Cruise Ship That Left 1,200 Holding Tickets Is Located in Spain

The Galaxy, the cruise ship that disappeared in February after dropping its last 90 passengers unceremoniously in Panama, and leaving 1,200 to 1,500 others unreimbursed for cruises they had paid for, has been located in Seville, Spain.

But the Texas attorney general’s office, which has been pursuing the matter of reimbursements for hundreds of Californians, among others, is not optimistic that it will be able to seize the ship or acquire other assets from the defunct operators, Golden Cruise Tours of San Antonio, Tex.

No Encouraging Propspect

Raul Noriega, the assistant attorney general in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of the ship and its owners, said that prospects of any reimbursements for the up to $3 million in fares paid are “not promising.”

He explained that so far the matter remains a civil rather than a criminal one and that there is no treaty with Spain that would permit execution of a civil judgment made in U.S. courts.

Texas authorities are also looking into filing possible criminal charges of fraud and misappropriation of property held in fiduciary trust, Noriega said.

“But a whole series of facts and relations have to be developed before a grand jury would indict,” he said.

The ship’s former chief engineer, Karl Tuorda, meanwhile said in an interview from his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., that he quit his job April 7 in Seville because he had not been paid since Feb. 15. He said he is ready to testify against the line and its Spanish and American owners if he is asked to do so by Texas authorities.

Tuorda told of a skeleton crew sailing the ship across the Atlantic, despite some malfunctioning cylinders in both of its engines.

The Galaxy, now going under the name Galaxia at its berth in the Port of Seville, had been engaged in cruises through the Panama Canal between the Mexican ports of Cancun and Acapulco. But before its last cruise--which saw a crew mutiny off Costa Rica and knife fights between the captain and crew members in the presence of passengers--it had undergone weeks of repairs in San Diego.

Several cruises were canceled as a result and Noriega has said that only partial refunds were made to the passengers.

Futile Repair Effort

Tuorda said the repairs made in San Diego were unavailing, in that air-conditioning did not work and the engines malfunctioned on the final passenger cruise. The former ship’s engineer said he had been informed that the shipowners might try to have major new repairs undertaken in Seville with a point of view of resuming cruises.

Meanwhile, Tuorda said, he and other crew members have not been paid and they are filing unfair labor claims against the ship’s operators through an international union based in London.