Cruises’ rough seas
It’s hell on the high seas. Cruise liners experienced an unprecedented crime wave over the summer, with 35 sex assaults, two disappearances and five thefts of $10,000 or more reported to the FBI.
The bureau fielded more complaints of serious crimes on cruises from July through September than any other three-month period since at least 2016, the most recent year for which data is publicly available, according to the federal Department of Transportation’s latest Cruise Line Incident Report, published last week.
Sex assaults were by far the most frequently reported crime.
Of the 35 reported sexual assaults, 27 involved passengers, five involved crew and three involved “others.” The FBI would not specify whether that breakdown addressed victims or perpetrators.
The sexual assaults were widespread, reported on ships owned by six cruise companies, including Disney, from July 1 through Sept. 31. That was a 35 percent uptick from the previous quarter, and a 67 percent increase from the same time period in 2018.
Sex-assault cases formed the bulk of the 46 crimes reported.
Overall, crime spiked 44 percent from both the previous quarter and the third quarter of 2018, when there were 32 alleged incidents during each time frame.
In recent years, cruises-in-chaos have become national news stories — from tragedies like the July death of Indiana toddler Chloe Wiegand, whose grandfather Salvatore Anello accidentally dropped her into the Caribbean, to violence and plain stupidity, like the woman caught balancing on the edge of a Royal Caribbean boat’s balcony in October while posing for an Instagram snap.
More than 14 million North Americans set sail on a cruise in 2018, according to the Cruise
Lines International Association.
Cruise companies are required by the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act to report homicides, suspicious deaths, missing persons, assaults with serious injuries, thefts of over $10,000, and people tampering with the ship.
There were no homicides or suspicious deaths reported in the July-to-September time frame.
Carnival Cruises, the world’s largest cruise company, reported the most incidents with 28, including 20 sex assaults, two missing people, two serious assaults and two thefts. That marks a 47 percent uptick from the same quarter last year, when there were 19 reported Carnival incidents.
Carnival’s 25 ships take 1,500 voyages each year.
The two missing persons were “intentional man overboards” who couldn’t be saved, Carnival said.
Carnival, Disney and Norwegian made 60 “calls” to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal on the Hudson River off Hell’s Kitchen, delivering a total of 322,000 passengers, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp.
The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook took 14 calls from Carnival cruises carrying a combined 73,000 passengers.
Chloe, the toddler who fell from an 11th-floor balcony on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, was among the summer cruise victims.
“I kind of relive it all the time, and I just thought there was glass there,” Anello told “CBS This Morning” last week.
Prosecutors in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the ship was docked when Chloe died, have charged Anello with negligent homicide. It is unclear if the death is included in the latest incident report.
The federal DOT and Coast Guard did not respond to requests for comment, and the FBI declined to comment on Chloe’s death or any other ongoing investigations.