Safe and sound at sea?

Disappearances and pirates may give you pause, but statistics show a ship trip is safe.

ON Jan. 5, a 15-year-old Irish girl was seen falling or jumping from Costa Cruises' Costa Magica, which was sailing toward Cozumel, Mexico. She has not been found.

On Dec. 10, a 59-year-old Canadian woman was reported missing by her husband as their ship, Royal Caribbean International's Jewel of the Seas, approached Nassau, Bahamas. She has not been found and is presumed to have gone overboard.

These recent disappearances received little publicity, unlike the case of George A. Smith IV, a 26-year-old Connecticut man who disappeared in July from the Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas while on his honeymoon in the Mediterranean. As the ship docked in Turkey, blood was spotted on a canopy beneath the balcony of the newlyweds' cabin. His disappearance remains a mystery, and foul play is suspected.

These cases, along with the attack last fall of Seabourn Cruise Line's Spirit by pirates off Africa, have put the cruise industry under scrutiny and raised this question: Are cruise ships safe?

Members of one popular cruise website believe they are.

Cruise Critic, an online cruise guide, surveyed its members in mid-January on its website, http://www.cruisecritic.com . Its editors posed such questions as: Are you more worried about safety after recent reports? Will you still cruise in light of recent events?

The site received 1,700 responses in four days, said Carolyn Spencer Brown, its editor. Among the findings:

•  94% of respondents considered cruise ships safe.

•  74% are not more worried about safety at sea.

•  Only 1% said they would not cruise because of recent events.

Cruise industry statistics seem to back passengers' confidence.

In 2004 and 2005, 13 people were reported missing from ships, said Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, a trade association that represents lines that carry about 90% of the North Americans who cruise. In that time, more than 20 million passengers cruised. Fewer than one in a million went missing over two years, far fewer than the one in 2,800 people who go missing yearly on dry land in the United States, according to FBI statistics.

Nevertheless, the disappearances raise questions about cruise line security procedures, legal jurisdiction on ships and the safety consciousness of passengers.

Cruise lines usually won't reveal specific security procedures, but Crye shared some general information in an interview earlier this month.

A cruise ship is like "a secure building with a 24-hour security guard," Crye said. The public areas of the ship are patrolled by security personnel, who usually wear a cruise line uniform and badges identifying them as being part of the security force.

Ships also use surveillance cameras, although patrols and cameras focus more on public areas and are used less in private areas, such as cabins. Cruise lines need to balance "the need for security and the expectation of privacy on the part of passengers," Crye said.

All ship personnel — even entertainers — are trained on security procedures and have responsibilities, he said. "If they see someone climb on a railing, they take [preventive] action," he said.

"People should not assume because they're on a ship that somebody is going to be there always to take care of you. You are onboard a vessel with sometimes up to several thousand people, and not everybody on the ship is going to be your best friend."

But on land as well as at sea, vacationers often let their guard down and may do things they wouldn't do at home. On ships, vacationers may think they're in a safe zone because access is limited.

"This is a vacation, and people act differently on vacation than they do normally," said Art Sbarsky, consumer columnist for CruiseMates.com, an online cruise guide, and a former cruise line executive. "They party more, drink more and stay out later. Their whole behavior pattern is different."