A new organisation has been set up to support the victims of crime aboard cruise ships.
The foundation of the US-based International Cruise Victims follows the mysterious disappearance of George Smith, a 26-year-old Connecticut honeymooner who vanished from Royal Caribbean International’s Brilliance of the Seas during a Mediterranean sailing in July last year.
Smith is one of 15 passengers to have disappeared from cruise ships over the past two years, according to the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), whose 15 members carry 90 per cent of North American cruise passengers.
While some of the lost were witnessed either accidentally falling overboard or jumping with suicidal intent, there has been a handful of unwitnessed vanishings.
Ken Carver, co-founder with the Smith family of International Cruise Victims, said that its aim is not only to assist the families of the missing, but to support victims of other crimes at sea and to lobby to improve prosecution and conviction rates.
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Part of the difficulty lies in establishing who is responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes committed in international waters.
At a US congressional subcommittee hearing on international maritime safety late last year, the ICCL president Michael Crye outlined a complex system of procedures whereby jurisdiction regarding crimes at sea can cover a number of countries, including: the country in whose territory the crime took place; the country to which the cruise vessel is flagged; the perpetrator’s country of residence; the victim’s country of residence.
Once a crime has been reported, the question of which country investigates it is subject to negotiation.
And although ICCL policy pledges that “the appropriate law enforcement authorities will be called in... and we will co-operate... to ensure the perpetrators of crime are brought to justice”, there is no industry-wide best practice procedure for the preservation of crime scenes and gathering of forensic evidence.
But the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA), which represents the UK cruise industry, maintains that statistically, the estimated 1.25 million Britons planning to cruise this year will be safer on a ship than any other holiday environment.
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Details: International Cruise Victims (www.internationalcruisevictims.org); PSA (www.discover-cruises.co.uk).