princess-cruises-investigate-why-captain-ignored-distress-call-233100964--abc-news-topstories.html>.