Man overboard

[paul]

How easy/difficult is it for a person to go overboard on a cruise ship? I had assumed it was rather difficult but there seems to have been quite a spate of incidents in the news of late...

Paul
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[Trev]

Pretty easy I'd imagine especially at night or under the influence. Also if the sea is at all choppy then probably 10x easier to loose your footing. Unless they put huge plastic screens around the boat they can't make the barriers too high or people won't be able to see out. Biggest problem however could be knowing if someone has genuinely gone overboard or is just somewhere in the ship.

Trev
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[paul]

An article I stumbled upon today makes interesting reading:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Posted January 11 2006

ISSUE: Another cruise ship passenger goes missing on the high seas.

It is a growing record that should give pause to every cruise ship vacationer: More than a dozen passengers on cruise lines all over the world have either vanished or fallen overboard in the past two years.

Many cases, like the July disappearance of Connecticut newlywed George A. Smith IV, go unsolved, despite a bloody trail of evidence. The latest involves an Irish 15-year-old reported missing last week, days after leaving Fort Lauderdale aboard the Costa Magica with her family bound for Caribbean waters.

The crime rate aboard cruise ships -- 305 serious crimes the past five years, 10 percent involving missing people and 8 percent involving death -- is small considering the 10 million customer base, and the level of violence plaguing city streets.

But these aren't city streets; they're cruise ships, known for a self-contained, well-lit and heavily staffed setting that passengers have come to consider inherently safe. Still, rapes, even deaths, occur onboard, in disturbing -- if relatively small -- numbers.

The question is: What to do about it? Congress has tried to find an answer, but each time it holds hearings on the issue, it discovers that jurisdictional complexities and maritime law leave few options available to tighten security or bolster investigations on ships that sail international waters.

One small move may help. Congress is considering requiring cruise lines to report crime statistics to the FBI. It should go a step further, making them report the information directly to the public. Like nutritional labels, the extra data could help the average consumer make a more informed choice.

With the industry not doing enough to address the problem on its own, Congress must turn up the heat, especially representatives from South Florida, where the cruise business flourishes and safety becomes an even more relevant topic. The cruising public also has to do its part to heighten scrutiny. Be aware of the problem, investigate your cruise line's safety record and, above all, follow basic safety procedures.

BOTTOM LINE: Greater awareness and scrutiny may be the best weapons.
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[melissa1700]

Thats a really sad story and i think the wife knows more than she is letting on
one day this story will come to the table , cause its bizarre
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[titchycarla]