Cruise Ship Ignores Distress Call

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by ebaugh

We have a sat phone, but no SSB. But who do you call? This is a long way from US waters. Guess I need to do a better job finding the local contact numbers for areas we pass through.

One would like to think that if you called whoever you usually would in these situations, that they being land based with phone and internet access would be able to pass the message to the right people lickety split.

[silversailor]

The only way the cruising community can have an impact it to hit Princes Cruises in the pocketbook. The world should know that Princess Cruises and their owner, Carnival Lines, is to be avoided. I wouldn't sail with them if they gave me the cabin.

[martinjrichter]

Don't want to blame the victums here but it would have clairified the situation if the distressed boat had fired a flair or used some other distress signal. I have been on the radio talking to someone I thought was close onlytodiscover later he was miles away. The close guy didn't have the radio on!

[Nemo55]

Thats a good point,,generally speaking,,most cruise ships do have a full complement of jet-ski's,,at the very least they should have sent someone to assist via jet-ski.
Or even as others have suggested,lower a float with emergency supplies for use by the vessel in distress.
There was no excuse for denying rescue, there will be a full accounting..

Originally Posted by SunDevil

The cruise ship industry's image isn't the best right now, they need to rescue and help a few people out to get some good news about them...

You would think that there would be some jetskis or small dingy boat that could be launched from the cruise ship and assist with food, fuel, and water.

[oldjags]

In this case the distress call was men waving their arms, which the captain interpreted as warning him to stay away from their fishing nets.

What the captain failed to consider was - what is a 22' panga doing out here 200+ miles from shore.

Boats that are actiually fishing this far from shore are much larger than a coastal fishing boat. That alone should have raised a red flag in his mind to at least check it out.

The fact that some of the passengers could clearly discern that there was a distress situation is also troubling. The captain clearly didn't want to be bothered with a rescue and all the associated delays and details, so he just kept going and ignored it.

At the very least, he should be fired and never allowed to captain another ship. A little prison time would not be out of order either.

[ebaugh]

It appears there is little doubt the fishing vessel was not well prepared. No radio, no flares etc. The distress situation remains. And I agree a cruise ship has enough resources at their disposal to address the situation.

The problem is to really get to the bottom of it you have to get close enough to ascertain the details. By the time you do that, you are probably committed. If you get close enough to provide aid like a life raft, water or other stuff, you better hope they are not hostile.

Simply communicating the situation to someone and moving on does not resolve the problem.

I think at a minimum you need to communicate with someone that can assist and stay within visual range until help arrives. But once the sun starts to set, you might as well bring them on board unless there is some specific reason not to. Otherwise you run the risk they won't be rescued.

I hope I don't encounter this situation....

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by oldjags

In this case the distress call was men waving their arms, which the captain interpreted as warning him to stay away from their fishing nets.

What the captain failed to consider was - what is a 22' panga doing out here 200+ miles from shore.

Boats that are actiually fishing this far from shore are much larger than a coastal fishing boat. That alone should have raised a red flag in his mind to at least check it out.

The fact that some of the passengers could clearly discern that there was a distress situation is also troubling. The captain clearly didn't want to be bothered with a rescue and all the associated delays and details, so he just kept going and ignored it.

At the very least, he should be fired and never allowed to captain another ship. A little prison time would not be out of order either.

Apparently, the "fishing fleet" had contacted the liner [ with what exactly? Semaphore?] asking them to change course to avoid their nets, and the captain obliged [as a liner always jumps for 3 men in a boat!] - this was evidenced by the fact that te people on the boat were seen waving to say thanks! [rather than using the original imaginary form of communication]

...and that's the official story! Hmmm

[Bash]

Originally Posted by ebaugh

It appears there is little doubt the fishing vessel was not well prepared. No radio, no flares etc.

You line up 100 fishing pangas in Latin America, and 95 of them won't have running lights, 98 of them won't have radios, and none of them will have flares. A well equipped fishing panga might have a knife, a fid for repairing nets, and a gaffe or a machete. Maybe a couple jugs of water, and a few bananas for lunch. If times are good, a chocolate bar for emergencies.

I just came back from a ten-day sea kayak expedition in Baja Sur, one I organize on a yearly basis. One of the things I count on down there is that if one of my students breaks an ankle, I can ask any pangero I see for help, and he will pull in his net immediately and help evacuate us to a hospital. That's just how these fishermen understand their responsibilities to each other and to anyone else out there.

It's a shame our cruise-liner captains are not equally civilized.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by ebaugh

We have a sat phone, but no SSB. But who do you call? This is a long way from US waters. Guess I need to do a better job finding the local contact numbers for areas we pass through.

We expect to go nonstop from Grenada to Bonaire, and well offshore, but that seems the scenario described.

But if you continue on, are you not potentially making the same decision as the Princess capt?

If you have a Satphone, a USCG number is all you should need, report the problem and location and they should know the appropriate foreign service to call and the number too.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by martinjrichter

Don't want to blame the victums here but it would have clairified the situation if the distressed boat had fired a flair or used some other distress signal. I have been on the radio talking to someone I thought was close onlytodiscover later he was miles away. The close guy didn't have the radio on!

Don't know the situation, but they may not have had the money for flares or other first world signalling equipment.

Then again they might had the money and spent it on other things.

[Katiusha]

Originally Posted by ebaugh

I think the bigger question is how would we react to a similar situation? A small cruising vessel with 2 aboard. Certainly in our home country we would render any assistance required. But what if we are in an area of safety and security concerns? Panama is generally not considered a bad area, but what about off the coast of Venezuela?

I'm doing this route in the next year, and this was an interesting discussion this evening with no clear answer.....what do you think?

Actually we were in the same situation two years ago (a month or so after Haiti earthquake): we (Canadian flagged), together with one other monohull, Second Lady (US flagged), and a cat, Dreaming On (British ensign), were travelling from Big Sand Cay, T&C, to Ocean World, DR. Each boat had a couple on it. it was blowing around 30 kn with 6-8 foot steep waves.

About 1/4 of the way there we get a VHF call from Dreaming On that they've spotted a fishing boat that looked to be in distress with two men on board. Second Lady had a gun on board, we had a sat phone. We were 2 nm away from the cat. Second Lady was 6 nm away.

So we called US Coast Guard asking their suggestion (there is a general 1-800 number that you can call). They suggested caution as it might be Haiti citizens trying to get out of the country. At the same time they contacted PR Coast Guard to advise them of the situation. Dreaming On circled the fishermen a few times to try to find out where they're from. At the end, they decided that fishermen didn't look threatening, just very-very tired. Dreaming On picked them off their boat, tied the boat off the transoms and gave them water and food.

Turns out these guys were free diving for lobster on one of the banks north of DR (60+ feet). One of the driver, the second was the diver. Their outboard had been having problems for the last few days and that day, when they were about 3 nm from the mothership it failed to start and didn't come back to life after. They waved and signaled to the mothership, the mothership signaled back, collected other boats and left. These guys were left stranded. Turns out later that the mothership immediately called their families telling them that these two guys died. So the small boat was picked up by the northerly current and that's where Dreaming On found them 12 hours later.

These guys, of course, didn't have any safety equipment on board except for red t-shirts (too expensive). Especially because the mothership was supposed to pick them up should anything have happened.

While the wife on Dreaming On was talking with the fishermen, the husband was standing by on VHF with us and Second Lady. We were on standby with US and PR Coast Guards. We agreed for contact among all boats every 5 min.

After we received their names and phone numbers, PR Coast Guard got into contact with DR. After a fairly long conference call, identities were confirmed and everyone breathed out a bit easier. Families were called back by DR and told that, after all, their husbands and fathers were still alive.

The only thing that marred the elation at the end was that the small fishing boat that they had been at flipped and sunk with one of the waves. And the fishermen had all their diving gear and their catch of lobsters in it. We're sure the gear was expensive to replace.

So when we got to Ocean World, met with all the officials, Dreaming On collected a fund for these guys as well as any snorkeling/diving gear that cruisers in the marina were ready to part with. Later on Dreaming On stopped in their village to give this to their families (small kids and wives who called them Angels). And these guys were already fishing again.

So at the end we were very happy that we had a sat phone for several reasons:

1. Immediate and direct contact with Coast Guard.
2. Immediate updates to the Coast Guard.
3. DR officials knew that we are bringing someone into port - later it turned out that it helped all of us to avoid some serious bureaucracy.

That's what the three small boats did.

[David_Old_Jersey]

My take is that if someone on a small open boat several hundred miles offshore intended me harm and had the firearms to do so - then they would almost certainly have a boat fast enough not to need to waive me over before forcing a boarding.

Nonetheless if still uncomfortable could float some water and food accross - and then tow them in the boat. I think getting on the radio (and being seen to) would be prudent, whether or not "the authorities" were sending help or even answered!

Of course no guarantees in life.

[malbert73]

While cruising with my family in New England 10 years ago, we saw a 13 foot Boston Whaler adrift 4-5 miles offshore and blowing further offshore. It looked like the lone individual was struggling with the engine. As we maneuvered our B-40 closer, we saw numerous trash bags filled with belongings, and a man who seemed somewhat upset. We maintained distance, and hailed if he needed help. He said he was trying to "cross the ocean" but that his engine died. We told him we would tow him in, but were wary. We threw a long towline and started towing him about 50 feet behind our boat, ready to cast him off if we saw anything suspicious. We were in contact with the Coast Guard, who promised to meet with us as we approached port. They came and took over (after we had towed him slowly for almost 2 hours) as we entered Cape Elizabeth- and towed the guy in the rest of the way. Turns out he apparently was under psychiatric treatment at a local hospital and had gotten away.

We feel good that we had possibly saved the guy's life as darkness was approaching and bad frontal weather was on the way. That said, these days I may not actually tow the guy, but instead radio the CG and stay nearby in visual contact to assist the CG in their efforts. We did quietly discuss that if we saw him reach into any of the bags or act suspicious, we'd release the towline and motor away, ducking in the cockpit well if needed (if he had a gun). Good thing about classic boats like Hinckleys is that there is a lot of fiberglass between the cockpit well and the outside.... that said, there was certainly some risk we took on to do the right thing.

[capt.bobfm]

The only way this sort of thing will ever change is when cruise ship customers protest by not booking trips with Princess lines, and let them know why they won't ship with them. Money talks ! Regulations can be avoided by large corperations who have multitudes of lawers on staff. As longas CUSTOMERS continue to go along as if nothing happened, nothing WILL happen.

[Watermann]

Plenty of cruise ships have diverted off their itineraries to aid distressed mariners, so I don't think this is a case of them simply brushing them off because of an importance to maintain schedule. The ship's also cruise at a speed which allows them to make up time, if need be.

Notwithstanding the fact the Master is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on board, it is beginning to look like he never even received word of the passenger's spotting (contrary to popular landlubber belief, most captains don't hang out on the bridge 24 hours a day). Another article I read said that there are doubts that the information ever even made it to the bridge. If true, that indicates a break-down in communications between the hotel staff and actual ship's crew. That is a problem and definitely needs to be looked into, but is far less heartless (and more probable) than them just sailing by due to schedule constraints.