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When is a ‘mystery’ not a mystery? When the answer is bloody obvious, that is when!
There is a public investigation by the US Congress underway into a string of disappearances aboard cruise ships.
So let me get his straight, a cruise liner, which is in effect a floating pub in which people regularly drink to excess, has people disappear from it and that is… mysterious?
How about this: they unwisely drink too much, they fall overboard when no one is looking and as a consequence they drown.
And it takes a Congressional investigation to solve that ‘mystery’?
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You forgot to tailor the freeloading aspect of all politicians into your post. Of course there has to be a Congressional investigation into deaths on cruiseships, no doubt accompanied by a number of journeys to the scene of these incidents. I bet that 2 weeks of taxpayer-funded freebies in Nassau beats December or January in DC anyday and Royal Caribbean are particularly good at hospitality.
Sorry, but this is bullocks. I’ve been working on cruise-liners for many years. One doesn’t just ‘fall overboard’, drunk or not. The railing on those ships means that one has to climb and jump in order to get off.
Furthermore, did you read the story you linked to? Drunk people that fall overboard don’t leave bloodstaines in their cabins.
I don’t say it warrents a public investigation by the US Congress, but you brush it away a bit too easy.
Maybe it’s the ex-copper in me but you couldn’t get me on one of those bloody ships for any money.
Banged up in a floating prison, surrounded by hundreds or thousands of total strangers, all wealthy, gambling and being plied with drink and lulled into a sense of security. I couldn’t think of a better target area for any amount of petty crime, and sometimes petty crime turns not-so-petty- and the entire world around such a vessel is one big oubliette.
I suspect that it’s all of the above. Some got drunk and fell off – sure, there’s a railing, but I never saw a ship’s rail that a drunk couldn’t climb. Some got stupid and fell off. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the occasional cruise passenger got put over the side, for any one of a multitude of motives.
Whether a Congressional investigation is warranted – I doubt it. I would suspect that a quick statistical analysis would show that cruise ships are safer than comparable circumstances on land – Las Vegas might a be a good comparison.
Cui bono? Could it be that this investigation will live or die based on the depth and breadth of campaign contributions by the cruise industry? Oh, perish the thought . . . .
llater,
llamas
Damn…Julian got his comment in first. This smells of an excuse for a whole mess of DC pols to take a whole bunch of trips on cruise-ships. Surely the FBI might be a better choice?
Meh! These things have a few thousand people on, you’re bound to come back with one or two missing each time.
Taco, quite why you think this is a young bull, I am not sure.
It may well be that one of these cases was a murder but then since when does Congress hold investigations into a common murder? This is supposedly about a ‘string’ of disappearances. And are you seriously saying a drunk person, perhaps a puking drunk person trying to blow chunks over the side and not get any on themselves, could not fall over? Do the ships you work on have railing topped with spikes and razor wire?
I think you seriously under-estimate the ability of drunk people to do insanely stupid things and die as a result. The only mystery here is that anyone thinks the ‘string’ of dissapearances is a mystery.
There is a Wisconsin college town where the bar strip is right on the river. No major climbing required to fall in. Every couple of years a student does so after a night of drinking. I’ve heard more calls for a hunt for a serial killer than for a railing, altho the calls for a railing might not make statewide news.
In a study carried out in 2001 in Oslo it was discovered that, on average, one person dies on a cruise ship every 6 months or so (1995 – 2001 averaged 10 men and 3 women per vessel total). The usual age was 65+ with occasional exceptions of younger people – honeymooners etc.
Damn, I just did Congress’ work for them – can I have the free trip to Nassau please?
One point in favor of the congressional investigation is that it keeps them off the streets, ie: spending more of our money on pok or making laws we don’t need. The price of a cruise for the buggers seems cheap in comparison.
Are they going to launch this investigation concurrent to the one they are launching into the way American colleges select their national champion in football (the American form with the egg shaped ball)?
This smells of an excuse for a whole mess of DC pols to take a whole bunch of trips on cruise-ships.
Hopefully, a few of them will test the effectiveness of the guardrail while seriously inebriated.
I’ve got a little list of the people I’d PAY to go on a cruise trip… and for variety, I’d make the whole ship disappear, forever.
No lifeboats and life jackets stuffed wih lead you say? Rumours that the water was chummed to attract sharks? Sinking areas used to demonstrate cluster bombs?
Shocking, I say!
We really must investigate.
one person dies on a cruise ship every 6 months or so
Sounds rather low to me. Is it better than ordinary mortality? Someone might be able to make a case for the entire population of Britain to be sent on a cruise permanently in order to save NHS funds.
Second what Guy Herbert says – one death on a cruise ship every six months seems remarkably low, given the number of cruise ship passengers.
Was that one death per six months from other-than-natural causes, perhaps? Please clarify.
llater,
llamas
I think it’s space aliens who are behind it.
Or maybe the CIA.
I just took a cruise and I see how someone could just vanish. Something is always going on, people everywhere, people nowhere and a lot of drinking along with peopel rolling the dice. I hope that someone makes sure that people can’t just fall overboard and they should have better security so that people aren’t raped or killed. I loved my cruise and I would go on another one, but I could see how something bad could happen.
i suggest that someone investigate all personnel that are and have been employed during these tragic occurrences. this may at least be a form of process of elimination.
in relation to the disappearances and deaths aboard cruise liners. i suggest that someone in our criminal agency, investigate all personnel that are and have been employed during these tragic occurrences. this may at least be a form of process of elimination.